Aide-Mémoire 60th Session of the
UN Commission on Human Rights
15th March to 23rd April 2004

WUS - World University Service

German Committee * Goebenstrasse 35 * D-65195 Wiesbaden (Germany)
Nils Rosemann (Attorney); email: human-rights@rosemann-online.de

Tolerance And Respect For Diversity

On December 17, 2003 President Jacques Chirac's announced that head scarves (hijabs) and other conspicuous religious symbols, including Jewish skullcaps and large Christian crosses, should be banned from schools to protect French secularism. He also proposed giving company bosses the right to decide whether religious symbols can be worn at work. Protesters said Chirac's proposed measures stigmatized France's estimated 5 million Muslims, the largest Muslim community in Western Europe, and made a mockery of cherished French values. "Liberty, equality, fraternity -- apart from women who wear the veil," said Fatima Boicha, a housewife and mother of two from a town west of Paris whose head and neck were covered with a brown scarf. Jewish leader Moise Cohen said such a ban would be seen as discriminatory and could "exacerbate emotions".
In Germany, Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder said in comments published on December 21, 2003 that headscarves have "no place" among public school teachers. But unlike Chirac, Schroeder said he could not prevent Muslim school girls from covering their heads in the classroom. Debate over banning Muslim teachers from wearing headscarves has occupied Germany since its highest court ruled in September that teachers could wear them, unless states pass laws forbidding it. The president of Germany urged legislators on January 04, 2003 to be "consistent" in drawing up any ban on Muslim head scarves for teachers in public schools, arguing that if the veil were banished from the classroom as a religious symbol, those of other faiths also would have go. Johannes Rau, whose largely ceremonial post is seen as the nation's moral voice, attracted criticism from several prominent conservative politicians and church figures after entering the debate last week with a call for equal treatment of all religions.

There is a high likelihood that Muslim and other religious minorities become stigmatized within this debate. By this there is a high chance, that the position of human rights of religious minorities all over the world is endangered.
WUS believes that any ban of religious symbols will harm integration of minorities and foster stereotypes and xenophobia.
WUS is recalling that all States have pledged themselves, under the Charter of the United Nations and the Universal Bill of Human Rights , to promote and encourage universal respect for and observance of human rights and fundamental freedoms for all without distinction as to race, sex, language or religion.

WUS is evoking that all States reaffirmed that discrimination against human beings on the grounds of religion or belief constitutes an affront to human dignity and a disavowal of the principles of the Charter of the United Nations.

WUS brings to mind General Assembly Resolution "Human rights and cultural diversity" in which all states welcomed "the recognition at the World Conference against Racism, Racial Discrimination, Xenophobia and Related Intolerance of the necessity of respecting and maximizing the benefits of diversity within and among all nations in working together to build a harmonious and productive future by putting into practice and promoting values and principles such as justice, equality and non-discrimination, democracy, fairness and friendship, tolerance and respect within and among communities and nations, in particular through public information and educational programmes to raise awareness and understanding of the benefits of cultural diversity, including programmes in which the public authorities work in partnership with international and non-governmental organizations and other sectors of civil society."

WUS reminds on the commitment of states to the "contribution of the World Conference against Racism, Racial Discrimination, Xenophobia and Related Intolerance to the promotion of respect for cultural diversity".

WUS is recalling that the big majority of states deplored "attempts to oblige woman belonging to certain faith and religious minorities to forego their cultural and religious identity, or to restrict their legitimate expression, or to discriminate against them with regard to opportunities for education and employment."

WUS is stressing the recent commitment of States to "promote and protect fully the human rights of migrants, as contained in the Durban Declaration and Programme of Action" and that the General Assembly "strongly condemns also all forms of racial discrimination and xenophobia with regard to access to employment, vocational training, housing, schooling, health services and social services, as well as services intended for use by the public".

WUS is emphasizing the international commitment by all states "that the promotion of cultural pluralism and tolerance at the national, regional and international levels is important for enhancing respect for cultural rights and cultural diversity" and also that that "tolerance and respect for diversity facilitate the universal promotion and protection of human rights, including gender equality and the enjoyment of all human rights by all, and underlines the fact that tolerance and respect for cultural diversity and the universal promotion and protection of human rights are mutually supportive."

