The report by the International Humanist and Ethical Union (IHEU) comprehensively documents the systematic repression or discrimination faced by non-religious people in almost every country in the world. The report also lists well-known individual examples of violations of the human right to freedom of thought, conscience and religion, as guaranteed in Article 18 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights proclaimed on December 10, 1948, and the conventions and laws based on it. The report attests that the Federal Republic of Germany “seriously discriminates” against non-denominational and non-religious people. The reasons given include the legal privileges granted to the major churches in employment law, which allow the exclusion of non-denominational employees from employment in social, health, cultural and educational institutions that are predominantly or entirely financed by the general public. The shortcomings in the state education system are also an issue. The IHEU report also attributes the poor rating to the operation of state-run denominational schools and the lack of a non-religious and value-forming alternative to the religious education offered from first grade onwards in many federal states. The problem areas addressed in the report also include the privileging of religious communities through tax and duty exemptions, special broadcasting slots on public radio and privileges in the pastoral care of members of the armed forces. The IHEU report also refers in more detail to the information brochure “Glass Walls” published by the Humanist Association of Germany on the systematic discrimination of non-religious people, which contains more detailed information and has been available since September 17, 2015(www.glaeserne-waende.de). “Non-religious people in Germany certainly do not have to fear for life and limb because of their secular outlook on life and rejection of a religious confession, as is unfortunately still the case in around a dozen countries today. However, this cannot significantly relativize our statement that the Federal Republic of Germany is still only in the lower midfield in the new report,” said Frieder Otto Wolf in Berlin on Thursday morning. “The various forms of discrimination and politically deliberate exclusion – whether in the context of so-called church labor law, value-forming teaching in public schools or inclusion in public bodies – in this country are just as unacceptable to us as the violence and other repression against ‘non-believers’ in other countries,” Wolf continued. He called on the federal government and the political parties to take the elimination of unequal treatment and the realization of full equality for all people in Germany, regardless of their religious beliefs, seriously as an urgently overdue political task. According to Wolf, EU member states such as the Netherlands and Belgium have already shown in recent decades that this is possible without major problems. The current IHEU report “Freedom of Thought” shows that Germany’s two neighboring countries have an impeccable record in guaranteeing the human right to freedom of thought, conscience and religion.
“Germany must also succeed in doing this in the foreseeable future. Its current position on a par with countries such as Russia, Nigeria or Turkey makes it quite clear that simply continuing as before is not a serious option for politicians,” said Frieder Otto Wolf. The number of citizens in Germany with no religious affiliation has been growing steadily for a long time and therefore the Humanist Association demands “that the Federal Government and politicians give their interests and concerns the same consideration and respect as they do to the human and fundamental rights of citizens and taxpayers with a Christian, Jewish or Muslim faith,” said Wolf.
On the topic
The more than 500-page report (in English) of the International Humanist and Ethical Union can be downloaded from this website: www.freethoughtreport.com The German-language version of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights is available here as a PDF document: www.un.org
