Diplomatic Assurances

Definition

Diplomatic assurances are formal declarations made by the requesting state to Germany, by which certain standards of treatment are guaranteed — typically regarding detention conditions, procedural guarantees, or the non-application of the death penalty.

Function

They are intended to bridge an existing bar to extradition (for example, inhuman detention conditions) and to bring about the admissibility of the extradition despite the existing concerns.

Reliability requirements

The Federal Constitutional Court (Bundesverfassungsgericht, BVerfG) and the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) do not accept assurances without scrutiny. Decisive factors: the content and specificity of the assurance, the state's prior compliance, the general human-rights situation, and the possibility of monitoring (consular visits, monitoring).

Critical states

The Federal Constitutional Court has repeatedly overturned Higher Regional Court decisions that relied on Turkish assurances because the reliability of those assurances had not been sufficiently examined (regarding Yalvaç prison: order of 18 Dec 2023 – 2 BvR 1368/23; order of 21 May 2024 – 2 BvR 1694/23). With Russia, Azerbaijan, China, Iran, and the UAE, particular skepticism is warranted.

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