Your Commission is thus firmly convinced, on the one hand, of the impossibility, so much legal that in fact, to go in the direction of a specific legislation intended to fight against the intrigues of the sects insomuch as they can be considered as dangerous, in addition to the risks that comprise the inaction found in a conception in which freedom of conscience is pushed to the extreme. It appears to the Commission consequently that the only response adapted to the sectarian phenomenon cannot be, for reasons at the same time of principle and feasibility, that pragmatic and diversified, in order to take into account as best possible a complex reality.
Several interlocutors of the Commission explained that they carry out, some for many years, on the ready means to fight against the dangers which certain sects pose to individuals and society. All, including those who absolutely would be in favour of a specific anti-sect legislation but are appropriate that such cannot be the solution, adopt a comparable step, based on realism and pragmatism, even if they do not necessarily give priority to the same measures, which only reflects the diversity of the horizons from which they come.
Such an approach leads your Commission today to consider that the device likely to fight with effectiveness against the dangers which the sects pose to individuals and society must be articulated around three principal axes [plural of "axis," not the chopping kind]: improvement of knowledge of sects and the diffusion of this knowledge; a more strict application of existing laws; reinforcement on some points of the existing legislation. In addition, it is advisable to help the former followers in a more effective way, who are sometimes completely stripped materially and psychologically and to whom is currently offered no form of assistance corresponding to their needs.
1.- Better to know and make known
To fight the sectarian "drifts" in an effective and equitable way, one must, above all, have a good knowledge of the phenomenon. Without encompassing it well, one is likely, indeed, to poorly appreciate the dangers which it can present and, thus, to implement an inadequate cure.
Still it is also necessary that information thus collected is the subject of an appropriate diffusion, based on a policy of prevention which remains, your Commission is convinced by it, the best means to fight against the development of the sectarian phenomenon. This action of dissemination of information regarding the sectarian movements and their practices must be taken to nearly all of the administrative services concerned and to the general public, in particular to the young people.
a) To better know
One is forced to recognize that one does not today have a sufficiently precise knowledge of the sectarian phenomenon.
Thus it was seen, for example, at which point it was difficult to measure his quantitative importance - that it is in a number of followers or groupings - or to appreciate in a precise way its progression.
It appears to your Commission that it would be convenient to fill this gap by creating an observatory of study of the sects, which will be fully able to play its role only if at the same time the device of information and analysis existing within each ministry is improved.
1. To create an interdepartmental observatory attached to the Prime Minister
There exists today in France no structure equipped with sufficient means to follow with precision the whole of the cult phenomenon.
Admittedly, the Ministry of the Interior, thanks to forty agents of General Information distributed in all the territory, collects rich information on the establishment of sects, their manpower and their intrigues. But there can be no question that the information is only partial [incomplete]. The services of the police do not indeed have the means nor is it part of their missions to be devoted to an analysis of the sociological, psychological, medical, and legal aspects of the phenomenon.
The Institute of the High Interior Safety Studies (IHESI), in addition, created in 1992, a working group on the sects. However, this group does not have an official existence. Moreover, it does not have sufficient means to ensure a total follow-up of cult activities.
A mission of study was also installed within the Ministry for the Social Affairs. Since 1992, an agent of the Management of Social Action is charged to follow, among other questions, that of the sects. In addition, the ministry passed in 1993 with Association for Interdisciplinary Research on Existence and Health (ARIES) a convention of research. This one provides that in 1996 ARIES will submit to the ministry a report of study on the sects. That being, this device also very limited in terms of means.
One could not, finally, neglect the significant role played by associations for defense of victims of cults - National Union of Associations for Defense of Families and Individual (UNADFI) and the Center of Resources, Education, and Action Against Mental Manipulation (CCMM) - in the collection and publication of information on cultic movements.
In relation to the progression of the sectarian phenomenon and the dangers which certain movements present, an organization of study equipped with a separate administrative and legal existence as well as of specific means thus appears necessary.
Moreover, such a structure is claimed for a long time.
