Abstract
In the first half of the 1990s, the world was shaken up and horrified by a series of collective suicides, homicides, and attacks perpetrated in America, Europe, and Asia at the initiative of leaders of religious movements or movements claiming to be religious.
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In 1997 the Committee on Civil Liberties and Internal Affairs appointed a rapporteur, Mrs. Maria Berger (Austria, Socialist Party), to draft theReport on cults in the European Union(11 December 1997, A4–0408/97). A majority could never be found in the European Parliament to adopt the draft report. On 14 July 1998 it was finally sent back to the committee, where it died a natural death.
Parliamentary Assembly Recommendation 1412 (1999), “Illegal activities of sects,” published in theOfficial Gazetteof the Council of Europe, assembly debate on 22 June 1999 (18th sitting) (see Doc. 8373,Report of the Committee on Legal Affairs and Human Rights, rapporteur Mr. Nastase; Doc. 8379,Opinion of Social, Health and Family Affairs Committee, rapporteur Mr. Hegyi; and Doc. 8383,Opinion of the Committee on Culture and Education, rapporteur Mr. de Puig). Text adopted by the assembly on 22 June 1999 (18th sitting).
For France: SeeRapport fait au nom de la commission d’enquête sur les sectes, Assemblée nationale, Commission d’enquête, Rapport n° 2468(Report drafted on behalf of the enquiry commission on sects, National Assembly, Enquiry Commission, Report No. 2468), 20 December 1995. For Belgium: See
Tore Lindholm, W. Cole Durham, Jr., Bahia G. Tahzib-Lie (eds.), Facilitating Freedom of Religion or Belief: A Deskbook, 595–618. 2004 Koninklijke Brill NV. Printed in the Netherlands.
In the Netherlands, the 1996 Annual Report of the Internal Security Service published in 1997 says in sec. 2(8)(3), under the heading “Religious sects”: “Because of incidents in foreign countries where religious sects were involved, it has been looked into how far these sects in The Netherlands are a serious threat. So far, it has not appeared that in The Netherlands religious movements are a serious threat for the security of the state, the democratic order or other important interests of the state.” This was only a confirmation of the stand taken by the Dutch government in 1984: “In general, new religious movements are no real threat to mental public health” (Dutch Government Report on New Religious Movements). See also for Sweden,In Good Faith: Society and the New Religious Movements (Stockholm: SOU, 1998), http://social.regeringen.se/propositionermm/sou/pdf/sou9 8_113eng.pdf.
Sekten: Wissen schutzt. Eine Information des Bundesministeriums fur Umwelt, Jug end und Familie, 1996 (Sects: Knowledge protects. Information from the Federal Ministry of the Environment, Youth, and the Family, 1996 ).
The English distinction between “sect” (a generally more neutral term) and “cult” (a more pejorative term) is reversed in French. The wordsecte is used in parliamentary documents on this issue, by the media, and in society in general in the European Francophone sphere. Scholars prefer to use the term “new religious movement” rather thansecte (or “cult” in English) because of the latter’s pejorative connotation. Political personages involved in
Sects in France, National Assembly Report No. 2648 (rapporteur Jacques Guyard).
France’s Intelligence Service, the security branch of the police force.
Academics took a position only in 1999 and proposed a group to act as a mediator between the National Assembly and the anti-sect movement.
See Conseil d’État, Association internationale pour la conscience de Krishna (Paris: Dalloz, 1982), 516–20.
Judgement of 7 July 1997, Ass. La Ritournelle, No. 97810. “Public policy” stands for the French termordre public. In recent case law from the European Union courts, the term is translated this way (cf. European court decision on the free movement of capital between countries where one of the parties was a member of the Church of Scientology). Public policy is a broader term and includes what may be considered the highest form of the public interest. It refers to the principles and standards regarded by the legislature as being of fundamental concern to the state and the whole of society. This is really the best match forordre public, which is the prevailing policy of the law in matters of public interest and the fundamental principles of French civilization. On the other hand, in English “order” is usually associated with the maintenance of law and order to allow the proper and orderly functioning of society and relates to such things as offenses against the public peace, public nuisances, and civil disturbances. Of course, maintaining law and order is also a matter of public policy, so it may not always be clear which term is the best translation in a given context, but law and order is certainly the more restrictive term of the two.
