Consistent Condemnation
1996 also marked the second consecutive year the Special Rapporteur to the Human Rights Commission of the United Nations has condemned Germany for human rights violations. The report decried Germany for its violations of religious freedom, specifically citing:
- “attacks on the freedom to express one’s religion or one’s conviction”
- “control by authorities on religious activities ... that can take the form of prohibitions with respect to certain religious groups.”
The report warned of the dangers of political parties used by religions to squelch opposition, a problem that plagues Germany: “[P]arties, spokesmen, and standard-bearers of religions are not always of such a nature as to favor tolerance and human rights. It is for this reason that more and more states forbid the establishment of political parties on exclusively or principally religious bases.”
The United Nations Rapporteur’s report cited a broad range of discrimination against the Church of Scientology, documenting how children, parents, businessmen and members of political parties were singled out simply because of their membership in the religion of their choice.
Last year’s report was the strongest international criticism of Germany for human rights violations since World War II. It confirmed that the source of the problem was not neo-Nazi skinheads, as might be expected as an explanation, but that “[t]his discrimination is particularly the doing of political parties.”
One detailed section of the document, released in Geneva, was devoted to chronicling abuses and discrimination by government bodies and officials against members of the Church of Scientology—as well as incidents of threats and outright violence.
The Rapporteur has also announced that in April 1997 he will travel to Germany to investigate the “problem of religious intolerance” based on complaints received from minority religions. Such an on-site investigation is an action of great moment, taken only in instances where the concerns over abuses are serious.
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International Outrage Grows Over German
Discrimination by Warren Pagliaro continued...
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