2024 WARSAW HUMAN DIMENSION CONFERENCE
Warsaw, 30 September to 11 October 2024
Plenary Session 7: Fundamental Freedoms II, including:
– National human rights institutions
– Freedom of assembly and association
– Freedom of religion or belief
Coordination des Association et des Particuliers pour la Liberté de Conscience
We are very concerned about the systematic discrimination and exclusion of law-abiding citizens who follow the teachings of the Scientology religion in Germany.
In fact, there have been at least three thousand ninety-five cases in the last ten years in which German government agencies have included “faith-breaking” clauses in their invitations to bid, requiring bidders to renounce any association with Scientology.
In this way, the German government prevents Scientologists from participating in public tenders and denies them equal access to economic opportunities.
This is despite the fact that the German judicial system has issued some fifty rulings at various levels recognizing that members of the Church of Scientology deserve and are entitled to the protection provided by Article 4 of the Basic Law.
This flagrant violation of the fundamental right to freedom of religion or belief is unacceptable in a democratic country such as Germany and is contrary to the principles enshrined in the European Convention on Human Rights and the Charter of Fundamental Rights of the European Union.
We call on the German authorities to repeal the regulations that justify the state’s obligation to citizens and businesses to deny jobs and contracts to Scientologists,
and to immediately cease this discriminatory practice and bring their policies into compliance with international human rights standards to meet their obligations to protect the freedom of religion or belief for all German citizens.