On the militancy and success of so-called anti-sect associations, see Alain Garay, Vactivisme anti-secte: de l’assistance à l’amalgame( New York: The Edwin Mellen Press, 1999 ).
Journal Officiel, 5 March 1996; Alain Garay, “La circulaire du 29 février 1996,”JCPyno. 15 (10 April 1996 ).
JournalOfficiel , 5 March 1996; Alain Garay, “La circulaire du 29 février 1996,”JCP no. 15 (10 April 1996).
“State prosecutors” and “judges” stand for the French termmagistrats, which is not the equivalent of the English term “magistrate.” In the French system,magistrat refers to representatives of the state empowered to require the administration of justice and to administer justice and have their decisions enforced; this definition includes state prosecutors as well as the members of the bench, whereas the English term “magistrate” refers strictly to judges. In French the distinction between state prosecutors and judges is conveyed by the use ofdebout andassis, i.e., the prosecutor is amagistrat debout and the judge amagistrat assis.
Union Nationale des Associations pour la Défense de la Famille et de l’Individu.
Centre Contre les Manipulations Mentales.
Decree No. 98.890 of 7 October 1998, http://www.hrwf.net/English/france01.html (visited 29 October 1999).
See Circulaire contre les sectes du Ministre de la Justice français , http://www.cesnur.org/testi/ guigou.htm (republishing the full text of the 1998 circular) (visited 29 October 1999).
See the text of the report on the Center for Studies on New Religions (CESNUR) website, http:// www.cesnur.org/testi/fr99/fr_summary.htm. For an excellent analysis of the law (as it was constituted in a similar
See the text of the report on the Center for Studies on New Religions (CESNUR) website, http:// www.cesnur.org/testi/fr99/fr_summary.htm. For an excellent analysis of the law (as it was constituted in a similar earlier draft), see Hannah Clayson Smith, “Liberté, Egalité, et Fraternité at Risk for New Religious Movements in France,”BTU Law Review (2000): 3, 1099–1151.
For the first time, a parliamentary commission has listed individuals as “notorious cultists,” although they have not been personally accused of any wrongdoing. This is a clear intrusion on their privacy.
For full English text of the law, see http://www.cesnur.org/2001/fr_law_en.htm.
SeeReligious Liberty in Western Europe: Deterioration of Religious Liberty in Europe Briefing Before the Common on Sec. and Cooperation in Europe of the United States Congress , 105th Cong. (1998) (statement of Dr. Massimo Introvigne, Managing Director, Center for Studies of New Religions); Rev. Jean- Arnold de Clermont,La Croix, 22 June 2000 (President of the French Protestant Federation);Le Figaro, 23 June 2000, editorial (quoting the French National Consultative Commission on Human Rights and religious leaders). See also Garay,L’activisme anti-secte: de l’assistance à l’amalgame, 107–29 (arguing against the legal validity of mental manipulation claims); James T. Richardson, ’“Brainwashing’ Claims and Minority Religions Outside the United States: Cultural Diffusion of a Questionable Concept in the Legal Arena,”BTU Law Review (1996): 873.
Ch. V, sec. bis (codified as Criminal Code sees. 223–15–2 and –3).
Committee on Legal Affairs and Human Rights,Illegal Activities of Sects, Council of Europe, Doc. No. 8373 (1999), http://stars.coe.fr/doc/doc99/edoc8373.htm (visited 25 July 2001).
ReligiousFreedom and Religious Minorities in France, Council of Europe Parliamentary Assembly, Doc. No. 9064 (2001), http://stars.coe.fr/doc/doc01/edoc9064.htm(visited 25 July 2001).
Mr. Duquesne (Liberal Party PRL) was then in the opposition. After the June 1999 parliamentary elections, he was appointed Minister of the Interior. The sect issue partly falls under his responsibility.
The official title of the report is Enquête parlementaire visant à élaborer une politique en vue de lutter contre les pratiques illégales des sectes et le danger qu’elles représentent pour la société et pour les personnes, particulièrement les mineurs d’âge. Rapport fait au nom de la Commission d’enquête par MM Duquesne et Willems (Parliamentary enquiry commission aiming at working out a policy in order to fight against the illegal practices of sects and the danger that they pose to society, persons and particularly to minors. Report drafted on behalf of the enquiry commission by Mssrs. Duquesne and Willems).
