For the first time, members of the Church of Scientology have filed a formal complaint against the German government to the United Nations Human Rights Committee in Geneva, Switzerland, under a treaty provision by which the Committee investigates allegations of discrimination and publishes the results. Church members allege that the government has violated their rights to freedom of association and expression, their right to engage in public affairs, and their right to be free from religious discrimination. As a result, they have suffered personally, professionally and financially.
If successful, the complaint could force the German government to reform practices that have brought it more than a decade of criticism by international human rights organizations. It has taken eleven years for the tree Scientologists, Mr. Paul Arenz, Dr. Thomas Roeder and his wife Dagmar, to exhaust domestic remedies.
Leisa Goodman, Human Rights Director of the Church of Scientology International, said today For more than a decade, the German government has denied thousands of Scientologists and members of other minority religions basic democratic rights. Despite dozens of reports by human rights organizations condemning such practices, the government has refused to reform. We are confident that the United Nations Human Rights Committee will find that Germany as violated its international human rights commitments.
The complaint has been filed by Washington, D.C. counsel William C. Walsh and Munich counsel Wilhelm Bluemel, under the Optional Protocol to the International covenant on Civil and Political Rights.
In 1991, the then-governing party, the Christian Democratic Union (CDU), adopted a resolution against members of the Church of Scientology becoming members of the CDU. Mr. Arenz, a businessman and furniture company owner, had been a CDU member in good standing for approximately 18 years. Following the resolution, he was expelled in October 1994 and the expulsion was upheld by DCU Party Courts at every level.
As a result of his expulsion, an orchestrated campaign was mounted against Mr. Arenz in his community in Northrhine-Westphalia. A local district administration denied him a business permit, the city cancelled its approval of a commercial real estate project he was developing, his bank cancelled his accounts, and former associates ostracized him. In the end, he was forced to sell his business.
Dr. Roeder had been a CDU member in good standing for 17 years and his wife for nine. Dr. Roeder held the position of chairman of the CDU in his town in Middle Hessia. After passage of the CDU resolution forbidding Scientologists from membership, a public campaign to remove Dr. Roeder from public office began. He was denounced in the press, radio and television, solely because of his religious beliefs. When he refused to resign, the local CDU organized a public event maligning his reputation and professional integrity. In January 1992, both he and his wife were expelled.
After an order from then Federal Labor Minister that businesses owned by Scientologists be designated by an S in Labor Office computers, Dr. Roeder learned that his dental practice had been so designated.
As a result, Dr. Roeder and his wife Dagmar suffered professional and personal ostracism leading to severe damage to his once-thriving practice.
The CDUs application form still requires individuals to disavow membership in the Church as the only condition for membership of the CDU.
The complaint alleges that these acts of the CDU violated the Scientologists rights to freedom of association and expression, the right to engage in public affairs, and the right to be free from religious discrimination. It points out that the United Nations Human Rights Committee, in General Comment on Article 25, has stated the right to form and join organizations and associations concerned with political and public affairs, is an essential adjunct to the rights protected by Article 25 States should ensure that, in their internal management, political parties respect the applicable provisions of Article 25 in order to enable citizens to exercise their rights there under.
The complainants are seeking recourse after fully exhausting domestic remedies, a prerequisite for a formal complaint under the Optional Protocol. Under the rules governing such complaints, if the Human Rights Committee finds that Germany has violated the ICCPR, the government must designate an acceptable remedy.
Scientology has been officially recognized as religion in countries such as the United States, Sweden, Portugal, South Africa and Australia. As the complaint notes, hundreds of administrative and judicial decisions, including in Germany, have found Scientology to be a religious or philosophic community.