A/HRC/14/43/Add.2 I. Introduction 1. At the invitation of the Government, the Special Rapporteur on contemporary forms of racism, racial discrimination, xenophobia and related intolerance visited Germany (Berlin, Cologne, Karlsruhe, Heidelberg, Nuremberg, Leipzig, Crostwitz, Rostock and Hamburg) from 22 June to 1 July 2009. He held extensive meetings with authorities from the executive, legislative and judicial branches. In light of Germany’s federal structure and the scope of competences of the Länder, the Special Rapporteur conducted meetings both at the federal level and at the level of the Länder and municipalities. A full list of authorities met by the Special Rapporteur is contained in the appendix. 2. Apart from the agenda he covered with the Government and State institutions, the Special Rapporteur also had extensive meetings with representatives of civil society organizations that are active in the realm of racism and xenophobia, associations representing minority groups and religious communities, as well as individual victims of racism, racial discrimination, xenophobia and related intolerance. 3. The Special Rapporteur wishes to express his sincere gratitude to the Government of Germany for its full cooperation and openness throughout the visit and in the preparatory stages. He also wishes to convey his appreciation to the different civil society organizations that cooperated with him throughout the visit. II. General background A. Demographic, ethnic and religious composition 4. According to the Federal Statistical Office, Germany had a population of around 82.2 million as of 31 December 2007. However, Germany faces negative population growth rates. From 2006 to 2007, the population declined by about 97,000, or 0.1 per cent.1 The foreign-born population amounted to 8.8 per cent of the total population, or around 7.2 million persons. People of Turkish descent make up the largest group of foreign-born individuals, with over 1.7 million inhabitants.2 5. Official data is not available concerning the ethnic background of the population. Many interlocutors within Germany highlighted the fact that there is general scepticism in the country regarding the gathering of ethnically disaggregated data in view of the insidious use of such type of data during the period of National Socialism. 6. The religious composition of the population is predominantly Christian: 34 per cent of the population is Protestant and 34 per cent Roman Catholic. Muslims make up around 3.7 per cent of the German population. A large segment, 28.3 per cent of the population, consists of atheists, unaffiliated or other religious groups. 1 2 4 Federal Statistics Office, available online at: http://www.destatis.de/jetspeed/portal/cms/Sites/destatis/Internet/EN/Navigation/Statistics/Bevoelker ung/Bevoelkerungsstand/Bevoelkerungsstand.psml. These figures reflect the number of foreign-born individuals legally residing in Germany. The total number of individuals, including undocumented migrants, is substantially larger. GE.10-11624