The strongest opposition to the report came from the Christian Democratic parties CVP and PSC. See Alain Lallemand, “Sectes: Va-t-on réactiver la ‘cellule Bulthé’?” (Sects: Will the ‘Bulthé cell’ be revived?),Le Soir, 6 May 1997, 23. In a letter dated 21 May 1997 and addressed to the Anthroposophic Society, Dr. Jan Van Erps, a CVP member of the House of Representatives, wrote: “I have read your letter about the Sect Report very carefully. The Commission has indeed been very negligent and biased in its work. That is why I and a substantial majority of my colleagues at the CVP have refused to adopt the report of activities, have rejected the famous list and have only adopted the general lines of the recommendations.…As you certainly know, the report was not even put to a vote.”
The proposed law was presented by Mr. Antoine Duquesne on 22 September 1997 under the nameProposition de loi créant un Observatoire fédéral des sectes (Proposed law for the creation of a federal observatory on sects).
According to that royal decree, published in theMoniteur Belge on 9 December 1998, the Administrative Coordination Agency is composed of fourteen members: a representative of the College of Public Prosecutors, a magistrate and representatives of the Gendarmerie, the Criminal Investigation Department, the police of the Ministry of the Interior, the State Security, the Ministry of Public Service, the General Directorate of the Ministry of Justice for Civil Legislation and Religions, the General Directorate of the Ministry of Justice for Criminal Legislation and Human Rights, the Criminal Police Service of the Ministry of Justice, the Ministry of Interior, the Ministry of Finances, the Ministry of Employment. Fourteen deputy representatives were also appointed. Both categories of representatives were nominated by their respective ministers and appointed by the Minister of Justice.
Publication in theMoniteur Belge on 30 May 2000.
The first report of the Information and Advice Center on Harmful Sectarian Organizations is expected in the first half of 2001. The Administrative Coordination Agency meets at least once every two months and reports to the Center every six months. The meetings are chaired by the Minister of Justice or his representative.
Swiss National Council, winter session, 1988, question 88.1068.
The first report of the Information and Advice Center on Harmful Sectarian Organizations is expected in the first half of 2001. The Administrative Coordination Agency meets at least once every two months and reports to the Center every six months. The meetings are chaired by the Minister of Justice or his representative.
Swiss National Council, winter session, 1988, question 88.1068.
Sudafrikanisch-Deutsche Kulturvereinigung (SADK) report, June 1989.
Answer to question 88.1068 released on 6 March 1989.
Sects or indoctrinating movements in Switzerland. Necessity for State action or towards a Federal ‘sect’ policy,“ response of the Federal Council to theReport of the Administration Commission of the National Council, June 2000
On 19 September 1998, Basel passed a piece of legislation banning “deceitful proselytism” from the streets.
L’Etat face aux dérives sectaires, Colloque de la Faculté de Droit de l’Université de Genève, 25 November 1999.
Genève a raté son projet de loi contre les sectes“ (Geneva misses out on its anti-sect bill),Le Courrier de Genève, 20 November 1999.
Audit sur les dérives sectaires, report from the Geneva expert group to the Department of Justice, Geneva, February 1997.
Audit sur les dérives sectaires, report from the Geneva expert group to the Department of Justice, Geneva, February 1997.
Charles Poncet, “’Pour une liberté des sectes’ vs Gérard Ramseyer ‘Et les enfants morts du Temple Solaire?’”Le Temps, 3 November 2001.
Université de Lausanne, “Observatoire des religions en Suisse,”Bulletin I, October 2000.
“La vie religieuse sera mise sous observation à l’université” (Religious life to be brought under observation at universities, an interview with the historian Jean-François Mayer),Le Courrier ; 10 December 1999.
Verein “Scientology Kirche Basel” v. Regierungsrat des Kantons Basel-Stadt und Grosser Rat des Kantons Basel-Stadt (Swiss Federal Tribunal, 30 June 1999).
