Parliamentary boards of inquiry into the sects in France

The Commission Reports of inquiries parliamentary into the Sect S in France, are carried out by Mission S Parlementaire S, i.e. by boards of inquiry made up members of the Parliament. Those aim to give a a report on the places of the extent of the sectarian phenomenon in France. Nevertheless, the reports/ratios returned by these parliamentary boards of inquiry constitute only one data element and of proposal, they do not carry a legal authenticity, and the French government reminded various recoveries that they could not justify any discriminatory measurement against the groups which are listed there.

They are based on furnished informations by the General informations and specialized association S, such UNADFI, which are seen recognizing this manner an quasi-official statute. They contain even some references to specialized publications (often for the estimates of the number of members). The first official report, having drawn up a list of sects, goes back to 1995; a second report/ratio presenting an assessment of the financial position of these movements was elaborate in 1999, finally, a third report/ratio relating to the influence of the movements in sectarian matter and with the consequences of their practices on the physical and mental health of the minors was made public on December 19th 2006. These reports/ratios are public, they are thus freely consultable.

History

The first Parliamentary commission on the sects in France was born in 1995, however the sectarian movements were for a long time supervised by the General informations.

A report/ratio on the question had already been carried out on this question in 1983 by Alain Vivien, at the request of the Prime Minister.

The commission of 1995 tried to measure the extent of the sectarian phenomenon at that time and drew up a list of 172 sects answering at least one of the ten criteria of dangerosity defined by the general informations. Nevertheless, it was not about a final classification nor exhaustive. The shortly after the publication of the report/ratio took place the “collective suicide” of the Ordre of the solar Temple, which contributed to give him a particular repercussion.

Following this report/ratio a governmental Observatory is created in 1996; then in 1998, the government also obtains a new interdepartmental organization, the MILLETS, which will become later the MIVILUDES. This organization consequently produces its own studies, which are frequently confused with the parliamentary reports.

The second parliamentary board of inquiry into the sects returned his report/ratio in 1999, this one, more commonly called “parliamentary report on the sects and the money” aimed to give a a report on the places of the financial position, patrimonial and tax of the sects, as well as their economic activities and their relations with the economic circles and financial.

In 2001, the Loi Butt-Picardy reinforces the legislation against the sectarian drifts.

In 2006, the National Assembly decided the creation of a news parliamentary Board of inquiry relating to the influence of the movements in sectarian matter and to the effects of their practices on the physical and mental health of the minors.

Parliamentary board of inquiry into the sects of 1995

This commission tried to measure the extent of the sectarian phenomenon at that time and drew up a list of sects answering at least one of the ten criteria of dangerosity defined by the general informations. Nevertheless, it was not about a final classification nor exhaustive. His report/ratio was unanimously adopted the December 20th 1995, but by 7 deputies present (on 21), the other members not having received their convocation because of a strike of the post office. Jean-Pierre Brard, vice-president of the commission, estimated for its part that the proposed measures “were insufficient” and wished the adoption of a “specific legislation”, making it possible to fight the sects effectively dangerous. He had declared: “This vote is thus not representative of all the commission. If I had been present, I would have abstained from. ”

With respect to the rules of procedure of the National Assembly the report/ratio is nevertheless valid whatever the number of the present.

Summary of the parliamentary report of 1995

Definition of the concept of “ secte ”

The report/ratio explains why Twenty hearings were carried out under these conditions, for one total duration of twenty and one hours. They made it possible the Commission to take note of information, the experiment and the analyzes of people having, with various titles, a thorough knowledge of the sectarian phenomenon, which they are administrative persons in charge, doctors, lawyers, men of the church, representatives of associations of assistance to the victims of sects, and, of course, former followers of sectarian movements and leaders of sectarian associations. The Commission, in addition, requested the contest of various administrations to try as well as possible to refine the knowledge of the field of its study . Among them it is especially the ministry for the Interior (General informations) which provided him its information.

In front of the great difficulty in defining the concept of Sect, the commission decided to take again the criteria observed by the General informations, which she regards as a beam of indices, of which each one could lend to long discussions. :

Dangers to the individual :

mental destabilization;
exorbitant character of the financial requirements;
rupture induced with the environment of origin;
attacks with the physical integrity;
the enrollment of the children;

Dangers to the community :

the more or less antisocial speech;
disorders with the law and order;
importance of the legal contentions;
the possible diversion of the traditional economic channels;
attempts at infiltration of the public authorities.

