considerably affected the climate in Germany, this included that persons who publicly criticized Mr. Sarrazin received hate mails and death threats and were ridiculed on internet blogs. GIHR also refers to an open letter to the President of prominent German Muslims, in which they expressed their concern at the current atmosphere and note that in their daily lives, they are confronted with hostility. 8.2GIHR observes that freedom of expression is a pivotal human right and that high thresholds must be put on restrictions of freedom of expression. It observes that one of the main functions of freedom of expression stems from the need to protect the criticism of power. However, this does not require that it be interpreted in a way which would protect racist statements against minorities. It notes that article 4 (a) of the Convention stipulates that the dissemination of racist ideas be made a punishable offence, which is implemented in article 130 (1) (2) of the German Criminal Code (GCC). GIHR notes the domestic case law, according to which the Federal Constitutional Court stressed repeatedly that when determining the application of article 130 of the GCC, the right to freedom of expression must be weighed on a case-by-case basis against the legally protected interest that is affected by the expression of the respective opinion of the other. However, the Court has also established that in the case of an assault on human dignity, freedom of expression must yield to human dignity. The notion of human dignity prohibits making a person the mere object of the State or subjecting the person to treatment which fundamentally calls into question his/her quality as a human being. Assaults on human dignity include, for instance, degradation, stigmatization or social exclusion and other forms of conduct that deny the affected person’s right to respect as a human being. 8.3GIHR notes that Mr. Sarrazin’s statements in the relevant parts of the interview meet all the criteria of racist ideas and an assault on human dignity. Racist ideas are characterized by their calling into question the individuality of human beings and thus also their human dignity. It notes that on the basis of their content, linguistic style and terminology, Mr. Sarrazin’s statements display parallels to the racial biology literature of the 19th and early 20th century. Mr. Sarrazin separates the population into “us” and “them”, in which he includes “Turks” and “Arabs”, to whom he attributes negative characteristics and conduct. He misuses the term “Turkish” and applies it as a synonym for an established expression with a negative meaning (“with respect to the core group of Yugoslavs, you can see “Turkish” problems”). Mr. Sarrazin’s statements ridicule and degrade people (“no productive function except for the vegetable trade”) and simultaneously, in a belligerent tone, they fan fear (“the Turks are conquering Germany in the same way as the Kosovars conquered the Kosovo: by way of higher birth rates”). He refers to them as if they were mass-produced goods (“permanently brides are supplied, “Arabs” and “Turks” constantly produce little headscarf girls”). GIHR notes that this rhetoric denies the affected persons, including children, the right to respect as human beings. 8.4GIHR notes that the identity of the person who made the statements and the type of magazine in which it is published are irrelevant for considerations under article 130 of the GCC. Furthermore, according to the Committee’s jurisprudence, the context of a political debate is irrelevant to the racist nature of specific statements. GIHR observes that the Public Prosecutor’s Office’s considerations situating Mr. Sarrazin’s statements in the