{"id":103,"date":"2023-12-18T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2023-12-18T00:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/eifrf.org\/index.php\/2023\/12\/18\/100-ngos-french-parliamentarians-law-cults\/"},"modified":"2023-12-18T00:00:00","modified_gmt":"2023-12-18T00:00:00","slug":"100-ngos-french-parliamentarians-law-cults","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/eifrf.org\/index.php\/2023\/12\/18\/100-ngos-french-parliamentarians-law-cults\/","title":{"rendered":"More than 100 NGOs and personalities write to French Parliamentarians about the law on cults"},"content":{"rendered":"


\n<\/a><\/p>\n

contact@forbroundtable.org<\/a>
\n https:\/\/www.forbroundtable.org<\/a> <\/p>\n

December 17, 2023 <\/p>\n

To:
\n All French Deputies
\n All French Senators <\/p>\n

Re: The current French bill on \u201cReinforcing the Fight Against Cultic Deviances\u201d<\/strong> <\/p>\n

Dear Members of the French Parliament, <\/p>\n

We write as an informal coalition of organizations and individuals who are scholars, religious and civil society leaders, and human rights advocates and practitioners to express our deep concerns about the bill, \u201cReinforcing the Fight Against Cultic Deviances,\u201d which is currently being debated at the French Parliament. <\/p>\n

While we hold an extremely broad diversity of theological views and political positions, we all agree on the importance of freedom of religion or belief for everyone. It strengthens cultures and provides the foundation for stable democracies and their components, including social harmony, civil society, and economic growth. As such, it is also an effective counter-terrorism weapon as it pre-emptively undermines religious extremism. From Cyrus\u2019 Cylinder to Roger Williams\u2019 1663 Colonial Charter, history and modern scholarship make it clear that where people are allowed to practice their faith freely, they are less likely to be alienated from the government, and more likely to be good citizens. <\/p>\n

While we know France has a duty to enact legislation to tackle the problems of criminality and prosecute crimes committed by members of spiritual and religious movements, we believe you can achieve this purpose without adding new restrictions on freedom of thought, conscience, and religion or belief in your country. <\/p>\n

The bill, \u201cReinforcing the Fight Against Cultic Deviances,\u201d as it is written, contains several flaws that make it non-compliant with the Constitution of the Fifth Republic and its international commitments, including Article 18 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights. <\/p>\n

First, the stigmatization of religious minorities as \u201ccults\u201d or \u201ccultic groups\u201d by states and governments is contrary to the international standards in freedom of religion or belief. That is what is tackled in General Comment 22 of the UN Human Rights Committee:
\n Article 18 protects theistic, non-theistic and atheistic beliefs, as well as the right not to profess any religion or belief. The terms \u201cbelief\u201d and \u201creligion\u201d are to be broadly construed. Article 18 is not limited in its application to traditional religions or to religions and beliefs with institutional characteristics or practices analogous to those of traditional religions. The Committee therefore views with concern any tendency to discriminate against any religion or belief for any reason, including the fact that they are newly established, or represent religious minorities that may be the subject of hostility on the part of a predominant religious community. <\/p>\n

The European Court of Human Rights regularly condemns such stigmatization by its member states (see for example \u00ab\u00a0Tonchev and Others v. Bulgaria\u00a0\u00bb, Application no. 56862\/15). <\/p>\n

Currently, the leading countries that target religious and spiritual minorities they distastefully refer to as \u201ccults\u201d are Russia, China, and Iran. These countries are among the worst violators of freedom of thought, conscience, and religion or belief in the world, and we do not want to see France join this group. <\/p>\n

Moreover, Article 1 of the law creates a new crime called \u201cpsychological subjection.\u201d Such a concept, to be applied to matters related to religious or spiritual beliefs: <\/p>\n

\u25cf Is pseudo-scientific and has never been supported by scientific consensus, while to the opposite some scientific recognized groups as the American Psychological Association and the American Sociological Association rejected utterly such a concept applied to religious movements and\/or so called \u201ccults.\u201d As the ECHR stated in \u00ab\u00a0Case of the Jehovah’s Witnesses of Moscow v. Russia\u00a0\u00bb (Application no. 302\/02), on June 10, 2010: \u00ab\u00a0there is no generally accepted and scientific definition of what constitutes \u2018mind control.\u2019\u00a0\u00bb <\/p>\n

