FRANCE:
DISCRIMINATORY AND REPRESSIVE LEGISLATION
TO BAN TARGETED RELIGIOUS MINORITIES

Background

The 1999 Religious Intolerance report by the International Helsinki Federation graphically evidences the current state of religious intolerance in France and details certain discriminatory actions directed at religious minorities by the French government. The Report finds that:

“Against this background, a manifold pattern of virtual persecution has developed. Minority religions have been publicly marginalised and stigmatized, and there have been attempts to hinder their activities – for example, through denying them access to public halls for their meetings or requiring them to pay higher rent. Authorities have scrutinized their management, and children of minority religious groups have been stigmatized as ’cult members’ in their schools and neighbourhoods.”

France has embarked on a campaign against targeted minority religions which has raised substantial international concern because of the campaign’s flagrant disregard for human rights standards designed to ensure minority religious rights. Although the United Nations Human Rights Committee, the United Nations Special Rapporteur for Religious Intolerance, the Human Rights Directorate of the Council of Europe, the European Court of Human Rights, human rights groups, scholars and experts in the field have all called for tolerance toward religious minorities consistent with notions of pluralism, minority rights, freedom of conscience and religious liberty standards mandated by human rights instruments, the French government has instead adopted exclusionary legislation designed to marginalise, ostracize, and stigmatize targeted minority faiths.

In 1995, the National Assembly unanimously adopted a resolution to create Commission of Inquiry “assigned to study the cult phenomenon.” The Commission, chaired by Alain Gest, published a report entitled “Sects in France” which included a list of 172 religions denigrated as “sects” and which advocated “information” campaigns and repressive measures against these 172 minority groups. Beginning in 1996, lobbying by groups opposed to minority religions such as UNADFI and the CCMM resulted in the adoption of a series of repressive laws and political measures targeting these 172 minority religious groups.

In October 1998, the Prime Minister issued a decree establishing a new inter-ministerial body under the direction of a President appointed by decree and a General Secretary appointed by the Prime Minister. The purpose of this body, according to the decree, is to “contribute to the information and training of civil servants to fight against sects”. Indeed, the official title of this inter-ministerial group is the “Mission Interministerielle de Lutte Contre Les Sectes (MILS). MILS serves as an operational arm for public and semi-public authorities in order to “inform” the public about the “danger” of sects and to “limit” their activities, calling for the dissolution of minority religious groups targeted by the government.

Numerous repressive measures have been passed to fight” so called “sects”, including prosecutions designed to criminalize the practices and beliefs of disfavoured faiths, measures which directly interfere with the rights of minorities to educate and raise their children according to their own religious beliefs, and “sect enlightenment” and “sect awareness” programs designed to stigmatize minority religious groups.