E/CN.4/1992/52
page 86
Turkey
71. In a communication sent on 25 April 1991 addressed to the Government of
Turkey, the following information was transmitted by the Special Rapporteur:
"According to the information received, Miss Norma Jeanne Cox, a
United States citizen, was picked up at her home on 11 December 1990 around
10 a.m. by a plainclothes policeman who identified himself as being from the
4th Division (Foreign Police) and was taken by police car to the 4th Division
and subsequently to the Operasyon Istihbarat. It has been alleged that she
was held for questioning for 36 hours and was deported from Turkey on
12 December 1990 under an administrative order of the Ministry of the Interior
for 'disturbing the public1 by engaging in 'Christian propaganda'. It has
been reported that the police had declared such activity illegal but failed to
indicate the law which stipulates this as an offence and did not cite a
specific example of Miss Cox's violation of the law, but questioned her about
receiving correspondence which, according to the sources, related to a
religious subject. It has further been reported that they refused to issue a
copy of the order allegedly issued by the Ministry of the Interior for the
deportation of Miss Cox or any written accusation against her."
United States of America
72. On 8 November 1991 the Special Rapporteur sent the following information
to the Government of the United States of America under annex I:
"According to the information received, a decision rendered by the United
States Supreme Court on 17 April 1990 in the case of Employment Division v.
Smith would amount to a restriction of the right of indigenous people to
practise their traditional religions. The case, as reported to the Special
Rapporteur, has been summarized as follows:
The Employment Division of Oregon's Department of Human Resources has
denied unemployment compensation to two drug rehabilitation counsellors who
are both members of the Native American Church because they had taken a
hallucinogenic drug, peyote, which is proscribed by Oregon's controlled
substance law, and were therefore considered as dismissed from their jobs for
misconduct, despite the fact that this had taken place within the framework of
a specific Native American religious ceremony.
It has been reported that the peyote cactus has been traditionally used
as a sacrament in the carefully circumscribed ritual context of American
Indian religious ceremonies and it is said to be vital to the adherents'
ability to practise their religion. It is further alleged that the Church's
doctrine forbids nonreligious use of peyote and considers its use outside the
ritual as sacrilegious. It has reportedly been admitted by scientists and
other experts that peyote does not inflict permanent deleterious damage to the
Indian and that the spiritual and social support provided by the Native
American Church has been effective in combating the effects of alcoholism in
the Native American population.