freedom of conscience

One more case of misuse of the parliamentary report on cults and discrimination in total impunity

Human Rights Without Frontiers urges France’s Minister of Justice and Minister of the Interior to send a circular letter to the institutions under their authority forbidding the use of the parliamentary black list of so-called cults to deny the full enjoyment of their human rights to such groups and their members and providing administrative sanctions in case of violation of this injunction.

HRWF (29.03.2010) - The mayor of Boulogne-sur-Mer, Frédéric Cuvellier, has forbidden a conference on the subject of reincarnation, due to be held on 20 March in the city.

The conference was to be organised by a group called “le Mouvement du Graal” (Graal Movement), that has existed since 1929. The mayor said the movement was classified as a cult in the 1995 French parliamentary report which has been disparaged abroad but also in France. Daniel Bourdon, the organizer of the event, discredited the report, saying it “associates all spiritual movements with sects”. The anti-cult movement ADFI of Nord-Pas-de-Calais is supporting the mayor’s ban.

Mayor Frediric Cuvillier is taking a legal risk by prohibiting the conference, as he can only do so in the interest of safety, public peace or public good.

Despite several court decisions and a statement of former Prime Minister Jean-Pierre Raffarin saying a parliamentary report has no legal value, a number of non-state actors and mayors persist in banning meetings of small religious, esoteric and spiritual groups on the basis of the parliamentary black list of so-called 172 cults.

Source : HRWF