The German government is being hit for the second time in less than three months by an official human rights report. Six weeks ago a United Nations report cited Germany for a second year in a row for its religious intolerance against Scientologists.

The 1995 State Department Human Rights Report notes that:

• “major German political parties exclude Scientologists from membership.”

• “business firms whose owners or executives belong to the Church of Scientology may face boycotts and discrimination, sometimes with governmental approval.”

• “artists have been prevented from performing or displaying their works because of their Scientology membership.”

• “public criticism of Scientologists by leading political figures increased during the year, with one Cabinet member [Federal Labor Minister, Norbert Bluem] publicly stating that Scientologists were unfit to serve as teachers, police officers, or professors.”

The report noted that “Scientologists continued to take such grievances to court, and the courts have frequently ruled in their favor.”

The 1993 and 1994 State Department Human Rights Reports also cited a pattern of human rights violations against Scientologists in Germany, including violations of artistic freedom in relation to world-famous jazz musician and American, Chick Corea, whose concert was cancelled in Stuttgart in August 1994 due only to his membership in Scientology.

The United Nations report issued January 27 by the Special Rapporteur on Religious Intolerance to the U.N. Human Rights Commission in Geneva, also upbraided Germany for its religious intolerance and human rights violations against Scientologists. The 1995 and 1994 reports by U.N. Special Rapporteur, Professor Abdelfattah Amor, an internationally recognized legal expert on religions, were the strongest condemnation of human rights violations in Germany since World War II.

In 1993 the Helsinki Commission issued a report entitled “Human Rights and Democratization in Unified Germany” in which it noted: “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.”

Reverend Heber Jentzsch, President of the Church of Scientology International stated, “Despite consistent and specific international criticism over the last three years in human rights reports regarding the German government’s policy of religious discrimination targeting Scientologists and other religious minorities, the German government has continued to ignore these human rights violations and continues to refuse to enter into a dialogue to resolve the problem.

“We have a long history of being at the forefront of bringing abuses to public attention. We will continue to expose the destruction of human rights and religious freedom no matter what retaliation we must endure for doing so.” Jentzsch agreed that his Church in Germany had to repeatedly seek the protection of the courts where it has routinely been found innocent of any wrongdoings. “However,” he concluded, “this proves our point that German officials have a very hard time learning from their country’s recent past.”