Attempt to join Germany as party in Namibian genocide case fails

A full bench of the Windhoek High Court has decided not to join the Federal Republic of Germany as a respondent at this stage in a case in which the court is asked to declare the 2021 joint declaration of Germany and Namibia on the 1904-08 Ovaherero and Nama genocide as unlawful.

The court on Tuesday also turned down an application for it to allow Namibian court documents in the matter to be served on Germany in Germany, which is outside the court’s jurisdiction.

However, the court ordered that 24 Namibian traditional authorities which are not among the applicants in the case be joined as parties to the matter.

In the case, Landless People’s Movement (LPM) leader Bernadus Swartbooi, the Ovaherero Traditional Authority, 10 Nama traditional authorities and the LPM are asking the court to set aside former National Assembly speaker Peter Katjavivi’s decision to note the joint declaration in terms of a parliamentary rule.

The applicants are also asking the court to declare the joint declaration unlawful and to review and set it aside, based on it not having been ratified by the National Assembly, and to declare that the joint declaration is inconsistent with the Constitution, a 2006 National Assembly motion on the genocide, and international law.

In a judgement read by judge Beatrix de Jager, the court noted that the joint declaration agreed to by representatives of Namibia and Germany in June 2021 is not a final declaration.

In the joint declaration, the German government acknowledged its responsibility for events in Namibia from 1904 to 1908, during Germany’s colonial rule of the country, and declared that those events constituted a genocide from the current historical perspective.

The German government also agreed to make an amount of 1.1 billion euros (about N$21.9 billion) available to Namibia as development aid to implement projects as part of reconstruction and development projects over a period of 30 years.

The agreed development aid does not constitute the payment of reparations for the genocide that took place in Namibia, Swartbooi and the other applicants in the matter are saying.

Their main application against the speaker, the National Assembly, the president, the Cabinet, the attorney general and now also 24 other traditional authorities is continuing, and has been postponed to 11 March 2026.

Deputy judge president Hannelie Prinsloo and judge Orben Sibeya heard oral arguments in the matter with De Jager in October and earlier in November.

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