E/CN.4/1998/6/Add.2 page 17 authorities tried to justify such discrimination by arguing that Scientology was neither a religion nor a philosophical community and that, as a consequence, Scientologists could not avail themselves of the rights set forth in the 1981 Declaration on the Elimination of All Forms of Intolerance and of Discrimination based on Religion or Belief and in article 18 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights. 72. The representatives of Scientology provided very detailed documentation, a summary of which follows, in which the terms and expressions used are those employed by the Scientology representatives: (a) Decision dated 6 June 1997 by the ministers of the interior of the 16 Länder to place Scientologists under national surveillance by the Office for the Protection of the Constitution for a period of one year, despite the lack, according to the Scientology representatives, of evidence linking the Church of Scientology to any criminal activity. (b) Blacklisting and boycotting of Scientologists at all levels of society, according to the Scientology representatives, under an insidious policy of exclusion launched, encouraged and approved by the German Government in order to stigmatize Scientologists and outlaw them from society, which, in their view, amounts to religious apartheid (cf. use of declaration forms described as “sect filters”, called for and recommended by the administration, requiring individuals and firms to declare that they are not Scientologists, do not sympathize with Scientology and reject its teachings, in particular in order to be recruited or to keep a post in a firm, or even, in Bavaria, in order to enter the civil service, to join a political party, trade union, social or professional group or sports club or to be able to enter it, to sign a commercial or service contract, or to open a bank account or obtain a bank loan; publication of a decree by the Federal Minister of Labour depriving Scientologists of the right to run employment agencies; adoption of decrees prohibiting the circulation of Church of Scientology publications, adoption of measures to prevent the sale of real estate to the Church of Scientology in Hamburg; discrimination against Scientology activities, particularly through the non-availability of public subsidies, contracts and public halls). (c) Information programmes for teachers, parents, students, police officers, judges, procurators, prison staff, health workers, and chambers of commerce and industry and for the public in general, providing, according to the representatives of the Church of Scientology, incorrect and unscientific information, all of it unfavourable to the Church of Scientology and its members, and creating a climate of intolerance reflected in particular in physical and verbal harassment of Scientologists' children in schools, and indeed their expulsion, even from kindergartens. (d) Incidents involving violence, harassment, intimidation and threats to Scientologists. [End of summary of the Scientology representatives' written submissions presented and commented on orally to the Special Rapporteur.] 73. To the Special Rapporteur's questions on the explanations for the situation as described by the Church of Scientology, the Scientology representatives said that since reunification Germany had been undergoing an