The commission estimates to have summer conscious that neither the innovation, neither the small number of followers, nor even the eccentricity could be retained like criteria and eplic that The field of its study was thus voluntarily restricted with a certain joining together number of associations, generally around a spiritual leader, people sharing the same belief in a being or a certain number of ideas transcendantales, being located or not in rupture with the religions " traditional " (Christian woman, Moslem woman, hindouist, Buddhist) which was excluded from this study, and on which could, at one moment or with another, to weigh the suspicion of a contrary activity to the law and order or individual freedoms.

Conscious of not giving an exactly impartial result, the commission chose these criteria all the same in order to carry out an analysis partial of reality, retaining the common direction that the public opinion allots to the concept of sect.

A phenomenon difficult to measure

In addition to the problem of the inaccuracy surrounding the definition of the concept of sect, the commission ran up against various obstacles:

Quantification of the activity of a movement and these multiple associations. For example, is a regular listener of conferences organized by an association close to a sect to regard as a follower of the latter?
Choice of the criterion being used to measure the phenomenon: does one have to retain the number of followers or that of the sympathizers (concepts to be defined)? Does one have to include the entourage of the people concerned to enter the number of “victims”? In addition, the sects themselves do not know exactly the number of their members, without speaking about the possible hazard of deformation of the figures, in a direction as in the other…
Quantification of the international importance of the sect, its financial capacities and its possible strategy of infiltration which contribute for much to its audience, its capacity of interference, its dangerosity.

List sects

The lists of the report/ratio present, classified alphabetically and for each definite class of manpower. Each one of these movements corresponds to at least one of the criteria defined higher, according to the observations of the RG.

According to the furnished informations by the General informations (RG), the commission established, in his ratio of 1995, a list of 173 movements considered to be sectarian, filling at least one of the ten criteria of sectarian behavior defined by the commission.

For each movement, the commission defined a " dominant" type; (single for 69 of them, and a " associé" type; for the 104 others), in other words the principal current of thought: 49 are types Nouvel Age, 22 are evangelists, Protestant or pseudo-catholics (e.g.: the Church of the unification (Moon), the Family, the universal Alliance, the Pentecost of Besancon, Tradition Family Property, the European Grouping of the professionals of marketing (GEPM), the néo-apostolic Church, Invitation with the life, the cultural Office of Cluny), 19 is orientalists (e.g.: the International association for the conscience of Krishna, the Shri RAM Chandra Mission, the Sôka Gakkaï, Sri Chinmoy), 18 are healers (e.g.: the Antoinisme), 16 are occultists (e.g.: the New Acropolis, the Rosicrucian brotherhood of gold, the Order of the solar temple), 15 are apocalyptic (the Témoins of Jéhovah, the universal Église of God, the international Église of Christ), 9 are psychoanalytical (e.g.: the Church of Scientology), 9 are syncretic (e.g.: the Association of Vajra Triumphing (Mandarom), the universal white Fraternity, the Sahaja yoga), 5 is ufologic (e.g.: the Movement raëlien, Siderella), 4 are satanic, 4 are alternate (e.g.: Humana), 3 are néo-pagan.

The number of followers is evaluated in the ratio of 1995 to approximately 160.000, while the figure would reach 500.000 with the sympathizers and the close relations of the followers.

Legal status of the lists

The French government reminded various recoveries that the parliamentary reports on the sects did not have the force of law and could not justify any discriminatory measurement against the groups which are listed there. The ministry for Employment and Solidarity, for example, notified into 1998 that the ratio of 1995 " any legal authenticity " does not have;. As for the Minister of Interior Department, he clearly explained into 1999 with the prefects: " These parliamentary reports constitute only one data element and of proposal, they do not claim to have normative value and could not found nor of the distinctions between qualified associations of " sectaires" and those which are not it with the glance of the aforesaid reports/ratios nor of the unspecified sanctions. "

This list is in spite of these recommendations used by certain municipalities, which gave place to lawsuits. The administrative jurisdictions confirmed that the presence in the parliamentary report on the sects cannot justify any obstacle with the practice of a worship. Thus the Administrative court of Rennes cancelled in 2002 the refusal of the mayor of Lorient to place at the disposal of an local association Witnesses of Jéhovah a municipal hall. Pareillement, the Administrative court of Poitiers cancelled the same year another communal refusal because " the city of the La Rochelle was based not on a reason drawn from the law and order, but on the character of sect allotted to the Witnesses of Jéhovah by the report/ratio of investigation of the National Assembly of December 22nd, 1995; that this report/ratio, stripped of legal authenticity, could not be used as legal base with the attacked decision ".