Already, in 1982, the Ravail report had suggested the creation of an interdepartmental commission. In 1983, in his report to the Prime Minister, Mr. Alain Vivien suggested "that a high-ranking civil servant be appointed near the Prime Minister to follow the whole of the problem of the sects, to coordinate the reflection and, if necessary, mobilizing the interested government departments...With the initiative of this high-ranking civil servant, the interdepartmental commission suggested by the Ravail report could meet each time that one would need it without necessarily secreting an excessive administration whose rigidity would undoubtedly present many disadvantages."
The advisory national Commission of Human Rights, in its opinion of December 10, 1993 concerning the phenomenon known as sects, proposed "that is installation of a structure of interdepartmental coordination intended periodically to give a progress report on the evolution of the phenomenon known as sects and to coordinate the application of relevant legislative and lawful measures; and that is created a public information center on these groups, collecting and disseminating all information and ensuring legal assistance to the victims."
This idea, moreover, was defended within the framework of the Commission for Legal Questions and Human Rights of the Council of Europe. Thus, Sir John Hunt, in his report of 1991 on sects and new religious movements, affirmed that "independent organizations should be created to collect and disseminate concrete and objective information on the nature and the activities of cults."
PIn addition, many people heard by the board of inquiry suggested the creation of an interdepartmental observatory.
This organization should ensure three principal missions:
- to study and follow the phenomenon, in connection in particular with the administrative services concerned (Ministries for the Interior, Social Affairs, Justice, Finances, National Education, Foreign Affairs...), in a multi-field approach, sociological, economic, administrative as well as legal and medical.
- to inform the Prime Minister and, with his authorization, the administrative services concerned, of the resultsof its observations and its studies, the current problems in particular.
- to make proposals to the Prime Minister aiming at improving the means of fighting against the dangers of sects, which could be the subject of an annual report which would be made public.
This organization should be equipped with a statute which enables it to fulfill its missions as well as possible. Without entering in detail, it appears desirable that it shows the principal following characteristics:
to be an interdepartmental service directly attached to the Prime Minister, as are, for example, the Commission on the Simplification of Formalities (COSIFORM), the College for the Prevention of Technological Risks, and the Central Committee of Investigation on the Cost and Output of Public Services. Joining with a particular ministry would indeed not have a justification, [sects] being a phenomenon which touches with attributions of several.
to be an observatory, because it would act, neither to take up a duty of management or execution as a traditional administrative service, nor to have a proper capacity of decision.
to be composed of people likely, by their diversified competencies, to ensure the necessary multi-field approach to the phenomenon. The members of this authority, named by the Prime Minister, should thus include, in addition to representatives of all the administrative services concerned, specialists in various disciplines, sociologists, lawyers, and doctors in particular. It would perhaps be preferable, in order to guarantee to these members a perfect independence and to protect them from any risk from pressure, that their name is not made public.
to have proper means. To achieve its missions, the observatory should have specific financial resources, even if there would undoubtedly be an interest to retain, initially, the idea of a light structure equipped with the legal means adapted to the achievement of its mission. It would thus be necessary to give it the capacity to obtain from any person communication of a document, subject to professional secrecy, secrecy concerning national defense, the safety of the State or the foreign policy, and of the respect of the private life.
Taking into account the importance of the work already completed within the group made up at the Institute of the High Interior Safety Studies, it would be undoubtedly a good method to use, within the framework of the new observatory such as defined above, competence which now proved reliable on the subject.
2. To improve in each ministry concerned the device of study of the cults
The knowledge of the cultic movements by the ministries concerned incontestably progressed much in recent years.
The installation by the Central Management of General Information of a grid of agents - the "cult correspondents" - charged with locally following the phenomenon, the realization of a guide to sectarian movements in 1994 and its current project of a bank of data interns attest to this. The mission of study created at the Management of Social Action in 1992 also equally testifies to this.
