The office of the Parliamentary Commissioner for the Armed Forces

As far as parliamentary control of the armed forces is concerned, mention must also be made of the Parliamentary Commissioner for the Armed Forces, who works closely with the Defence Committee and regularly attends its deliberations. The Parliamentary Commissioner assists the Bundestag in exercising parliamentary control over the armed forces. The office of Parliamentary Commissioner is enshrined in the constitution (Article 45b of the Basic Law). The Parliamentary Commissioner's tasks include, above all, protecting the basic rights of service personnel and ensuring compliance in the armed forces with the principles of Innere Führung (a concept of internal leadership which seeks to combine the demands of the military mission of the armed forces with the dignity and rights of service personnel as citizens of a democratic state). As a rule, the Parliamentary Commissioner acts on the basis of submissions received from service personnel. He may, however, also take up a matter on his own initiative. Finally, the plenary of the German Bundestag or the Defence Committee may instruct the Parliamentary Commissioner to look into a matter. Conversely, the Defence Committee may decide to investigate a specific matter itself; any further action by the Parliamentary Commissioner in this case is then ruled out.