Journal of Political Sciences & Public Affairs
Open Access

Germany and its Role in the Protection of human values: A case study the investigation of compatibility status and access to facilities among Afghan refugees

Mohmmad Tariq Wamiq^1*, Ali Asghar Modaber², Maryam Ahmadi³ and Mir Mohmmad Ayubi^{4 *}Correspondence: Mohmmad Tariq Wamiq, Dean and Lecturer of Law and Political Sciences Faculty, Jami University, Herat, Afghanistan, Email:

Author info »

Introduction

Humans were used to finding a suitable shelter for themselves to continue their life, historically. Everyone has the right to immigrate to another country whenever he feels a real danger about his safety or rights. Every refugee needs access to the facilities which are necessary for him and his family besides safety. So, living in a country with more political stability and using welfare benefits is the dream of every refugee. The refugee category in the contemporary world is gaining wider dimensions every day, and countries are establishing stricter laws and regulations to solve the control and management of the refugee population, which, on the one hand, expresses the rights and duties of this group in that country, and on the other hand, show its adherence. The country complies with international law and human rights standards about refugees. Today, most asylum seekers belong to countries that are either affected by internal conflicts and political crises or forced to migrate due to civil wars imposed on them by international powers. Currently, the nature of asylum and forced migration with its various forms has made many differences since before the formation of the modern world. The most important indicator of asylum-seeking in the current situation is the inevitable expansion of this phenomenon. Therefore, the process of seeking asylum in the period after the First and second world wars, which has become an international issue, is considered a postmodern phenomenon. The extent of the refugee issue, its novelty in these dimensions, the indecisiveness of the governments, and the flagrant violation of the human rights of asylum seekers by some governments have caused the category of "refugees" and their rights to become a source of thought for many thinkers, especially in the West. As it is obvious to everyone, internal crises, war and conflicts, poverty and destitution, threats to life and finance, and the lack of a standard life... is one of the most important factors that affect the field of immigration and asylum in the countries provides another country. In this way, international law, by accepting the undeniable facts, has provided the ground for the establishment of rules for the protection of immigrants and refugees. The main goal of these laws is that if a person or people in their countries are faced with religious, racial, gender, and the issues related to financial and life threads, can have the right to request to be accepted in another country. However, these laws in the international system and their acceptance by the legal systems all over the world is an obvious thing. What makes fundamental challenges for researchers is that if the governments perform these laws, which lead to a kind of warranty and protection from human rights issues or not. So, the federal government of Germany, as a human rights-oriented government for continuous years, is committed to implementing and support of human rights. In the first view, it seems that the federal government of Germany gives the rights and special privileges and supports them, and through this, the refugees choose Germany as their goal. From the point of view of the authors of the research, it is considered important that due to the increasing number of refugees and immigrants in the international arena, the need to identify a suitable model of human rights to secure and protect the rights of refugees and immigrants is considered a mandatory thing, so that perhaps this research can provide suitable solutions to other governments. After the Second World War, the number of refugees and homeless people was the main issue of the primary counsel of the United Nations in San Francisco, US in 1945. Based on this issue, the resolution of the basic principles of helping refugees was the work subject of the United Nations General Assembly in February 1946. This resolution emphasizes the solutions based on solving the problems of refugees. And because they are not interested to return to their countries, the United Nations requested help from other organizations in this field. Based on the data by the high commissioner for refugees in 2021, Afghanistan was the second country with 2712858 refugees which has the most people in the state of refuge in the world, in the first half of 2021.

Materials and Methods

Research purposes

Main purpose: The investigation of compatibility status and access to facilities of Afghan refugees in Germany

Sub- goals:

• The investigation of the factor state of the dimension of "people" in the Afghan refugees in Germany

• The investigation of the factor state of the dimension of "places" in the Afghan refugees in Germany

• The investigation of the factor state of the dimension of "presenters" in the Afghan refugees in Germany

• The investigation of the factor state of the dimension of "participation" in the Afghan refugees in Germany

• The investigation of the factor state of the dimension of "cooperating" in the Afghan refugees in Germany

The questions of research

Main question: What are the compatibility status and access to facilities for Afghan refugees in Germany?

Sub-questions:

• What is the factor state of the dimension of "people" in the Afghan refugees in Germany?

• What is the factor state of the dimension of "places" in the Afghan refugees in Germany?

