freedom of conscience

Tensions around a proposal for a new “black list” Le Parisien (13.02.2009)

An arm-wrestling has been engaged between Georges Fenech, president of Miviludes (Inter-ministerial Mission of Vigilance and Fight against Cultish Misbehaviors), and the Ministry of the Interior in charge of religious affairs.  Prime Minister François Fillon under whose authority Miviludes had been placed, will have to mediate between both parties. Last week, his office received a letter signed by Michèle Alliot-Marie (1) asking the services of François Fillon to “regulate” the action of Miviludes after in January last his president had expressed the idea to propose a new orientation in the policy of his agency.  In fact, Georges Fenech intends to go beyond the new orientation. He mainly wants to issue a new list on the pattern of the one that the parliamentary commission on cults had established in 1995 and that had put France in the dock in international fora for violating freedom of conscience. “Rather than a list, specifies Georges Fenech contacted yesterday evening on his coming back from a visit to the Beatitudes community in Haute-Garonne, I am envisaging to put in place a system of reference of the movements and practices showing cultish misbehaviors.”

Through this semantic ambiguity, he avoids the term “list” which evokes a contested conception of the fight against “cultish misbehaviors”.

“I think such a system of reference is useful for associations, for public powers and for local collectivities. According to me, we miss such a tool,” continues the president of Miviludes who feels supported by a statement made on the TV channel France 2 by François Fillon himself exactly a year ago in the heat of an argument on the cult issue.

“The Prime Minister had specified that in the framework of the fight against cultish misbehavior, the role of Miviludes was to update the data concerning the deviant movements.”

At the Ministry of the Interior, the exhumation the principle itself of the “black list” is a source of irritation. The policy of Michèle Alliot-Marie in this field is in conformity with the 2005 circular letter released by Jean-Pierre Raffarin (2) which was rejecting lists of movements likely to have cultish misbehaviors and was following another line of thought: to qualify in legal terms facts that could be viewed as criminal offences.

In her letter addressed to François Fillon, the Minister of the Interior expresses her “surprise” about the policy change of Miviludes, “without any previous inter-ministerial dialogue” and severely points at the move: infringement of freedom of conscience, weakening of France on the European and international scene, repeated condemnations of its intransigence on religious freedom issues by the annual report of the US Department of State but also by the OSCE (Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe). “The list is a source of irritation,” says a well- informed observer. The argument is back in the public debate. (3)

Translation by Human Rights Without Frontiers

footnote
(1)   Minister of the Interior
(2)   Then Prime Minister
(3)   This article shows that the criticisms voiced at the annual meeting of the OSCE/ODIHR in Warsaw by the human rights organizations and communities of faith or belief harassed by Miviludes and so-called cult-watchers have not remained unheard and unnoticed.