This difficulty led the French government to make this development at the time of Annual conference on the Human rights:

“The list of the sectarian movements included/understood in a report/ratio Parlement French surface of 1995 is a working paper Parlement surface. In other words, it does not have any legal authenticity. Certain local authorities could however refer to this list to take administrative measures - all cancelled by the courts. The French government gets busy to sensitize the wheels of the administration so that the list of the sectarian movements is recognized for what it is: a document of parliamentary work which cannot be used as base with a measurement. ” (September 12th 2002, Annual conference on the Human rights of SOEC with Warsaw, during the Session of work number 7, concerning Fundamental freedoms: Freedom of thought, of conscience, religion and belief).

Since 2005, this list moreover is regarded as obsolete, as well by the parliamentary government and representatives as by the Miviludes.

In its, the Prime Minister again recommends to avoid the recourse to lists of sects to the profit of the use of beams of criteria, grateful that the list of movements annexed to the parliamentary report of 1995 becomes less and less relevant, within sight of the complexity of the sectarian phenomenon. A list, by its rigidity, does not make it possible to apprehend the important fluctuations of these movements; this report/ratio evokes this difficulty, generated by the formation of small structures, diffuse, moving and less easily identifiable. However, this text indicates that this change, far from weakening the taken action, is there for better guaranteeing its effectiveness, by exerting a particular vigilance on any organization appearing to exert a dangerous influence for the individual freedom of its members.

As for Jean-Michel Roulet, the new president of MIVILUDES in 2005, it estimates that the parliamentary list of the sects of 1995 is “ completely caduque ” but recognizes that it “ allowed to determine the phenomenon even if it were in a sometimes erroneous way and partially incomplète ”. He declares that he wants to help the victims of sects to denounce what they underwent, intends to privilege the constitution of a jurisprudence, with concrete elements, and would like “to advance would be this only of five judgments” during his presidency. He insists by saying that the fight antisectes is not “politicking”, because “the sectarian drifts are a too serious stake to be purely a politician. ”

In a recent press release, several deputies spokesperson of the parliamentary groups of the National Assembly, declared that " some believed to be able to be delighted by so-called turning in the French policy of defense of individual freedoms and collective against the carried out dangerous ones of the sects and by a 1999" and questioning of the parliamentary reports of 1995; , at the time of the publication of the circular of the Prime Minister quoted above. Actually, the question put by the Prime Minister was according to them, that of the ageing of the information collected in 1995 and 1999. They added that the creation of a new board of inquiry into the sects in the field of the health and the protection of the minors will allow " to engage a new inventory of fixtures of mobility sectaire" .

Polemics and criticisms

Criteria and sources of the General informations

The criteria chosen by the General informations to establish the dangerosity of a movement do not make the unamity, they are regarded as waves and being able to include many organizations, nuns or not.

One of the first criticisms comes from Mgr Vernette, national secretary of the French episcopate for the study of the sects and new religious movements, which stresses that in the state they can be applied to the quasi totality of the religions installed.

In addition sociologists as Bruno Etienne stresses that it east cannot be not to the police officers of the General informations which should be entrusted the responsibility to define what mental Manipulation is the .

The list of the classified movements as sects dangerous according to the report/ratio was established according to the criteria defined by the RG, but without it being specified lequelles their practices are precisely criticized.

In addition to the fact that does not give any possibility to the movements concerned to amend itself, since they do not know what it to them is reproached, this secret character brought interrogations as for the presence or with the absence of certain organizations in the famous list.

Bruno Etienne wonders for example about the presence of the company Cedipac SA, in the past named European Groupement of the professionals of marketing (GEPM), whereas its activity, certainly reprehensible, consists primarily on sale pyramidal.

The absence of the Mormons, even of freemasonry caused interrogations égalemement.