• What is the factor state of the dimension of "presenters" in the Afghan refugees in Germany?

• What is the factor state of the dimension of "participation" in the Afghan refugees in Germany?

• What is the factor state of the dimension of "cooperating" with the Afghan refugees in Germany?

Refugee concept and reasons for its creation

The word refugee often refers to a person who has taken refuge in someone or something. (Ismaili, 2016: 90). A refugee refers to a person who, due to a justified fear of being persecuted, tortured, harassed, and harassed in the country of his or her normal residence, due to reasons related to race, religion, nationality, membership in some social groups, or having political opinions and he cannot or wants to place himself under the protection of that country due to the mentioned reason or in the case that he is stateless and after such incidents, he lives outside the country of his permanent residence. Cannot or does not want to return to that country [1]. The refugee is an alien from the point of view of the international resources in an acceptor country that is immigrated to another country because of fear of following and for his sake of life, wealth, and freedom [2-4]. Based on this, the main element in a refuge is an acceptable fear from flowing, which should be recognized by the acceptor country, and the mentioned country accepts rejects the reasons and refuge requested by comprehensive investigation about the reasons of refuge [5]. Against immigration, the refugee has to be undecided for a long time and the replacements are because of this fear, while there are no such things in immigration [6].

Refuge from the point of view of international law

The most important document related to refugees is the 1951 Geneva Convention, which is named the Charter of Refugee Rights and this charter presents a comprehensive definition of a refugee [7]. This convention formed the basis of international law which includes the definition of a refugee and the minimum behavior criteria for refugees, and they are the people who are outside of their countries before the first day of January because of the events all over the world. But with the new refugee crisis in the late 50s and early 60s, the need to develop the temporal and spatial scope of this convention was felt, which led to the design and approval of a protocol to join this convention [8]. According to the Universal Declaration of Islamic Human Rights, every human being has the right to move and choose a place to stay inside or outside of his country according to the Sharia, and if he is oppressed, he can seek refuge in another country, and it is obligatory for that asylum country to tolerate him until he is provided with a shelter, with the condition that the reason for the asylum is not due to committing a crime according to Sharia [9]. According to the global announcement of human rights, everyone has this right to seek refuge in other countries because of harassment [10,11]. This issue is explained obviously in different methods to support the refuge in articles 13, 14, and 15. In the system of international law in the Geneva Convention about the support of non-military people in wars, the refugees are supported in the convention 1949 and it explains that at the time of taking regulatory decisions, the detaining government will not include refugees who are practically not supported by any government, just because they legally belong to the enemy government [5,11,9].

The international law system totally and the 1951 refugee convention especially explain the rights and the duties of refugees some of which are no distinction in implement of the rules of this convention, (article 3 from the refugee convention), freedom in religious affairs, and religious teaching to children (article 4 of refugee convention), having a job with salary (articles 7, 24, 19 and 18 of refugee convention), welfare (article 5 of refugee convention), Ration (Article 20 of the Refugee Convention), housing. (Article 21 of the Refugee Convention), public education. (Article 22 of the Refugee Convention), state charities. (Article 23 of the Refugee Convention), social insurances. (Article 24 of the Refugee Convention), benefiting from administrative assistance. (Article 25 of the Refugee Convention), freedom of movement. (Article 26 of the Refugee Convention), freedom of travel (Articles 27 and 28 of the Refugee Convention), property transfer (Article 30 of the Refugee Convention), acquiring citizenship (Article 34 of the Refugee Convention), the principle of non-refoulment of refugees (paragraph 1) Article 33 of the Refugee Convention) including the rights of refugees and also, being respectful of the rules of that country and the situations related to public regulation are the duties of the refugees in the acceptor country.

Research method and statistical society

The presented research is applicable from the point of view of the purpose and the point of view of data gathering is a descriptive survey. The statistical society of this research is all the Afghan refugees in Germany in 2023 who were almost 200,000 people. Based on Chokran's sampling formula the size of a sample is 384 persons which is suitable for mentioned statistical society, which is chosen based on simple random sampling.

n: ample volume

N: statistical society volume

Z: 1.96= safety factor

D: 0.05= Desired possible accuracy

P: 0.5= Probability of the trait of adaptability and having facilities in the society

q: 0.5= Probability of not having the trait of compatibility and having facilities in the society

Research tool is a standard questionnaire by York Shier immigration affairs. To evaluation of the validity of the measurement tool, the structure validity with the factor analysis method and internal similarity of Cronbach's alpha is used to determine the reliability of the research tool. Factor validity and Cronbach's alpha coefficient as the main variable of the research and its dimensions are presented in Table 1 (Table 1).

