Human Rights News - Church of Scientology Human Rights Department

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May 2, 2000

U.S. TRADE REPRESENTATIVE PUTS GERMANY ON WATCH LIST FOR PROCUREMENT PRACTICES DISCRIMINATING AGAINST SCIENTOLOGISTS

For the first time ever, the U.S. Trade Representative has placed Germany on a list of countries engaged in “discriminatory foreign procurement practices” over its mistreatment of Scientologists.

The Trade Representative’s Annual Report, issued from the Executive Office of the President, represents a substantial toughening of U.S. government criticism of Germany for discrimination against Scientologists. The Report strongly criticizes German governmental agencies and private firms for requiring companies to execute clauses disavowing any association with the religion of Scientology and its principles before a contract may be signed.

Although the U.S. State Department has criticized governmental religious discrimination against Scientologists in every annual human rights report on Germany since 1993, the intervention of the U.S. Trade Representative demonstrates escalating American concern. The denunciation of German procurement practices targeting Scientologists is the most unequivocal and comprehensive to date. It indicates that in the view of the U.S. government, such practices threaten American trade.

Trade Representative Charlene Barshefsky states in the Report that upon learning of German government clauses excluding Scientologists from contractual relations, “the Administration raised its concerns with the German government and continues to press the Germans to repeal this discriminatory policy.”

Rev. Heber C. Jentzsch, President of the Church of Scientology International, welcomed the addition of Germany to the watch list, calling the measure “an unequivocal condemnation of the harm certain German government officials have tried to cause American and German Scientologists in pursuit of this deplorable policy of ostracism and discrimination.

“The clauses in these contracts are deliberately designed to require an individual to either declare his religious beliefs and be punished for them by being blacklisted or boycotted, or publicly renounce his beliefs under the threat of economic sanctions,” said Rev. Jentzsch. “Germany has an obligation and duty to set a trend for human rights in this new century. She can begin by rescinding the discriminatory practices that blacken her reputation as a democracy.”

The criticism of Germany is included under the Title VII Report, which lists only five other countries around the world engaged in discriminatory trade practices. According to Executive Order 13116, signed by President Clinton on March 31, 1999, identification under Title VII indicates that a foreign country “maintains, in government procurement, a significant pattern or practice of discrimination against U.S. products or services which results in identifiable harm to U.S. businesses.....”

The Report states, in part:

“Policy guidance issued by the German Federal Government has raised concerns about a potential for discrimination against U.S. firms in procurement decisions by German entities... at least one major U.S. supplier has had to undergo a qualification process that was significantly more extensive than that required by its competitors.”

Such a policy designed to discriminate on the basis of religious belief and association is reprehensible. It is also manifestly illegal and in flagrant violation of international human rights treaties which protect the right to freedom of conscience and belief. Last year, the State Social Court of Rhineland-Palatinate in Germany ruled against the government and for a Scientologist who had been denied an employment license solely because she is a member of the Church of Scientology. The Court held that the denial of her license, based on an order by former Federal Labor Minister Norbert Bluem, was unconstitutional.

Scientology was founded by philosopher and humanitarian L. Ron Hubbard in 1954. As part of its social mission the Church supports many charitable and social programs in the areas of drug rehabilitation, criminal reform and literacy programs.