Moreover, Yves Bertrand, Managing director of the General informations of 1992 to 2003, returned in 2007 on his work of collaboration to the parliamentary reports on the sects, and estimated that the scientology and the witnesses of Jéhovah did not deserve to be diabolized, and " that to place on the same plan certain companies of thought and authentic sectarian movements which alienate the freedom of their members, one leads contrary to the sought-after goal. ".

Certain movements requested the access to the documents which led to their classification among the list of the sects by the parliamentary board of inquiry. They ran up against the refusal of the State, which called upon the risk of public breach of security and with the state security in the event of disclosure of this information resulting from the General informations.

Several movements then began in legal procedures which lasted several years before being able to reach the documents which showed them. Thus Association the Witnesses of Jéhovah it obtained win in 2006 finally, after the request went up until the Council of State. First judgments in this direction had been pronounced in 2005 by the Administrative court of call of Paris after examination of the documents to examine the cogency of the refusal of the ministry for the Interior, which called upon the risk of public breach of security.

The Council of State rejected on July 3rd, 2006 the recourse of the Minister of Interior Department and confirmed the same day the cancellation of the decision of the Minister of Interior Department refusing to communicate to the Christian Federation of the Witnesses of Jéhovah de France the documents relating to the requests and investigations carried out near the witnesses of Jéhovah de France with the central management of the general informations to the title of the request for assistance of the parliamentary mission of inquiry on the sects and the money made up on December 15th, 1998. The court asked the minister to re-examine the request for communication of these administrative documents made by the Christian Federation of the Witnesses of Jéhovah de France.

December 18th, 2006, at the time of a press conference in Paris, the Witnesses of Jéhovah made public the file prepared by the General informations on their subject for the parliamentary board of inquiry on the sects of 1995. According to the daily newspaper Le Monde , " This “white note”, which was communicated to them after eight years of procedures, includes/understands only one card of presentation and the list of their places of worship ".

The Eglise of Scientology, which also battled of the years lasting for finally obtaining the access to documents of the French General informations, would have ensured by the voice of its spokesperson: " there were nothing in the dossiers" .

Association “Universal Église of the Kingdom of God” also obtained the right of access with the file held by the central management of the general informations justifying its classification by the National Assembly among the sects in the parliamentary report made public on January 10th, 1996. In a stop of the 1^er December 2005 validated by the Council of State, the Administrative court of call of Paris cancelled the refusal of the Minister of Interior Department to accede to the request of association and has enjoint this last to communicate the litigious documents.

The contradictory absence of procedure and possibility of correction

This parliamentary report was highly criticized by the American authorities. In 1999, a report/ratio on the religious liberty in the world carried out by the State Department reproaches him on the one hand for not having heard the shown groups, on the other hand contradictory absence of procedure.

During the creation of the new parliamentary commission in 1999; the group Tradition Family Property complained near it about the absence about possibility of correction, work of preceding the commission not being able to be réouverts: “the list drawn up by the Report/ratio - useful in addition, of the Parliamentary commission of 1996 comprised similar abusive qualifications for certain groups pinned wrongfully like sect, with all the disastrous consequences for their members and their activities, the list being largely published in the media. However none had been heard. None could obtain rehabilitation or new judgment, because no authority is recognized qualified to take again the file. The thing is serious in a rule of law and one worries that it is likely to be renewed by another skew. ”

Parliamentary board of inquiry into " Sects and the argent" from 1999

As regards the financial position of the movements known as sectarian, the ratio of 1999 raises that the Témoins of Jéhovah and the Église of Scientology are two richer, with an annual budget estimated respectively at 200.000.000 from FF and 60.000.000 of FF (approx. with 30.500.000 € and 9.147.000 €). Come then the Sôka Gakkaï, AMORC, Sûkyô Mahikari, the néo-apostolic Église, the Église of the unification (Moon), Dianova, the Association of Vajra Triumphing (Mandarom) and the Anthroposophie, whose annual receipts lie between 20 and 50.000.000 of FF (approx. between 3.000.000 € and 7.600.000 €).