Table 1: Factor validity and Cronbach’s alpha coefficient of research variables.

According to the results of Table 1, the amounts of reliability coefficient of the variables in this research are higher than 0.7 so it indicates the internal similarity of the research objects. The results of factor analysis show that the amount of KMO factor for all the variables in this research is near 1 and is acceptable. So, the number of samples for factor analysis is enough. The amount of sig in the Bartle load test is lower than 5% for all variables, which shows the factor analysis is appropriate for recognizing the structure of every variable, and the assumption of determination of the correlation matrix is rejected. Moreover, the factor load for all objects is more than 0.4, this indicates the validity of the structure of variables in this research. Two types of descriptive and deductive analyses were done on data using SPSS23 statistical software. The researcher uses descriptive statistical data for the description of the population properties of the people who answered the questions, central factors, and the distribution of variables. The deductive statistical data is used to investigate the statistical factors of compatibility variables and access to facilities by the demographic variables.

Results

Data analysis

Data analysis is divided into two parts of descriptive and deductive statistics parts. In the first section, background variables are described in frequency distribution tables, and in the second section, the main factors of research were analyzed through the T-test for independent samples and one-way analysis of variance test. In the first section descriptive statements in the first section, the descriptive and the background one-variable statements are analyzed. Background variables of descriptive statements distribution of answerers by gender. As is seen in Table 2, most of the answerers were men 70.1% and the rest of them were women 29.9% (Table 2) (Figure 1).

Table 2: Gender variable frequency.

Figure 1: The distribution of subjects based on gender. Note: Men, Women

Age distribution of respondents

The age of respondents in this research was asked as an open question. The age intervals in the presented research are 18 to 65. To better description of the variable of age, respondents were classified into 6 age groups, and the results are shown in Table 3. As it is observed, 80 percent of respondents are between 20 to 40 (Table 3) (Figure 2).

Figure 2: The distribution of subjects based on age.

Table 3: The frequency of age variable

Distribution of respondents based on marriage state

As is seen in Table 4, most of the respondents were married 67.2%, and not married 32.8% (Table 4) (Figure 3).

Figure 3: Distribution of subjects based on marriage state. Note: Married, Not married.

Table 4: The frequency of marriage state.

Distribution of respondents based on education

The variable of education was evaluated as a closed question with 5 options. The descriptive results of this variable are shown in Table 5. According to the above table, most of the respondents 52.1% graduated with bachelor's degrees, and the least of respondents are not educated 0.8% (Table 5) (Figure 4).

Figure 4: Distribution of subjects based on education.

Table 5: The frequency of the variable of education.

Distribution of respondents based on refuge record

As is seen in Table 6, most of the respondents with 63% do not have any refuge record and 37% of them have (Table 6) (Figure 5).

Figure 5: Distribution of subjects based on refuge record.

Table 6: The frequency of refuge record variable.

Respondent distribution based on staying time

The staying time of respondents in this research is evaluated in the form of one open question. The interval of staying time of the respondents is from 2 months to 30 years. To better description of the variable of staying time, the respondents are classified into 5 groups, and the results are shown in Table 7 (Table 7). As it is seen, the most number of respondents have stayed for 1 year with 52.1% in diagram 6T the distribution of subjects is shown based on staying time (Figure 6).

Figure 6: Distribution of respondents based on staying time.

Table 7: The frequency of the variable of staying time.

Distribution of respondents based on location

The variable of living location was evaluated based on an open question. The descriptive results are in Table 8 (Table 8). According to the table, the most number of respondents live in Hamburg at 18.8%, after that most of the respondents live in Berlin and Frankfurt (Figure 7).

Figure 7: Distribution of subjects based on the living place.

Table 8: The frequency of living location variable.

Distribution of respondents based on monthly salary

The monthly salary is evaluated in this research in the form of an open question. The range of the salary among respondents is zero to 4800 euro. To better description of the variable of monthly salary the respondents were classified into 6 group (Table 9). According to this table, most of the respondents have a monthly salary of less than 500 euro with 64.3%, and 2.5% of them, have more than 3000 euro for their monthly salary (Figure 8).