For a critique of the French report, see Massimo Introvigne and J. Gordon Melton, eds.,Pour en finir avec les sectes. Le débat sur le rapport de commissions parlementaires (Paris: Cesnur-Di Giovanni, 1996). See also Françoise Champion and Martine Cohen, eds.,Sectes et démocratie (Paris: Seuil, 1993). For a detailed analysis of the failings of the Gest-Guyard report, see Jean Baubérot, “Le rapport de la commission parlementaire sur les sectes: entre neutralité et dangerosité sociale” in Introvigne and Melton,Pour en finir avec les sectes, 63–72.
See, e.g.,Illegal Activities of Sects, Eur. Consult. Ass., Doc. No. 8373 (1999), sec. 11(C)(5), http:// stars.coe.fr/doc/doc99/edoc8373.htm (noting the danger of “the temptation to lump harmless and dangerous groupings together,” which “would be manifestly... disproportionate in the context of freedom of belief.”) (visited 25 July 2001);Illegal Activities of Sects, Eur. Consult. Ass., Doc. No. 8373 (1999), sec. 11(C)(1), 6–14 (criticizing the tendency of state authorities to make distinctions between sects and religions). In Belgium, the opposition to the list mainly came from the movements listed therein, but also from the Christian Democrat parties CVP and PSC, which were in power at that time. See Alain Lallemand, “Sectes: Va-t-on réactiver la ‘cellule Bulthé’?” (Sects: Will the ‘Bulthé cell’ be revived?),Le Soir, 6 May 1997, 23.
Johan Goethals,De sektencommissie. Het verhaal van een expert(The sect commission. The story of an expert) (Leuven: Uitgeverij van Halewijck, 1998 ), 161.
In France, prisoners were denied the reception of magazines published by Jehovah’s Witnesses. In a letter dated 15 November 1999 to Mr. René Schneerberger, a JW minister, the director of the Bapaume prison, D. Laurent, stated that he had decided to have the magazine delivery suspended “because of the sectarian character of the congregation, recognized by the parliamentary commission.” See Alain Garay, “Discrimination and Violations of Freedom of Conscience of Prisoners in France,” inReligion-Staat- Gesellschaft, Journal for the Study of Beliefs and Worldviews , ed. Gerhard Besier and Hubert Seiwert (Berlin: Duncker and Humblot, 2000), Heft 2.
Johan Goethals,De sektencommissie. Het verhaal van een expert(The sect commission. The story of an expert) (Leuven: Uitgeverij van Halewijck, 1998 ), 161.
In France, prisoners were denied the reception of magazines published by Jehovah’s Witnesses. In a letter dated 15 November 1999 to Mr. René Schneerberger, a JW minister, the director of the Bapaume prison, D. Laurent, stated that he had decided to have the magazine delivery suspended “because of the sectarian character of the congregation, recognized by the parliamentary commission.” See Alain Garay, “Discrimination and Violations of Freedom of Conscience of Prisoners in France,” inReligion-Staat- Gesellschaft, Journal for the Study of Beliefs and Worldviews , ed. Gerhard Besier and Hubert Seiwert (Berlin: Duncker and Humblot, 2000), Heft 2.
It was reported that “Some Belgian municipalities have made it a requirement for candidates for positions as civil servants to swear an oath that they do not belong to a ‘harmful sectarian organization’” (Louis-Leon Christians, “Liberté d’opinion en droit européen: observations belges [II]—Les limitations,”Conscience et Liberté 58 [1999]: 10 n. 1.).
In March 1999, the French Community of Belgium (one of the federated entities of the Belgian state) launched a campaign against “sects.” This consisted of fliers, radio and TV spots warning people against sects and gurus and promoting the thirty-eight-page, richly illustrated brochureGourou gare à toi ! (Guru, you’d better watch out!), and directing people to anti-sect groups. About thirty religious movements from the synoptic table of 189 groups listed in the Belgian Parliamentary Commission’s Report were targeted as dangerous sects. This campaign was unanimously supported by the Francophone media. The brochure was and is still widely used in schools. Several belief groups complain that they and their members were and are still victimized because of that campaign, especially children in schools. On 24 April 1999, the Court of First Instance at Brussels ordered, in an emergency procedure, the French Community of Belgium to stop distributing the sixty thousand copies of its brochure. The temporary injunction had been entered on a complaint filed several weeks before by the Anthroposophic Society. On appeal the French Community was allowed to resume the distribution of the brochure, but they had run out of it.
