Religious Apartheid 1997 – Continuing Official Repression of Minority Religious Rights in Germany

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—a right to which all persons, including religious minorities, have a moral claim. The principle of nondiscrimination and rights enunciated in these instruments further establish that discrimination in education based on religion or opinion constitutes a violation of fundamental human rights.

Article 18 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights prohibits subjecting a person “to coercion which would impair his freedom to adopt a religion or belief of his choice” and requires the State to respect the liberty of parents “to ensure the religious and moral education of their children in conformity with their own convictions.”

Together, the specific provisions from the international instruments discussed above form a detailed framework mandating religious neutrality in education and prohibiting educational instruction which fails to provide a neutral and objective view of religions, including newly established religions or religious minorities, which fosters tolerance and understanding between religions.

The Bavarian Government’s program fails to fulfill Germany’s obligations under the Convention and the human rights instruments discussed above by proposing a program throughout the national educational system which will initiate and encourage intolerance and discrimination by expressly singling out new and minority religious movements for negative and adverse treatment not imposed on established and predominant faiths.

As the Special Rapporteur observed in the 1995 Report to the Commission on Human Rights of the United Nations, the development of a pedagogy of human rights and tolerance through education is the essential means of combating intolerance. The United Nations remains the leading organization in developing this pedagogy. Indeed, Resolution 1994/18 of the Human Rights Commission encourages the Special Rapporteur to examine the contribution education can make to the effective promotion of religious tolerance. Yet, the Bavarian government’s program stands the principle of nondiscrimination on its head by teaching children intolerance towards minority religions.

Every state school in Bavaria was ordered in March 1996 to implement “enlightenment” programs by September 1996, presenting the specter of systematic violations of human rights through the implementation of biased, inaccurate and unscholarly educational events and courses denigrating innocent Scientologists simply because of their personal spiritual quest.

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