However, the devices could still be improved. Thus, the minutes of the interdepartmental meeting on April 9, 1991 specify that "the services are sometimes ignorant of the cultic nature of certain associations." Thus, there is apparently no one particularly charged to follow the problem of sects in the ministries for National Education, of Justice, nor of Foreign Affairs.
Under these conditions, it would be useful if each ministry concerned engages in a reflection on the means of improving its knowledge of sects and how to better face the problems which they raise.
It would also be opportune if, in each one of them, a designated person is charged to follow these questions, with the requirement that he work in liaison with the interdepartmental observatory whose creation was recommended above, in order to prevent, as is sometimes the case today, two services duplicating the same work.
Lastly, it would be desirable if the interested ministers, by way of a circular or an instruction, draw the attention of their services to the problems arising from sects and indicate to them the principles which must guide their actions in answering [these problems].
B) To better make known
The majority of the people heard by the Commission agreed on at least one point. Prevention is certainly the mode of action which must be favored in the fight against the development of sects. Information, in particular to the young people, thus seems to be an essential link of the devices to be implemented.
Admittedly, the media and associations for defense of victims already take certain actions in this direction.
Thus, in addition to the publications which they issue, UNADFI and CCMM regularly organize conferences or briefings in various establishments such as schools, colleges, clubs, and hospitals. CCMM in 1993 even produced, with the assistance of the association "I, You, Him/Her," a half-hour long film entitled "The Sects... Traps!" presenting four scenes from everyday life in which a recruitment could take place. UNADFI plans soon to release a short film on the subject, intended to be used as support for the meetings which it organizes.
However, the interventions of these associations are, by nature, specific and localized. In addition, their message can always be suspected of being biased. A member of one of these associations declared besides to the Commission: "associations do not always have the means of investigation. I do not say that they are suspect and sectarian, but they lack the means, sometimes of distance. It is not the ideal. One cannot replace the prosecutors, to play the inquisitors. We receive descriptions; it takes us sometimes six months or a year to [recouper? gather? edit? literally: recut] information. It is extremely complicated."
The media, for their part, were much interested in the question of cults during recent years, in particular following the drama of Waco in Texas in April 1993, the death of 58 members of the Solar Temple in Switzerland in October 1994, and the attack perpetrated by the Aum sect in Tokyo last March. The problem is that this information is intermittent and is focused mainly on the folkloric or sensational aspects. As a specialist recognized in the question by the Commission declared: "[journalists ] love the sensational. We maintain with them the best rapport in the world, but I am extremely disappointed. Each time thirty people are killed, I pass to television and then that falls down until the next time. When I am informed of a measure, I say to myself: "I will have five TV [shows] to make, plus three radio [shows], more..." Then, that falls down for six months or a year (...)."
It is thus appropriate that the State itself largely takes charge of the diffusion of information on the dangers which the sects can present, to the largest possible audience by a media campaign, and in a way "targeted" to children and teenagers within National Education. This action of information should be supplemented by improvements in education of professionals, and in particular of civil servants, concerned with the problem.
1. To inform the young people by National Education
No general device of information for pupils has at the moment been set up within the framework of National Education.
All sources confirm that recruitments are particularly numerous among young people, because they can have a certain fragility, because their judgement is not definitively formed, and because they are inclined to seek ideals that certain sects claim to offer. The need for making an effort of information in their direction was underlined by many interlocutors of the Commission. However, nothing is currently done in this direction within National Education.
It would thus be desirable that the study of the cult phenomenonon be registered in the civics [or social studies] program.
In addition, it would be necessary to organize a briefing each year in all of the school establishments, from primary schools through high schools, to sensitize the young people to this question. However, it is essential that this information be perfectly objective. The difficulty of such an enterprise is due to the need for dispensing information which cannot be suspected of partiality, whereas objectivity is a particularly delicate concept to define and implement in this field. To tend there to the maximum, these sessions of information should be organized under the authority of several teachers who would have received instructions for this purpose. The creation of a video support carried out under the control of National Education would constitute an appreciable teaching aid.
2. To organize an information campaign for the general public, in particular by the channel of public television stations.