\u25cf Is so vague that it opens the door to arbitrary abuses, which can touch any faith, or even non-religious philosophical groups. <\/p>\n

\u25cf Will put the burden of proof on psychiatrists who will have to evaluate religious or spiritual practices for which they are not qualified, based on a notion devoid of scientific basis. <\/p>\n

\u25cf Will criminalize beliefs based on the degree of popularity or acceptance of the ideas and beliefs of minority spiritual or religious groups. <\/p>\n

We believe this would be unacceptable in a democratic country like France. <\/p>\n

We urge you to consider the repercussions of such a law. The social consequences include but are not limited to outraged protests not only from these minority groups but from multi-faith coalitions and increasing scrutiny of the international community. <\/p>\n

Further, Article 3 of the bill will allow \u201canti-cult\u201d associations to be plaintiff in criminal trials against groups they consider as \u201ccults,\u201d even if they have not personally suffered any damage. Considering that these associations are by definition attacking the spiritual and religious minorities they label as \u201ccults,\u201d this article will endanger the right to a fair trial that everyone is entitled to. <\/p>\n

We understand that fighting against criminality is a legitimate aim. Unfortunately, the bill in its current form will be counter-productive and will allow for the criminalization of people who are not criminals but sincere believers. We are certain that French criminal law contains all necessary provisions to tackle criminality, and creating a vague and arbitrary new crime based on pseudo-scientific theories is dangerous. <\/p>\n

As an informal multi-faith coalition, we strongly and respectfully urge you to refrain from rushing to pass this bill into law and ask you to engage the leading experts in the right to freedom of religion or belief, such as the Office of Democratic Institutions and Human Rights (ODIHR) of the OSCE or the UN Special Rapporteur on Freedom of Religions or Belief, to get well-rounded advice and guidance. <\/p>\n

This is a critical issue for the future of France, the fate of all French citizens, and the entire world, as the outcome of your work will be watched and evaluated internationally. Will you enact a law that targets and punishes citizens for their faith or beliefs? Will you stigmatize minority beliefs, create an arbitrary crime, and increase restrictions on freedom of religion or belief, or will you uphold freedom in the country of Human Rights? We definitely hope it will be the latter, and we trust you will hear that call. <\/p>\n

Thank you for your consideration. <\/p>\n

Respectfully, <\/p>\n

Organizations<\/em><\/strong> <\/p>\n

Aido Network International (AIDO) <\/p>\n

Alliance For Democratic Justice \u2013 USA <\/p>\n

America Sikh Forum Inc. <\/p>\n

American Sikh Council <\/p>\n

Association of the Hungarian Romani Police Officers <\/p>\n

BRIDGES NGO for Dialogue \u2013 Bulgaria <\/p>\n

Center for defence of human rights – Switzerland <\/p>\n

Center for Studies on Freedom of Religion Belief and Conscience (LIREC) \u2013 Italy <\/p>\n

CESNUR (Center for Studies on New Religions) – Italy <\/p>\n

Children\u2019s Education Fellowship \u2013 USA <\/p>\n

Church of Scientology National Affairs Office, Washington DC \u2013 USA <\/p>\n

Coordination des Associations et des Particuliers pour la Libert\u00e9 de Conscience (CAPLC) <\/p>\n

Ethni<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

contact@forbroundtable.org https:\/\/www.forbroundtable.org December 17, 2023 To: All French Deputies All French Senators Re: The current French bill on \u201cReinforcing the Fight Against Cultic Deviances\u201d Dear Members of the French Parliament,…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"eifrf_language":[],"eifrf_topic":[],"eifrf_country":[],"eifrf_document_type":[],"class_list":["post-103","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-religious-freedom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/eifrf.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/103","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/eifrf.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/eifrf.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/eifrf.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/eifrf.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=103"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/eifrf.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/103\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/eifrf.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=103"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/eifrf.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=103"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/eifrf.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=103"},{"taxonomy":"eifrf_language","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/eifrf.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/eifrf_language?post=103"},{"taxonomy":"eifrf_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/eifrf.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/eifrf_topic?post=103"},{"taxonomy":"eifrf_country","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/eifrf.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/eifrf_country?post=103"},{"taxonomy":"eifrf_document_type","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/eifrf.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/eifrf_document_type?post=103"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}