Criticisms on the mention of the anthroposophie

After the presentation of this report/ratio on France 2, an action for libel was deposited against the president of the parliamentary board of inquiry into the sects in connection with the anthroposophie, the deputy PS Jacques Guyard. The XVIIème Criminal Court of the court great authority of Paris estimated that Mr. Guyard was not “not able to justify of a serious investigation” in support of his charges, that Mr. Guyard " has many times refers to the “secret” character of the work of the commission parlementaire" , and that " the contradictory character of the diligentées investigations was summarized exclusively with the sending of a questionnaire to an about sixty movements considered as sectaires". Moreover, " the judges estimated that the damage of the civil parts was “important (…) since the defamatory remarks had been made by a deputy, chair commission, whose authority and competence could not be questioned by the public” ". However, Jacques Guyard was then released by the Court of Appeal of Paris in September 2001 which will grant the benefit of the bona fide to him.

Parliamentary board of inquiry into the sects and the minors of 2006

The National Assembly adopted the June 28th 2006, unanimously, the motion for a resolution tightening with creation of a parliamentary Board of inquiry relating to the influence of the movements in sectarian matter and to the effects of their practices on the physical and mental health of the minors, " cosignée by 129 members of Parliament sitting on the whole of the benches of this assemblée". During the general discussion, the word had been given to Mr. Philippe Vuilque for the socialist group, with Mr. Olivier Jardé for the group UDF, with Mr. Jean-Pierre Brard for the group of the communist and republican deputies and with Mrs. Martine David, for the socialist group. Following this vote, in a press release, the spokesperson of the parliamentary groups of the National Assembly and Georges Fenech (UMP) rapporteur for the commission of the laws, declared that as regards fight against the sectarian drifts, the adoption of the motion for a resolution, unanimously by the Commission then by the vote of the National Assembly in public, made once again the demonstration that the sectarian phenomenon challenges the public authorities, with the more high level of their responsibilities. They added that the members of Parliament knew to create the conditions so that the great principles which found the republican State are not subjects of discord or confrontation in favor and which this consensus prevails today still, more than 10 years after the adoption, of the first parliamentary report on the sects.

Georges Fenech (UMP, the Rhone) and Philippe Vuilque (PS, the Ardennes) was respectively indicated president and rapporteur of this board of inquiry into the influence of the sects. Martine David (PS, the Rhone) and Alain Gest (UMP, Somme) was appointed vice-presidents, and Jean-Pierre Brard (app-PCF, Seine-Saint-Denis) and Rudy Salles (UDF, the Alpes-Maritimes) secretaries. The Commission decided unanimously that hearings would be opened with the press, except when that appears useful, on a case-by-case basis. In preoccupations of transparency and an information, national LCP-Assembly has retransmis and put on line the files of hearings of the parliamentary board of inquiry relating to the influence of the movements in sectarian matter and to the effects of their practices on the physical and moral health of the minors.

Proposals

The composite commission of 30 members made his report/ratio public on December 19th, 2006 to the assembly, in whom he recommends 50 proposals in order to protect " childhood in danger". Georges Fenech, president of the board of inquiry, showed the public authorities and particularly the office of the worships of the ministry for the Interior, of " negligence, even complaisance" in their connection. He said himself astonished to see that the occupation of psychotherapist is not better defined whereas it is " a mine for the sectes" in which the gurus thrive. He is also anxious lack of control of the organizations of extra teaching which can also be the " forgery nez" sects. Lastly, he explained why this commission had further gone than the preceding commissions, since the deputies addressed a questionnaire to the movements returning in their field of investigation, to which all did not answer.

Christian Vanneste, Member of the Commission (UMP), did not vote this report/ratio wishing a legal definition of the sect on the model of the Belgian right which makes a distinction between the harmful movements and the others, it noted in its contribution that " the risk of an attitude of suspiscion is not easily compatible with an democratic society and libérale" .

The Protestant federation of France wrote with Nicolas Sarkozy to denounce “the will posted of the Parliamentary commission to modify article 910 of the civil code and to a certain extent to reconsider the comprehension which the Law of 1905 of the nature of a Religious organization gives”. Its President, Jean-Arnold de Clermont, expresses his astonishment “that aiming associations at `sectarian characters' in fact pertaining to worship associations are not likely to be associations in sectarian matters which are blamed”. In an analysis of the report/ratio united with this letter, the President reproaches the commission for leaving his mission when it tackles the subject of pertaining to worship associations and not to be any competent on the matter. It reconsiders in particular two proposals of the parliamentary report:

proposal 27 suggests “restoring a capacity of opposition of the administration to the donations inter vivos or by will to the profit of pertaining to worship associations”. However, article 910 of the civil code modified by the ordinance of July 28th, 2005 lays down already this possibility of opposition.
proposal 28 aims at “authorizing the formation of this opposition, when association does not have as an aim the exercise of a worship, when the exercise of this worship is not the sole purpose of association, when the activities of those carry reached, in all or partly, with the law and order and ignore the superior interests of the child”. In fact, in such a situation, association cannot have pertaining to worship quality, in accordance with already established jurisprudence.