In addition to the young people, it is advisable to inform the entire public opinion of the dangers which certain sects can present.
Indeed, it is useful that the parents are informed, because sensitizing them to these problems also affects the education which they give to their children. In addition, adults also can, and in great number, allow themselves to be trapped. This general information to the public proves also necessary to prevent that the public or private persons in charge are not brought, in all good faith, to give their support to harmful associations because of not knowing their true activities. One saw, indeed, that many sects tried "to infiltrate" in the higher realms of the State, to allure local communities or to negotiate conventions [or contracts?] with national or private companies.
Only information on a large scale will be able to reduce these influences.
Your Commission thus proposes that the Government organize a vast information campaign, in particular televised - while resting primarily on the public stations - but also resorting to other media.
This campaign could be organized by the French Committee of Education for Health, since this institution organizes campaigns against AIDS and drug-addiction as well.
3. To extend and improve the training of the people who, within the framework of their professional activities, in particular the civil servants, are confronted with problems arising from cults
It appeared necessary to the Board of Inquiry during its work that the persons with one title or another who are confronted with sectarian problems in their professional activity, civil servants in particular, receive an ad hoc training in this field.
One should not, indeed, forget how much the phenomenon is at the same time vast, complex, and clandestine. Because, as several specialists in the question affirm, "the cults often advance masked."
The people concerned are mainly police officers and the gendarmes, magistrates, teachers, social personnel, but also doctors and lawyers.
It thus seems opportune to envisage, in the initial training as well as in the continuing training for public agents, but also for people of the private sector concerned, programs or, at the very least, publicity campaigns - in the form of conferences for example - on the problems arising from sects and the means to which they can resort to produce remedy there.
The Central Management of General Information (DCRG) showed the way in this field during the recent period. Thus, for three years, police chiefs-in-training, inspectors-in-training, and inspectors lately assigned to the RG have received training relating to the sects. In addition, the DCRG organizes once per year one or two days of training for the agents charged to follow the sects.
It appears essential, in this respect, that specific training also be lavished on those studying at the National School of the Magistrature, on those of the schools of police chiefs and police inspectors, policemen, as well as gendarmerie. It is also important that those studying to be professors and those preparing for legal or medical professions benefit from it.
2.- To better apply existing laws
It is not necessary to describe in detail the legal arsenal allowing us to fight against the dangers of sects, which we saw was diversified and sufficient to cover all of the intrigues of the sectarian movements that present a harmful character to individuals and/or society. But the work undertook by the Commission very quickly led it to have the impression - which become a certainty by the end of its reflection - that the possibilities offered by the existing provisions are not always - far from what is necessary - fully used.
Several interlocutors of the Commission thus affirmed that there was a significant disproportion between the number of illegalities commited by the sects, and the number of complaints and judgments. Others were astonished by the small number of administrative or legal dissolutions pronounced in regard to the number of existing coercive associations.
Your Commission is thus convinced that the development of sects could effectively be slowed down by a better application of the law. This supposes an increased sensitizing of the professionals concerned with the dangers of the sectarian phenomenon and the need for mobilizing all existing means to battle them. While being quite conscious that such an evolution of mentalities will not be immediate, your Commission is persuaded that it is one of the elements - not to say the essential element - in the device to fight against the sectarian phenomenon. This awakening of course will be supported by general actions of information which were discussed above. But these must be supplemented in certain fields very directly concerned with the intrigues of the sectarian movements, by precise instructions from the State to its agents on the detailed attention of which they must make proof. Such a step should, according to your Commission, be followed with regard to the Magistrates of Parquet [I was unfamiliar with "Parquet." I did a search and found that in the structure of French goverment, there is a Judicial Authority (AutoritŽ Judiciaire) whose independence is guaranteed by the President of the Republic, assisted by the Senior Magistrature Council (Conseil SupŽrieur de la Magistrature). The Senior Magistrature Council is presided over by the President of the Republic. It is composed of two branches, the Magistrates of the Bench (Magistrats du Sige), the other is Public Prosecutors (Magistrats du Parquet).], the services of the police and gendarmerie, of the administrations exerting functions of control on certain activities of sectarian associations, as well as as regards dissolution of associations and of payment of a certain number of allowances, in particular the RMI [RMI is a French unemployment benefit -translator].