Figure 8: The distribution of the subjects according to a monthly salary.

Table 9: The qualification of the variable of monthly salary.

Distribution of respondents according to having insurance

As you see in Table 10T most of the respondents have insurance 87.5% and 12.5% of them do not have insurance. Most of the respondents have health and medical insurance (Table 10) (Figure 9).

Figure 9: The distribution of subjects is shown according to having insurance.

Table 10: Frequency of the variable of having insurance.

Descriptive statistics of people dimension, compatibility variable, and access to facilities

The first dimension of compatibility and access to facilities. In this dimension, 6 questions are designed with 10 options from 1 to 10 in Likert form, that the entrance, having relationships, learning the German language, the feeling of stability, confirming the skills and the way of behavior with the refugees are the questions. To better analyze T options 1 and 2 are titled with very low compatibility, the options 3 and 4 will be low compatibility, the options 5 and 6 are called approximately compatible, the options 7 and 8, high compatibility, and the options 9 and 10, very high compatibility. According to Table 11, in the dimension of people, the object of "from the people who provide the services and other people, in living places of the refugees, they receive an appropriate behavior. The most compatibility (70.3%) and the object of "the refugees have a deep relationship with the people with different background in living places", has the less compatibility (25.3%) with the condition of respondents (Table 11).

Table 11: Frequency distribution and the percentage of the point of view of the respondents about the dimension of people.

Descriptive statistics of places dimension, compatibility variable, and access to facilities

The second variable dimension of adaptation and availability of facilities is "places". In this dimension, 8 questions (items) have been designed with a Likert scale of 10 options from 1 to 10, and information related to local areas, accommodation, travel, guardianship of children, school, university education, security, and participation in society are asked. gives for better analysis, define options 1 and 2 as a very low match, options 3 and 4 as a low match, options 5 and 6 as a relative match, options 7 and 8 as a high match, and options 9 and 10 as a very high match. has been According to Table 12, in the dimension of places, the item "Refugees can enroll their children in public schools and the children learn German there." And the children learn German there and prepare themselves for the regular classroom." The most consistent (86 percent) and the item "Refugees have access to a place of residence that suits their needs and can find a new place of residence if needed." It has the least correspondence (29.7%) with the respondents' situation (Table 12).

Table 12: Frequency distribution and the percentage of point of view of the respondents about the dimension of places.

Descriptive objects of the provider's dimension of compatibility valuable and access to facilities

The first dimension of compatibility variable and access to facilities are the providers. In this dimension, 6 questions, 'subjects' with 10 options from 1 to 10 'Likert' were designed that the knowledge of providers about the needs of refugees, education and knowledge of staff, the information related to services, verbal and written translations, and comprehensiveness of services are asked. To better analyze, options 1 and 2 with low correspondence, options 3 and 4 with low correspondence, options 5 and 6 as correspondence, options 7 and 8 with high correspondence, and options 9 and 10 as high correspondence are defined. According to Table 13, in the dimension of providers, the objects of "the staff have enough knowledge about the needs of refugees and they have access to related information" with the most correspondence (66.5%), and the object of 'enough oral supports including the translator with good quality and translated sources from the refugees are done'. This subject has less correspondence with 43.5% of the respondents (Table 13).

Table 13: Frequency distribution and the percentage of point of view of the respondents about the dimension of providers.

Descriptive statistics of participation variables, compatibility, and availability of facilities

The first variable dimension of adaptability and having facilities is "Partnerships". In this dimension, 5 questions (items) have been designed with a Likert scale of 10 options from 1 to 10, which questions effective partnerships, management/leadership, joint work, referral processes, and information sharing. For better analysis, define options 1 and 2 as a very low match, options 3 and 4 as a low match, options 5 and 6 as a relative match, options 7 and 8 as a high match, and options 9 and 10 as a very high match has been According to Table 14, in the dimension of partnerships, there is the item "There is joint management and responsibility between the interested institutions in the region in the field of refugee adaptation." The most consistent (62.3%) is the item "The region and/or local areas have effective and powerful formal partnerships that bring together service providers to share information and best practices on refugee resettlement and other related issues." It had the least agreement (46.9%) with the respondents' situation (Table 14).

