FOGLI DI LAVORO per il Diritto internazionale 3 ... - Giurisprudenza
FOGLI DI LAVORO per il Diritto internazionale 3 ... - Giurisprudenza
FOGLI DI LAVORO per il Diritto internazionale 3 ... - Giurisprudenza
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<strong>FOGLI</strong> <strong>DI</strong> <strong>LAVORO</strong> <strong>per</strong> <strong>il</strong> <strong>Diritto</strong> <strong>internazionale</strong> 3/2008<br />
encompassed a number of highly varied groups. The “group<br />
based around “Bhagwan (i.e. God) Shree Rajneesh” was<br />
presented as one of these groups, and was included as one of the<br />
“psycho-movements”.<br />
In the speech he gave on 8 December 1984 at a conference on<br />
the topic “New youth religions – Protecting the freedom of the<br />
individual” the Federal Minister of Youth, Fam<strong>il</strong>y and Health<br />
used the terms “youth religion”, “youth sect”, “sect”,<br />
“destructive religious cults”, “pseudo salvation teachings” and<br />
“pseudo-religion” with reference to the groups dealt with.<br />
11. On 1 October 1984 the applicant associations instituted<br />
legal proceedings before the Cologne Administrative Court<br />
(Verwaltungsgericht). They requested that the Government<br />
desist from issuing the above-mentioned statements about the<br />
religious movement and the associations belonging to it,<br />
maintaining that such statements were incriminating. They<br />
essentially alleged that their freedom to profess a religious or<br />
ph<strong>il</strong>osophical creed under Article 4 §§ 1 and 2 of the Basic Law<br />
(Grundgesetz) had been infringed.<br />
12. According to the applicant associations, the teachings of<br />
the community were based on the idea of achieving<br />
transcendence in all essential areas of life. These teachings were<br />
continuously shared by them and their community. The various<br />
statements of the Government had breached the obligation of<br />
neutrality required by Article 4 of the Basic Law by discrediting<br />
the teachings of the movement. The expressions used were<br />
either actually defamatory or were meant to be, and there was no<br />
factual or legal basis which would justify using those terms. The<br />
applicant associations did not pursue any activities contrary to<br />
the basic rights of other <strong>per</strong>sons, groups or organisations. The<br />
Government had misinterpreted the concepts of Osho's teachings<br />
and thus interfered with the essential religious beliefs of their<br />
movement.<br />
13. By a judgment of 21 January 1986 the Cologne<br />
Administrative Court prohibited the Government from calling<br />
the Rajneesh movement in official statements a “youth religion”,<br />
“youth sect” or “psycho-sect”, from using the adjectives<br />
“destructive” and “pseudo-religious” and from alleging that<br />
members of the Rajneesh movement had been manipulated.<br />
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