Wrongly “denounced” as Scientologist, a high-ranking official of the Geneva Department of Public Education, Mrs. Perrin, was heavily targeted by the press. Although this case is not isolated to Switzerland, it is an excellent example of the collateral damages caused by the anti-sect war.
Brussels judge Damien Vandermeersch was accused of being a member of the Opus Dei, listed in the Belgian parliamentary report. See his denial in Frédéric Delepierre, “Je ne suis pas membre de l’Opus Dei,”Le Soir, 31 October 1998.
Since 1998, Baptist pastor Louis Demeo, who is also the director of the Institut Théologique de Nîmes (ITN), has been accused in the media of being a guru. See “L’ITN, une inquiétante organisation tentaculaire” (The ITN, a disturbing tentacular organization),Le Midi Libre, 28 October 1998.
In October 1998, the principal of a school in Chomerac (Ardèche, France) came under fire because he was a member of the Mandarom, a blacklisted sect. The rumor of sect involvement was sufficient for a number of parents to
Unpublished material collected during interviews with members of the Raelian religion by Human Rights Without Frontiers in 1999.
Unpublished material collected during interviews with members of Sahaja Yoga by Human Rights Without Frontiers in 1999.
In 1999, the Surveillance and Research Brigade visited parents of former students of the only Steiner School in French-speaking Belgium (in the Flemish-speaking part there are about fifteen, all financed by the Flemish parliament), collecting statements and value judgements about the school. The Steiner
See law of 2 June 1998, art. 6, sec. 3: “For the tasks mentioned in sec. 1 pts. 1 and 3 the Center is empowered to deal with data of a personal nature relating to opinions and religious and philosophical activities as mentioned in article 6 of the law of 8 December 1992 for the protection of privacy in relation to the treatment of personal data. The King determines, by order, which is deliberated in the Council of Ministers, the guarantees concerning confidentiality and security of personal data, the status and duties of an appointee for the protection of data within the Center and the way in which the Center must report to the Commission for the protection of privacy concerning processing of personal data.
On 22 February 2001, the president of Sahaja Yoga, Mr. Bernard Cuvelier, sent a protest letter to the director of the center in which he complained that only negative reports on his movements had been sent on 5 January 2001 and 12 February 2001 to people who had asked the center for information about Sahaja Yoga.
See law of 2 June 1998, art. 6, sec. 4: “The information which the Center supplies at the request of the public is based on the information which the Center has available and may not be presented in the form of lists or systematic statements about harmful sectarian organizations.”
Illegal Activities of Sects, Eur. Consult. Ass., Doc. No. 8373 (1999), sec. 1(5), http://stars.coe.fr/ doc/doc99/edoc8373.htm (visited 25 July 2001).
See the strange alliance between Alain Vivien and the Cypriot Orthodox Church in their fight against “sects,” http://www.hrwf.net/france99e.html.
See theProposal for a recommendation, Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe, 2 May 1997, Doc. 7826, http://stars.coe.fr/doc/doc97/edoc7826.htm.
IllegalActivities of Sects, Eur. Consult. Ass., Doc. No. 8373 (1999), sec. 1(5), http://stars.coe.fr/ doc/doc99/edoc8373.htm (visited 25 July 2001).
Illegal Activities of Sects, Eur. Consult. Ass., Doc. No. 8373 (1999), sec. 1(5), http://stars.coe.fr/ doc/doc99/edoc8373.htm (visited 25 July 2001).
On the need for an intermediate authority providing a forum for debate and dialogue, see Alain Garay, “La liberté religieuse en Europe—restriction et protection,”Conscience et Liberté, no. 59 (2000): 81–99.
In Belgium, the tax department denied the group Sukhyo Mahikari an exemption from property taxes on its place of worship on the grounds that it is on the so-called list of sects. This group is officially registered as a religious association in Spain (unpublished material collected during an interview of the leader of Sukyo Mahikari by Human Rights Without Frontiers in 2001).
The Sect Issue in the European Francophone Sphere ♦ 5
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Fautré, W., Garay, A., Nidegger, Y. (2004). The Sect Issue in the European Francophone Sphere. In: Lindholm, T., Durham, W.C., Tahzib-Lie, B.G., Sewell, E.A., Larsen, L. (eds) Facilitating Freedom of Religion or Belief: A Deskbook. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-017-5616-7_26
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