Table 14: Distribution of the frequency and percentage of respondents' opinions about the dimension of contributions.

Descriptive statistics of the cooperation dimension of the variable of adaptability and availability of facilities

The first variable dimension of adaptability and having facilities is "cooperation". In this dimension, 5 questions (items) with a Likert scale of 10 options from 1 to 10 have been designed to question empowerment, participation in services, presence in workforce and management positions, access to education and management resources, and community development. puts for a better analysis, define options 1 and 2 as a very low match, options 3 and 4 as a low match, options 5 and 6 as a relative match, options 7 and 8 as a high match, and options 9 and 10 as a very high match has been. According to Table 15, in the dimension of cooperation, the item "Refugees are sufficiently present in labour supply programs, volunteering, and job search plans." is The most consistent (55.5%) and the item "Refugees are sufficiently present in the boards of directors, governing bodies and other leadership positions in organizations." It had the least correspondence (21.4%) with the respondents' situation (Table 15).

Table 15: Distribution of the frequency and percentage of respondents' opinions about the dimension of cooperation.

Descriptive objects of the compatibility variable and access to facilities and their dimension

Compatibility variables and access to facilities were evaluated through five dimensions people, places, providers, and co-operations. In Table 4-15, statistical factors and the results of one sample T-test with a weighted average of 5 for compatibility variable and access to the facility and its dimensions has been provided. According to Table 16, the average variable of compatibility and access to facilities and its dimension is higher than the average amount, 5. The results of one sample t-test indicate being significant (sig<0.05), the difference of average of compatibility variable and access to facilities and its dimensions with the weighted average of 5; so, the amounts of t and the positive difference of average variable of compatibility and access to facilities and its dimensions indicates the higher average of this amount of object 5. In other words, the compatibility and access to facilities of the respondents are higher than average (Table 16).

Table 16: Statistical factors and the results of one sample of t-test of compatibility variable and access to facilities and its dimensions.

The statistical factors of compatibility variable and access to facilities by gender, marriage, refuge record, and having insurance and the results of the t-test of independent samples. In Table 17, the factors of number, average, standard deviation, and the results of the t-test of independent samples are provided for comparison of the average of compatibility variable and access to facilities by gender, marriage, refuge record, and having insurance and the results of t-test of independent samples. According to the results of t-test of independent samples, the differences of the significant average of compatibility and access to the facilities exist just among the married and single ones. (Sig <0.05). Thus, the single ones evaluated the compatibility and facilities better than the single ones. But, in this case, there are no the significance differences in compatibility and access to facilities among these groups among other variables. (Sig> 0.05) (Table 17).

Table 17: The statistical factors of compatibility variable and access to facilities by gender, marriage, refuge record, and having insurance and the results of t-test of independent samples.

Statistical factors of research variables by age, education, living place, and monthly salary and the results of one-side variation analysis test

In Table 18, the factors of numbers, average, standard deviation, and the results of one side variation analysis result test for comparison of the compatibility variable mean and access to facilities by age, education, living place, and monthly salary are presented. According to the side variance analysis test, there is a significant mean difference between the age groups (sig<0.05), about comparability variable access of facilities. Thus, for the people between 50 to 60, compatibility and access facilities have been evaluated more than other groups, and the people above 60 and the people between 30 to 40, have less compatibility and facilities than other groups. The significant mean difference between the people with different living places (sig<0.05) about compatibility and access to facilities variable. So, the people with more than 10 years of living place have the best evaluation from compatibility and access to facilities, and the people with less than 1 year, have the less evaluation comparison to other groups. There is a significant mean difference between the people with different monthly salaries (sig<0.05) regarding the compatibility variable and access to facilities. So, the people with the monthly salary between 500 to 1000 $ have the best evaluation from the compatibility rate and access to facilities, and people with the monthly salary between 1000 to 2000$ had less evaluation comparison to other groups (Table 18).

Table 18: Statistical factors of variables by age, education, living time, and monthly salary, and the results of one-side variation analysis test.