WUS therefore urges the German Government, "in conformity with international standards of
human rights, to take all necessary action to combat hatred, intolerance and acts of violence, intimidation and coercion motivated by intolerance based on religion or belief, with particular regard to persons belonging to religious minorities".

WUS therefore urges the German Government in accordance with its recent international commitment within the General Assembly "to ensure that their political and legal systems reflect the multicultural diversity within their societies and, where necessary, to improve democratic institutions so that they are more fully participatory and avoid marginalization and exclusion of, and discrimination against, specific sectors of society".

WUS further urges the German Government "to ensure that their political and legal systems reflect the multicultural diversity within their societies and, where necessary, to improve democratic institutions so that they are more fully participatory and avoid marginalization and exclusion of, and discrimination against, specific sectors of society".

WUS therefore calls on the Commission on Human Rights to adopt - within its relevant resolutions - a paragraph that condemns all forms of limitations of the expression of religion and believe as well as restrictions in the expression of cultural and religious identity, especially with regard to opportunities for education and employment.

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The Muslim News (December 21, 2003): Muslim women march against scarf ban (www.muslimnews.co.uk)
BBC News (December 12, 2003); French clerics oppose scarf ban (http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/3309885.stm)
International Herald Tribune (December 05, 2004)
See Article 18 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (GA Resolution 217 A (III) of December 10, 1948) and Article 18 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (GA Resolution 2200 A (XXI), annex of December 16, 1966) and Paragraph 4 of the United Nations Millennium Declaration (GA Resolution 55/2 of September 8, 2000)
General Assembly Resolution A/58/184 "Elemination of all forms of religious intolerance" of December 22, 2003 (adoption of Draft Resolution XVII of 3rd Committee; U.N. Doc.A/58/508/Add.2 with 179 in favour, non votes against an one vote against by Israel)
Paragraph 7 of General Assembly Resolution A/58/169 "Human rights and cultural diversity" of December 22, 2003 (adoption without a vote of Draft Resolution I of 3rd Committee; U.N. Doc.A/58/508/Add.2)
OP 6 of General Assembly Resolution A/58/169 "Human rights and cultural diversity" of December 22, 2003 (adoption without a vote of Draft Resolution I of 3rd Committee; U.N. Doc.A/58/508/Add.2)
Article 71 of Declaration of Declaration of the World Conference against Racism, racial discrimination, Xenophobia and related intolerance (A/CONF/189/12 of September 08, 2001 adopted by General Assembly Resolution 56/267 of March 22, 2002)
Paragraph 3 and 6 of General Assembly Resolution A/58/190 "Protection of Migrants" of December 22, 2003 (adoption without a vote of Draft Resolution XXIV of 3rd Committee; U.N. Doc.A/58/508/Add.2)
Paragraph 9 and 10 of General Assembly Resolution A/58/169 "Human rights and cultural diversity" of December 22, 2003 (adoption without a vote of Draft Resolution I of 3rd Committee; U.N. Doc.A/58/508/Add.2)
Paragraph 4 of General Assembly Resolution A/58/184 "Elemination of all forms of religious intolerance" of December 22, 2003 (adoption of Draft Resolution XVII of 3rd Committee; U.N. Doc.A/58/508/Add.2 with 179 in favour, non votes against an one vote against by Israel)
Paragraph 12 General Assembly Resolution A/58/169 "Human rights and cultural diversity" of December 22, 2003 (adoption without a vote of Draft Resolution I of 3rd Committee; U.N. Doc.A/58/508/Add.2)
Paragraph 8 of General Assembly Resolution A/58/159 "The incompatibility between democracy and racism" of December 22, 2003 (adoption without a vote of Draft Resolution I of 3rd Committee; U.N. Doc.A/58/506)
Relevant resolutions had been in 2003 at 59th Commission on Human Rights: 2003/4 (combating defamation of religions); 2003/30 (racism) and 2003/35 (participation and democracy

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