FRANCE:

PARLIAMENT APPROVES NEW RESTRICTIONS ON FREEDOM OF RELIGION AND ANTI-SECT OFFICIAL ACCUSES IHF OF BEING INFILTRATED BY CHURCH OF SCIENTIOLOGY

On 22 June, the National Assembly approved new restrictive legislation on religious movements. It now awaits approval by the Senate to become effective. " The law is aimed primarily at Scientologists, Jehovah's Witnesses, and other minority religions, but could also target some evangelical Protestants, observers said.

Article 1 of the draft law provides in effect for the dissolution of an association whose activities have as an aim or effect the physical or psychological dependence of persons participating in their activities or which attack human rights or fundamental liberties, when this association or its leaders have been sentenced several times for penal offences. The introduction of this law makes clear that the combination of mental manipulation, the violation of "human rights" and "several" penal condemnations constitutes the legal definition of a "sect." The procedure of dissolution can be brought before a tribunal of first instance at the request of the Public Prosecutor’s Office or at a petition of anyone interested.

The draft law introduces a notion of corporate liability for association falling under article 1 in cases where only personal responsibility is at issue.

Other provisions of the draft law provide for imprisonment of three years and a fine of 300,000 FF for anyone who participates in the reconstruction of an association whose dissolution was pronounced; imprisonment of two years and a fine of 200,000 FF for a new category of crimes, namely the installation of an association concerned by article 1 in the vicinity of a hospital, school or similar establishment; and a punishment of a fine of 50,000 FF for broadcasting, through whichever media, messages aimed at the youth at which an association mentioned in article 1 is promoted.

Moreover, the draft law institutes a new crime of "mental manipulation" that is punishable by two years imprisonment and a fine of 200,000 FF. In cases where the target persons are particularly vulnerable, a punishment of five years’ imprisonment is provided and a fine of 500,000 FF.

The IHF has on many occasions criticized France’s increasingly restrictive policy regarding freedom of religion. It also opposes the new draft law and says it could not easily be judged compatible with the notion of religious pluralism in a democratic society.

The 14 June edition of France's "Le Figaro" newspaper carried an interview with the government's leading anti-cult official, Alain Vivien, in which he suggested that the IHF had been infiltrated by the Church of Scientology, a fact that would explain the IHF’s virulent criticism of France.

The IHF, in its open letter to Vivien, denounced the accusations and repeated criticism of France’s restrictive policy. IHF’s Executive Director Aaron Rhodes declared his "astonishment" at the charge of infiltration. He said he was "embarrassed for you and your fellow French citizens by your recourse to methods of denunciations and insinuations that remind us of those sometimes used by totalitarian and backward regimes."

In his letter, the IHF acknowledged that its Moscow Group had received funding from the Church of Scientology to print a leaflet on religious freedom, but said the group had never sought to hide the source of the funding. The Moscow Group would have been better advised to have refused the funding, "to avoid abusive and insinuating responses such as your own," the IHF added. "Against non-traditional religions, Russia and France have an approach that contravenes their international obligations," the letter continued.

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Source: IHF, Human Rights Without Frontiers (HRWF)

For more information on the proposed French law please contact the HRWF, tel. +32-2-34 56 145, e-mail info@hrwf.net; for the IHF open letter, tel. +43-1-408-8822, e-mail office@ihf-hr.org. The full IHF letter to Mr. Vivien is accessible at www.ihf-hr.org