Discussion

The main purpose of this research is the investigation of compatibility state and access of Afghan refugees who live in Germany to different facilities. With the descriptive-survey method, 384 Afghan refugees living in Germany were evaluated. To measure the status of adaptation and enjoyment of refugees' facilities, five components of people, places, providers, partnerships, and cooperation were measured. The findings of the research show that the level of compatibility and availability of facilities of the respondents in different components is higher than average. In other words, the tested refugees had a relatively good assessment of their adaptation to the host conditions of Germany. In the "people" component, the indicators of welcoming and entering, establishing relationships, learning the German language, feeling stable, confirming skills, and how to treat refugees were measured; The treatment and humane behavior of service providers and local people have been the most consistent with the respondents' situation. On the other hand, there are no deep and sincere relationships between the respondents and people with diverse backgrounds living in the areas where they live. Also, the respondents stated that they received a relatively warm welcome upon entering their place of residence. There are enough opportunities for them to learn and practice the German language. They have been able to adapt to the new life conditions to a good extent and maintain their deep ties with their native lands and their skills and capabilities are also paid attention to by employers. In the "places" component, information indicators related to local areas, accommodation, travel, childcare, school, university education, security, and participation in society were measured; the possibility of enrolling refugee children in public schools and learning the German language is provided in the best way. On the other hand, refugees do not have proper access to the place of residence they need and are not able to change their place of residence. They also have a good situation in terms of getting to know where they live and accessing the products and services they need. Refugees can travel to different places with relatively complete security to meet their needs and raise their concerns when incidents occur. Refugees have the opportunity to enrol their children in kindergarten to introduce them to life in Germany. Refugees have a good opportunity to study in the university if they know the German language, provide money, and do not have any restrictions on the place of residence. They have the possibility of appropriate participation in local events, recreational and cultural activities, schools, and use of public places. The factor co-operation, the factors of effective co-operations, management/leadership, common work, referee procedures, and sharing information are evaluated. For the compatibility of refugees, there is very appropriate management and responsibility between organizations. But, the region or the local areas, do not have effective and very powerful official co-operations that Bring service providers together to share information and best practice on refugee adaptation. Also, service providers promote collaborative work and avoid parallel work and have a transparent and efficient referral process. Information and data are shared and communicated between providers active in the field of refugee adaptation in a reasonably appropriate manner, securely and efficiently, and in a manner that improves performance and efficiency.

Conclusion

In the "collaboration" component, the indicators of empowerment, participation in services, presence in labour and management positions, access to training and management resources, and community development were measured; The presence of refugees in labour supply programs, volunteering, and employment plans is very prominent. However, it is not possible to have enough refugees on the boards of directors, governing bodies, and other leadership positions in organizations. Also, refugees know their rights and responsibilities on average and can talk about their needs and desires. Refugees have appropriate cooperation in the field of planning, delivery, monitoring, and evaluation of services. Refugees have relatively good access to leadership and community development support, including tools to organize and shape their participation. Concerning the general policies of the European Union to outline the general framework of legislative competence, the extent of laws and regulations and the institutional framework, the expansion of immigration, departure from the human and social perspective, and attention to the wider dimensions of the phenomenon of migration and asylum and its connection with other challenging categories. Such as security, political and economic stability, emphasizing the responsibility of third countries in managing immigration and trying to outsource responsibilities from the Union to neighbouring countries, and emphasizing the logic of eliminating unwanted immigration, Germany has played a key role in accepting foreign nationals, especially Afghans.

References

1. Ismaili H. Refugees' rights: its sources, documents, and challenges.2016.
2. Mohammad N. Private International Law Tehran: Age Publishing Institute. 1385.
3. Mosizadeh R, Pandar A, Reza A. The course of evolution of the interpretation of refugees and asylum seekers. Foreign Policy Quarterly. 2017.
4. Arjamand A, Ardeshir. Collection of International Human Rights Documents. Tehran. 1381.
5. El Kajbaf, Hossein. Private international law. First edition, Tehran. 1389.
6. Houshang N. Declarations of human rights and international covenants. Tehran. 1372.
7. Hassan IS. Alamiya Islamic Human Rights and the Problem of Inequalities. Tehran. 2011.
8. Hossein M. International human rights system. Third edition, Tehran. 1387.
9. Jahan Tigh, Hossein, Hossein N. The role and position of additional protocols to the 1949 Geneva Convention. 2017.
10. Eberhard J. International Refugee Organization, Encyclopedia of public international law. 1983.
11. Partsch KJ. Human Rights and Humanitarian Law, MPEPIL. 1985.