Lastly, as recalled by the official statement of the FPF, article 910 of the Civil code stipulates expressly that these provisions “with the profit of the foundations, the congregations and associations having the capacity to receive liberalities, except for associations or foundations whose activities or those their leaders are aimed to the article 1st law of June 12th, 2001 tending to reinforce the prevention and the repression of the sectarian movements attacking the human rights and with fundamental freedoms”. The sects thus are clearly excluded from the possibility of receiving legacies.

Criticisms

Critical of a precipitated creation

Coordination of associations of private individuals for freedom of conscience (CAPLC), which gathers the people and the groups who estimate victims of religious intolerance, expresses doubts on the appropriateness of the creation of the board of inquiry on the sects and the minors. It reproaches already the precipitation in which this commission was installation: put at the day order on June 27th, 2006, the debates and the vote took place with the hemicycle the next morning between 10:00 and 11:00. According to it, only ten deputies would have moved to take part in the discussion, of which eights were named Members of the Commission. Association quotes various administrative references confirming this answer of the Prime Minister to a question of the deputy Philippe Vuilque: Cases of the physical or psychological ill-treatment of minors in relation to the membership of parents to a movement called in sectarian matter are exceptionnels

Reaction of Jean-Arnold de Clermont

The president of the Protestant federation of France also worries about the direction followed by the new parliamentary board of inquiry, which according to him is focused against the Witnesses of Jéhovah and the Protestants evangelic. Evoking a questionnaire diffused near director of hospital, aiming by name the Witnesses of Jéhovah, the Protestant world and the Muslim world, Jean-Arnold de Clermont denounces the disorders that is likely to cause: " I find that discriminatory. We are on a very dangerous slope. A parliamentary commission as that one is likely to create disorders larger than those against which she claims to fight. " Georges Fenech and Philippe Vuilque, President and Rapporteur of the parliamentary Board of inquiry answered by this official statement: The parliamentary board of inquiry into the influence of the sects on the minors is astonished by the manifest interference of Pasteur Jean-Arnold de Clermont in the course of parliamentary works independent and decided unanimously politiques.
groups The board of inquiry points out that in the strict respect of the freedom of conscience, it is interested only in the influence of the movements in sectarian matters on physical and mental health of the mineurs.
The commission is astonished finally, that questioned by the Le Monde newspaper in its edition of October 27th, Pasteur Jean-Arnold de Clermont allots in an erroneous way to the commission a questionnaire addressed by the Regional office of Hospitalization of area PACA to the directors of hospital and who actually results from the personal initiative of Mr LESCHI, as attests of them its own declarations during its public hearing by the commission on October 17th. .

According to Jean-Pierre Brard, secretary of this new parliamentary board of inquiry, this polemic falls under the obvious result of a dispute of long time the opponent with Mr. de Clermont, the deputy showing this one to want to call into question the law of 1905, while being based on several public statements of Mister de Clermont. Mr. de Clermont pointing out as for him that, according to its sights, “there is undoubtedly a continuity between the well-known hostility of the mayor of Montreuil towards the sects, and its evangelic comprehension of the movement like sectarian. ”

Sources

List reports/ratios of the parliamentary commissions on the sects in France

Report/ratio n° 2468, board of inquiry into the sects, Alain Gest and Jacques Guyard, December 22nd, 1995.
Report/ratio n° 1687, board of inquiry into the financial position, patrimonial and tax of the sects, like on their economic activities and their relations with the economic circles and financial, Jacques Guyard and Jean-Pierre Brard, June 10th, 1999.
Report/ratio n° 3507 board of inquiry relating to the influence of the movements in sectarian matter and to the effects of their practices on the physical and mental health of the minors, Georges Fenech, Philippe Vuilque, December 12th, 2006.

video Files of hearings of 2006 of the board of inquiry

References

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