Religious Apartheid: 1996 – Official Repression of Minority Religious Rights in Germany

ver 45 years ago, the United Nations General Assembly adopted the Universal Declaration of Human Rights in order to inaugurate what it hoped would be an era of respect for human rights out of the ashes of the Holocaust. The Universal Declaration of Human Rights and subsequently adopted international instruments for the protection of human rights such as the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights and the Declaration on the Elimination of All Forms of Intolerance and of Discrimination Based on Religion and Belief are replete with guarantees protecting freedom of thought, conscience, religion and belief.

In 1950, the Council of Europe adopted the Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms. This, along with the structure of the European Commission and Court of Human Rights, created a unique human rights mechanism for European countries.

These instruments establish the right of an individual to have a religion or belief of personal choice and the right, in community with others, to manifest this religion or belief in worship or practice. These instruments further establish that freedom of religion and conscience are personal legal entitlements and liberties to which all persons, including religious minorities, have a moral claim.

Today, the fragile barriers established by the United Nations and the Council of Europe to guard against abuse of the precious right of freedom of religion or belief are being torn down by the Federal Republic of Germany.

Scientologists in Germany continue to be the targets of systematic discrimination in every strata of society as part of an insidious exclusionary policy initiated, encouraged and sanctioned by the government. Scientologists are routinely dismissed from jobs, dismissed from schools, dismissed from political parties, dismissed from social, business and political organizations, denied the right to professional licenses, denied the right to perform their art, denied the right to open bank accounts and obtain loans, and denied the right to use public facilities and concert halls. German citizens who choose to be Scientologists are blacklisted, boycotted, vilified, ostracized and threatened simply due to their association with the religion of Scientology.

Although German Churches of Scientology have never been found guilty of any criminal activity, discriminatory government measures against Scientologists have included the following:

a call for a nationwide ban of the religion by federal and state officials in retaliation for the Church’s efforts to alert the international public to human rights abuses in Germany;

the issuance of a decree by the Federal Minister of Labor which unfairly singled out Scientologists by revoking their right to operate private employment agencies which was accompanied by pejorative public pronouncements by the Federal Minister denigrating the religion and unjustifiably tainting anyone associated with it by tarring them as “criminals”;

the adoption of a Scientology “litmus” test at the urging of government officials to identify and fire Scientologists from public and private professions, and to exclude Scientologists from political, business, educational and social organizations;

the creation of comprehensive discriminatory measures by state governments, including the initiation of government "enlightenment" programs for teachers, parents, students, police officers, judges, state attorneys, prison officials, health professionals, and chambers of trade and industry “warning” about the “dangers” of Scientology and demonizing its members;

Introduction Continued

Endnotes

| Back | Related | Glossary | Next |