Editing Twelve Tribes communities (section)

===Departure from Germany===
On September 5, 2013, German police raided two communities belonging to the Twelve Tribes and removed 40 children to protect them from continued abuse.<ref>{{cite news |date=September 5, 2013 |title=German Christian sect raided and children put in care |url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-23977577 |work=BBC News}}</ref> The raid was prompted by undercover reporting by Wolfram Kuhnigk, who secretly recorded how the sect beat their children. The group admits that they use a "reed-like rod" for discipline but denies abusing their children.<ref name="stentwood">{{cite news |author=Jamie Merrill |date=September 16, 2013 |title='It is our right to use the willow cane': Inside the Twelve Tribes Christian fundamentalist sect at centre of childcare controversy |url=https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/it-is-our-right-to-use-the-willow-cane-inside-the-twelve-tribes-christian-fundamentalist-sect-at-centre-of-childcare-controversy-8820271.html |access-date=September 17, 2013 |work=The Independent |location=London}}</ref> In 2018, the [[European Court of Human Rights]] upheld the German move to take away the children from the sect:<ref>{{cite web |last=Gesley |first=Jenny |date=April 19, 2018 |title=Germany / European Court of Human Rights: Caning of Children Justifies Withdrawal of Parental Authority |url=https://www.loc.gov/item/global-legal-monitor/2018-04-19/germany-european-court-of-human-rights-caning-of-children-justifies-withdrawal-of-parental-authority/ |website=Library of Congress |quote=Furthermore, the ECtHR [European Court of Human Rights] decided that the risk of inhuman or degrading treatment of children, which is prohibited in absolute terms in article 3 of the ECHR, justified the partial withdrawal of parental authority and the splitting up of the families.}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |last=admin |date=August 23, 2019 |title=Case of Wetjen and Others v. Germany (European Court of Human Rights) – LawEuro |url=https://laweuro.com/?p=8248 |access-date=September 24, 2019 |language=en-US}}</ref>

{{blockquote |text=In [the ''Wetjen v. Germany'' case], the parents believed, based upon their religion, that they had the obligation to cane their children under the age of 12 when they were disobedient. The Court distinguished the right granted to parents to pass on their religious and philosophical beliefs from the Wetjen's actions stating that, "[w]hile the Court has accepted that this [the passing on of moral convictions] might even occur in an insistent and overbearing manner, it has stressed that it may not expose children to dangerous practices or to physical or psychological harm."<ref>{{cite journal |title=Family Ties: The European Court of Human Rights' Protection of the Family and its Impact in Future Litigation |url=https://scholarlycommons.law.case.edu/jil/vol52/iss1/32/ |first=Rebecca J. |last=Cambron |journal=[[Case Western Reserve Journal of International Law]] |volume=52 |issue=1 |article-number=32 |page=711 |year=2020}}</ref>}}

Some children were returned to their parents and some were not. The Twelve Tribes left Germany for the Czech Republic in 2017.<ref>{{cite podcast |host=Tim Elliott |date=January 2, 2023 |work=Inside the Tribe |title=Under Investigation – 07 |url=https://dm.org.au/podcast/inside-the-tribe/ |publisher=DM Podcasts |time=23:00 |access-date=September 9, 2025}}</ref>