OSCE Human Dimension Freedom of religion or belief 7th October 2008

On 19 September 2008, Prime Minister Fillon appointed Mr. Georges Fenech, former Magistrate and Member of Parliament, as Chairman of MIVILUDES (the Inter-Ministerial Mission of Vigilance to Fight against Sectarian Drifts). MIVILUDES was formed on 28 November 2002 by the Prime Minister. MIVILUDES is an inter-ministerial government entity tasked to collect data on religious movements and inform the public about the « risks of sectarian deviances ». MIVILUDES is composed of a President, a Secretary General with a task force of twelve Officials assigned from government ministries, an Executive Committee composed of 18 government officials from nine ministries, and an Advisory Council composed of eight members of Parliament, eight associations, and 14 experts.

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OSCE Human Dimension Freedom of religion or belief 7th October 2008

OSCE Human Dimension Freedom of religion or belief 29th September 2009

With a whiff of Committee of Public Salvation which used to organise State repression in the name of « public salvation » and « general safety » during the troubled times of the French Revolution, the Intenninisterial Mission of Watch and fight against Sectarian Deviations, headed by its new President Georges Fenech, organises the repression of groups it considers as « deviating » in the name of public interest.

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OSCE Human Dimension Freedom of religion or belief 29th September 2009

OSCE Human Dimension Freedom of religion or belief 8th October 2010

Created over ten years ago to fight against discrimination of religious or belief minorities in France, the Coordination of Associations and Individuals for Freedom of Conscience which I am representing wants to express its strongest disapproval concerning the statement made on 26 November 2009 by the French Secretary of State for Justice, Jean-Marie Bockel, about minorities of religion or belief derogatorily labelled as “sectarian”.

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OSCE Human Dimension Freedom of religion or belief 8th October 2010

OSCE Human Dimension Freedom of religion or belief 27th September 2011

At an anti-sect conference held in London on 17 April 2010, Mr. Fenech, MIVILUDES’ President, declared he had been heard by the Belgian Parliament and promoted a draft bill equivalent to the French About-Picard law.

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OSCE Human Dimension Freedom of religion or belief 27th September 2011

OSCE Human Dimension Freedom of religion or belief 1st October 2012

Under the cover of fighting “sects” minority faiths are widely discredited in the media and often their right to answer is simply scoffed. The word “sect” has already proved discriminatory in History; it has no legal definition and is charged with a strong emotional connotation. It enabled, in other times, to discredit Jews, Protestants, Freemasons, and even the Salvation Army.

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OSCE Human Dimension Freedom of religion or belief 1st October 2012

OSCE Human Dimension Freedom of religion or belief 24th September 2012

Concerned by recurrent infringements of the right to religious freedom enshrined in various international human rights instruments, CAP provides the following Report regarding the French policy on minorities of religion or belief and in particular on the children of their followers.

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OSCE Human Dimension Freedom of religion or belief 24th September 2012

OSCE Human Dimension Freedom of religion or belief 23rd September 2013

For years, France has had a policy of stigmatization and negative stereotyping of minorities of religion or belief it has labeled as “sects” or, more recently as “sectarian movements”. This derogatory classification corresponds to the improper assessment of religion or beliefs and the consideration that some of them, new or minority ones not belonging to traditional Churches or Institutions, are “deviant” and constitute “sectarian

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OSCE Human Dimension Freedom of religion or belief 23rd September 2013

OSCE Human Dimension Freedom of religion or belief 1st October 2014

In furtherance of this policy, the Inter-ministerial Mission of Vigilance and Fight against Sectarian Drifts (MIVILUDES), placed directly under the Prime Minister in France, has pushed through a whole series of measures, in particular it has compiled “sect” files, a repository of records (“référentiel”) established entirely on one-sided accusations and allegations against so-called “sectarian” movements (denunciations, “signalements”, on these groups sent to MIVILUDES). When he announced the creation of these files in May 2009, the President of MIVILUDES explained that they concerned approximately 600 movements characterized as « sectarian » and that they were established, according to his statements to the media, on the sole basis of denouncements or informal complaints against minority belief movements.

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OSCE Human Dimension Freedom of religion or belief 1st October 2014

OSCE Human Dimension Freedom of religion or belief 21st September 2015

Belgium is one country that interferes with the right to freedom of belief. The Belgian state has accomplished this by allowing the suppression of the right to freedom of belief by its intelligence service, Belgian State Security, which conducts activities fueling hatred and intolerance towards members of minority groups derogatorily designated as “sects”.

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OSCE Human Dimension Freedom of religion or belief 21st September 2015

OSCE Human Dimension Freedom of religion or belief 27th September 2016

However, the department of French PM fully finances (100%) an association called FECRIS (European Federation of Research and Information Centers on Sectarianism), which is recognized by the Council of Europe and the UN as a NGO and the objective of which is, according to its bylaws, to identify « as a sect/cult or a guru the organization or the individual which misuses beliefs and behavioral techniques for his own benefit ».

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OSCE Human Dimension Freedom of religion or belief 27th September 2016

OSCE Human Dimension Freedom of religion or belief 29th September 2016

Since 2009, the Inter-ministerial Mission of Vigilance and Fight against Sectarian Deviances (MIVILUDES) holds a repository of records on hundreds of movements it characterized as « sectarian » on the sole basis of denouncements or complaints against minority belief movements. These records are provided by MIVILUDES to Judges, Prosecutors, personnel dealing with Youth and Family matters, Ministries and other officials.

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OSCE Human Dimension Freedom of religion or belief 29th September 2016

OSCE Human Dimension Freedom of religion or belief Wien 22th June 2017

Members of FECRIS and of its Russian branch, the Saint Ireneus of Lyons Centre for Religious Studies, have been waging for years a campaign against non-Orthodox minorities in order to eradicate them from the Russian territory.

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OSCE Human Dimension Freedom of religion or belief Wien 22th June 2017

OSCE Human Dimension Freedom of religion or belief 13th September 2018

In 2011, the new Religion Law de-registered all but 14 of the more than 350 previously-registered religious groups. Apart from the recognized Churches listed in the Appendix to the 2011 Church Act, all other religious communities previously registered as Churches lost their status as Churches but could continue their activities as associations. If intending to continue as Churches, religious communitie were required to apply to Parliament for individual recognition as such.

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OSCE Human Dimension Freedom of religion or belief 13th September 2018

OSCE Human Dimension Freedom of religion or belief 23th September 2019

During the last OSCE sessions on Freedom of Religion or Belief, we exposed the harmful activities of FECRIS (the European Federation of Centres of Research and Information on Cults and Sects) in Russia and its integral financing by the French Government.

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OSCE Human Dimension Freedom of religion or belief 23th September 2019

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