Thought Police in France?

In Summary: The discriminatory intent is articulated in the title to the bill to “Reinforce Prevention and Repression of Sectarian Groups”, although the law’s provisions are primarily couched in terms that could be applied to any group.

The bill gives a court the authority to dissolve any group if it or any of its leaders have been found guilty of more than one criminal offense. It provides for the dissolution of any related group, if a leader of that related group has at least one conviction against him. (As a note, the bill also allows the government to decide who is a “leader” of a group.) It also provides for fines and jail sentences if there is any attempt made to reestablish the dissolved group under another name or corporation.

It also creates a new criminal offense: causing “a state of psychological or physical subjection resulting from serious and repeated pressures or from techniques which can alter [a person’s] judgment” - a description that could be applied to virtually any organization engaged in matters of opinion or belief, even advertising, stock brokerages, entertainment.

After the bill passed the National Assembly on May 30, Picard (co-author of the bill) told the media, as reported by Reuters New Agency, that it is aimed at groups of a “spiritual, ethnic and philosophical” nature. In other words, minorities, whether racial, religious or philosophical, can be directly threatened. She claimed that France was the “leader” in this field and that, “Foreign parliaments are closely observing our actions, such as Germany, Belgium, Italy, Spain, Portugal and former eastern block countries.”

Acts that Could Lead to Dissolution: The list of predicated penal acts set forth in the law is extremely broad. Moreover, the law does not even require that the convictions involve offenses committed when acting for the religious organization. It would subject a religious group to possible dissolution if two perceived leaders were, for example, convicted of relatively minor offenses, including:

• Causing a traffic accident resulting in bodily injury
• Publishing an edited recording made with the spoken words or image of a person without his/her consent
• Invasion of privacy by procuring, recording or disclosing, without the author’s consent, confidential remarks or remarks made in private or by procuring, recording or disclosing the image of a person in a private place without his consent
• Violating data protection laws by failing to destroy address files on ex-parishioners when they leave a religious group
• Breaching a professional secret
• Recommending vitamins or other natural health measures which could be characterized as illegal practice of medicine

The law provides for expedited dissolution by requiring proceedings at a designated time and date in the court of first instance, requiring a fifteen-day time limit for entering appeal, and establishing procedures for an expedited appeal.

An individual convicted under the law may also be denied civil and family rights (such as child custody) and may be denied the right to participate in professional or social activity, if it is determined that the activity led to the action at issue in the penal proceedings. If the “crime” of “causing a state of subjection” takes place on the premises of a religious organization, it is subject to closure for five years or more. In addition, religious organizations themselves are liable under this provision. These are extremely drastic penalties for a “crime” couched in subjective, unscientific and arbitrary standards vague enough to encompass any religious activity, including teaching and proselytizing. Any form of education and any form of persuasion can be defined as “techniques, which can alter judgment.” Yet, individuals will be subject to imprisonment and religious associations themselves to conviction, closure for five years or more and then dissolution (if there is more than one conviction) if a judge determines that the religious beliefs or practices are somehow harmful to a person—even if the practices and beliefs are lawful and freely consented to by the individual.