Religious Apartheid: 1996 – Official Repression of Minority Religious Rights in Germany
n March 1995, the 1994 Report submitted by the Special Rapporteur on Religious Intolerance to the Human Rights Commission of the United Nations regarding the Application of the Declaration on the Elimination of All Forms of Intolerance and Discrimination Based on Religion or Belief was released by the United Nations. This Report detailed case after case of human rights violations directed at Scientologists in Germany. The entire section of the Report on Germany concerned reports of religious intolerance directed at Scientologists.137
On February 1, 1995, the Department of State of the United States Government released its Human Rights Report for 1994 to the United States Congress. In the section on the Federal Republic of Germany, the State Department took note of the plight of Scientologists in Germany and stated the following:
Members of the Church of Scientology continue to complain of harassment such as being fired from a job or expelled from (or not permitted to join) a political party. Scientologists continued to take such grievances to court. Musician Chick Corea, a Scientologist, was permitted to appear in a government-subsidized concert hall in the state of Hesse only after an agreement with local officials that he would not proselytize during his performance.138
This was the second consecutive year that the State Department Human Rights Report included human rights violations against Scientologists in Germany. The State Department Human Rights Report for 1993 noted that parishioners of the Church of Scientology have been expelled from and are not permitted to join political parties solely due to their religious beliefs.139
The Commission on Security and Cooperation in Europe, an independent agency of the United States Government mandated with monitoring compliance with human rights commitments in the Helsinki Final Act, issued a report in September of 1993 which referred to the policy of religious discrimination in Germany against Scientologists and stated:
It seems clear that Germany’s course of action reflects the determination to marginalize or eradicate groups perceived as extremist or threatening to the established order. While understandable, especially given Germany’s past, this determination can lead the government to engage in discriminatory policy. Members of the Church of Scientology, for example, protested harassment in the form of firings, expulsion from political parties, and discriminatory treatment from local and state authorities, solely based on their affiliation with Scientology. Indeed, in one recently publicized case in which the state of Baden-Württemberg broke off contract negotiations with jazz musician Chick Corea upon learning that Mr. Corea was a Scientologist, state officials explained quite unapologetically to the Helsinki Commission that “The position that Baden-Württemberg takes toward Scientology is shared by all other German States ... We judge the practices of Scientology in a very critical manner,” and “Neither would we engage in a contractual agreement with an artist who is either radically to the left or radically to the right because we feel that it would be bad advertising for the State of Baden-Württemberg.”140
United States Members of Congress and Congressional Caucuses have continued to express their concern regarding discrimination against Scientologists in Germany.