List associations anti-sects in France

France counts ten associations fighting against the sectarian sects or drifts.

These associations have as an aim the Information on the sectarian phenomenon , the Prévention and helps it with the Victime S. They make appear official statements, call upon various personalities and organize sometimes demonstrations. Two more important, the UNADFI and the CCMM are recognized of Public utility.

Associations of public utility

UNADFI

The National union of defense associations of the families and the individual victims of sects (UNADFI) is a association French E, which gathers and coordinates the ADFI (Defense associations of the families and the individual) regional, of which first was creates in 1974. She is recognized of public utility since 1996 and directly subsidized by the French State since this date.

Jeanine Tavernier chaired it of 1992 to 2001; the current president is Catherine Picard.

CCMM

The Center against mental handling (CCMM), or Centers Roger Ikor was rested by the writer Roger Ikor.

She was chaired of 1997 to 1998 by the socialist deputy Alain Vivien, which remained member of its board of directors while he chaired the MILLETS.

The president in 2007 is Jacques Miquel.

Other associations

CNVOTJ

The National coordination of the victims of the organization of the Witnesses of Jéhovah is an association which was created the January 10th 1995. She proposes to come to assistance of the people having left the religious movement of the Témoins of Jéhovah, which she denounces as being a dangerous Secte for the follower and her family.

The president of the regional antenna of ADFI - Northern - Pas-de-Calais - Picardy, Charline Delporte, was stimulating for the Département of North of this association, which announced its dissolution in an official statement on March 10th 2006. The seat of this association, domiciled with 19 place Sebastopol with Lille, was in the buildings of UNADFI.

This CNVOTJ however was recreated in December 2006, comprising among their most active members Alain Berrou and Nicolas Jacquette, who have both testified at the time of the parliamentary commission to 2006 having milked with the influence of the movements in sectarian matter and with the effects of their practices on physical and moral health of the minors.

Official site of the CNVOTJ

GEMPPI

The group of motion study of thought for the prevention of the individual is an association founded in 1988 per Didier Pachoud, who is always his president in 2007. It is primarily active in the Rhone delta. The GEMPPI is a movement associated with the CCMM.

Site of the GEMPPI

Controversies and criticisms

The action of associations anti-sects in France is criticized on several aspects:

Verbal violence

The strongly emotional family context which prevailed during the creation of main associations anti-sects UNADFI and CCMM led certain founders to a manifest verbal violence. Certain persons in charge of these associations were condemned for slandering.

Deprogramming

The first associations anti-sects Frenchwomen were inspired by their counterparts American and gave their support in the Eighties to the practice of the Deprogramming, a technique very discussed at the same time on the legal level (since it is about sequestration) and medical. This practice was declared illegal in the United States.

The washing of brain and mental handling

One of the main arguments of associations anti-sects is relating to the mental handling undergone by the followers of spiritual movements. This concept of mental handling is, according to certain researchers, similar to the concept of washing of brain which was used in the lawsuits of Sectes in the United States -- in particular by the expert psychiatrist near the courts Margaret Singer -- then invalidated like not scientifically founded, continuation in particular with work of Dick Antony.

Instrumentalisation of the public authorities

Associations anti-sects worked to mobilize the attention of the public authorities, which ended up answering their requests by deploying a repressive policy anti-sects with large scales. The bond privileged between the State and these associations (UNADFI was declared of public utility in 1996 and is subsidized, just like the CCMM, by the State) ended up making almost inoperative the other information sources, in particular those of many researchers in social sciences. Jean Baubérot, historian of the Secularity, considers this instrumentalisation of the public authorities, single among the European countries, like dangerous.

The constitution of lists of dangerous people

In spite of a circular of the Prime Minister recommending the abandonment of lists of names of Sects, UNADFI is currently financed by the area Ile de France to draw up lists of people suspected of sectarian drifts.

A defense of the families and the individual ambiguity

Certain testimonys attest annoying consequences of the action of associations anti-sects, in particular within the framework of divorce procedures where the abusive use of the word “Secte” makes it possible to obtain the guard of the children, or when the intervention of these associations as a civil part starts police attacks of an extreme violence, leaving many traumatized children.

The refusal of the dialog

Associations anti-sects consider the dialog with the spiritual minorities which they describe as Sectes as inappropié; the dialog on the other hand is regarded as the way necessary for a mutual comprehension by many organizations of defense of the human rights.

See too

Internal bonds

References

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