Home
Contact
Us
Calendar
 |
   |
   |
|
| ALERT | DC ALERT | BELGIUM ALERT | Dear Religious Freedom Advocate, Your assistance is requested in helping to handle a dangerous situation which has arisen in France. On December 16, the French Senate, the upper house of the French legislative system, voted on a law proposal from Senator Nicolas which provides a means to dissolve groups which "cause trouble to public order". The bill is not yet law but has passed its first major legislative hurdle. The bill is directed at minority religions and has been worded to make it possible in certain circumstances to close them down. It is entitled "Law proposal to reinforce the penal measures against associations or groups which, through their illegal acts, constitute a trouble to public order or a major threat to the human being or the security of the State." The bill originally stated "groups with a sectarian character" but these words were removed. In theory, therefore, the bill could apply to any group, though its real intent to target "sects" was clear during the debate in the Senate. As an indication of the calibre of this debate, the vice-president of the Law Commission, Dinah Derycke, openly welcomed the presence in the visitors' gallery of the anti-religious groups, ADFI and CCMM, and attacked the U.S. State Department for accusing France of religious discrimination. The danger of this bill is that it does not provide definition of "public order" and "major threat to the human being." Given the allegations raised against minority religions ("sects") in France, this bill is tailor-made as a tool to try to shut down their activities. It gives power to the President of the Republic to issue, after discussion with his Cabinet, a decree of dissolution against any group which: A) has been condemned, as a group, by a court of law twice; B) whose leaders have been condemned by a court of law twice for certain types of offenses and constitute a threat to public order or a major threat to human beings. The court decisions must be final and not under appeal. The bill also makes it a penal offense for a corporation to engage in medical or pharmaceutical practice. The penalties would be increased for a group which is dissolved and then reopens again (eg, if it restarts the same activity under another name). It would then be punished by 300.000 FFR fine and 3 years of jail (instead of 30.000 FFR and 1 year). The bill's provisions are amendments to the existing law on "combat groups and private militias" which dates back to 1936 and was aimed at fighting fascist leagues. This was during a time of considerable unheaval in France, when communists and fascists had rioted in the streets. The law was amended a few years ago to cover terrorists, and is now being further amended to target minority religions. Now that this law proposal has been approved at Senate level, it will go to the National Assembly (the lower house). There is no date set for its introduction by the National Assembly. If the law is modified by the Assembly, it will need to go back to the Senate. The process will take a few months, assuming that it passes the National Assembly. A preliminary analysis of the proposal was done by a jurist in France and is attached to this message. In the meantime, here are suggestions of what to do. 1. Immediately send a letter or e-mail to any and all of the addresses below. 2. Forward this e-mail to as many of your allies as possible on the situation. Alert allies in human rights,historians of religions, interfaith groups, etc. Ask them to also send a letter of complaint right away to the addresses below. 3. Please send a copy of your letter/e-mail to me or to the Foundation for Religious Freedom who will start posting them there. (http://forf.org) 4. We will be setting up a location at www.forf.org to give you updates on this situation, and I am sure other religious freedom groups will be doing the same. 5. Please give us any other feedback that we can post on our site to let people know what actions they can take. Here are the addresses: Le ministre de l'Interieur Monsieur
Jean-Pierre Chevenement Place Beauvau 75 800 PARIS Cedex 08 FRANCE Le Premier ministre The Honorable Lionel Jospin 57, rue de Varenne 75007 Paris FRANCE (fax #: E-Mail address: premier-ministre@premier-ministre.gouv.fr Ministere de la Justice 13 place Vendome 75042 PARIS CEDEX 01 (fax #: E-Mail address: U.N. Special Rapporteur on Religious Intolerance Palais des Nations 8-14 Avenue de la Paix CH 1211 Geneva 10 Switzerland (fax #: E-Mail address: webadmin.hchr@unog.ch Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights Aleje Ujazdowskie 19 PL-00 557 Warsaw POLAND (fax #: E-Mail address: office@odihr.osce.waw.pl ADDITIONAL INFORMATION: Here is the French's jurist's analysis of the bill. "Re: FRENCH SENATE BILL AGAINST RELIGIOUS MINORITIES The Law of 10 January 1936 provides for the dissolution of associations and de facto groups, in particular private militia groups, by a decree from the President of the Republic in a meeting of the Cabinet. The purpose of the bill presented by the Senate Law Committee is as follows: (a) to amend the aforesaid Law of 10 January 1936 in order to include the dissolution of any group (i) which has been criminally convicted on more than one occasion or whose directors and/or officers have been so convicted and (ii) which violates public policy or is a major threat to individuals; (The convictions referred to in (a) above entered against any such group which may give rise to the dissolution thereof include, but are not limited to, homicide and unintentional injuries, undue influence, fraud, illegal practice of medicine, tax evasion and breach of the Labor Code or the Social Security Code.) (b) to increase the penalty incurred in the event of an association being maintained, revived or recreated after it has been dissolved on the grounds of the unlawfulness of its object; (c) to add a new infraction to allow legal entities to be prosecuted on the basis of their criminal liability for instances of illegal practice of medicine or pharmacology. The dissolution referred to in (a) above is ordered by decree of the President of the Republic issued in a meeting of the Cabinet presided over by the President. The decree ordering the dissolution of an association or a de facto group is subject to appeal before the Conseil d'Etat (i.e. an application for judicial review). The Rapporteur for the Senate Law Committee considers that: - the passage of the bill will act as an incentive to prosecute cult-related groups rather than their directors and/or officers and will allow emergency situations to be dealt with without interfering with freedom of belief and freedom of association; - the bill is based on the principle that all beliefs are worthy of respect on the condition that such beliefs are practiced in compliance with the law. The fact that reference is made to the convictions entered against any such group rather than to activities of mental manipulation - a concept difficult to define - will preclude the risk of arbitrary enforcement of the law; - the fact that a group or its directors and/or officers have been convicted on more than one occasion (i.e. at least twice) for any of the acts enumerated earlier can justify the dissolution of said group by decree, provided that such group violates public policy or is a major threat to individuals. Assuming that this bill is passed by the Senate and the National Assembly and is enacted, we would then be faced with two questions: - how should the terms "association or de facto group" as provided in the 1936 law, as amended, be interpreted? - In criminal matters the law is not retroactive. However, the dissolution by presidential decree is not a criminal matter but rather an administrative sanction. The question, then, is whether in administrative matters the principle of non-retroactivity applies in the same way as in criminal matters. In any case, this bill is extremely dangerous for the freedom to practice religion in France." | ALERT | DC ALERT | BELGIUM ALERT | |
||||||||||||||||
|
||||||
|
|
|||||
| Copyright © 1999 Send questions/comments about this site
to David
Hinkley, WebMaster@forf.org, member of the
|
||||||
|
|
||||||
![[ Interfaith Webring ]](/images/iring.jpg)
![[ Interfaith Webring ]](/images/next.jpg)