1. A general instruction of the Minister of Justice to the Magistrates of Parquet asking them to examine the complaints emanating from the victims of sects with more attention and to seize opportunities, each time necessary, to handle cases which come to their attention.
In many cases, it was indicated to the Commission that a public Ministry would have refused to open an instruction or to continue an open information on a file [or take a legal challenge to court] whereas, according to those which gave a report on this inaction, the case would have completely justified it.
It is advisable to specify, in this respect, that, according to the Ministry of Justice, of the 60 complaints relating to cults addressed to the general parquets of the courts of appeal between 1990 and 1995, in 27 proceedings the cases were closed. They relate in particular to cases of swindling, threats under conditions, flights and desecrations of graves, manslaughters, diversions of minors, sequestration of people, non-representation of children, violence, insults, illegal practice of medicine, violence and ways in fact. Of this total, 16 gave place to a classification without continuation, 7 with a withdrawal of case and 3 with a judgment [literally, condemnation].
The Commission does not intend to give an opinion on the operation of Justice in this respect, the more so as it does not have the elements to appreciate in a precise way the situations in question. However, it cannot completely neglect these complaints, of which some appeared above all admittedly relevant to the [Ministry of Justice]. Even going beyond their more or less exact nature, the fact that such an opinion is usually conveyed is in itself very regrettable because it is likely to discourage victims of sects from turning to the courts.
It would be desirable, under these conditions, that the Minister of Justice address a general instruction to the Magistrates of Parquet in order to draw their attention to the extent of the sectarian phenomenon, its forms, its dangers, the need for fighting these more effectively, and the existing legal means for this intention. It would be asked of them to examine with more vigilance the complaints emanating from victims of sects and, if need be, to seize opportunities to handle cases which come to their attention.
2. A general instruction by the Minister of Interior to the police departments and by the Minister of Defense to the services of gendarmerie enjoining them to express more vigilance with respect to the sectarian "drifts."
So that the actions committed by the cults can give place to proceedings and can be, if necessary, controlled, it is still necessary that these can be noted by the police department and gendarmerie and that the public Ministry seizes these.
This is why it would be appropriate that the Ministers of Defense and of the Interior draw the attention of their services concerned to the sectarian phenomenon, the vigilance which they must show about it, as well as measures which they must take in the event of infringements, in particular being the protection of the victims and the [saisine?] of the public Ministry.
3. To ask the administration to be more rigorous in its missions of supervision and control with regard to sects which present dangers or do not respect the law.
It is not acceptable that public administrations and enterprises can, as has already occurred, sign service or supply agreements with organizations related to dangerous sects or grant authorizations to them. Neither is it tolerable that certain associations can in all impunity transgress the rules of revenue duty, of labor law, or of Social Security.
It is thus necessary that the ministers, each one in his field of competence, ask their services to express more rigour in contracting with external organizations, the granting of authorizations and the missions of control. In this step, the administrations should have recourse to information which could be delivered to them on their request from the interdepartmental observatory whose creation was recommended above.
4. To incite public officials to be more prudent in the granting of subsidies to certain associations.
Certain dangerous cults, it was seen, profited from public subsidies.
Admittedly, that apparently relates to only a number of limited cases. It would be convenient all the same if the public officials examine in a more rigorous way the destination of the subsidies that they grant to associations. And this, if need be, in connection with the interdepartmental observatory on sects.
The Prime Minister could draw the attention of the Government to this point and the Minister of the Interior, to all of the local authorities.
5. To pronounce the dissolution of the organizations blamed when that is essential.
Many cultic associations, it was seen, violate the law and constitute true dangers to individuals and society. One can, consequently, only be astonished by the small number of those which are dissolved. Thus, of about sixty coercive cultic associations declared in Paris, none was the subject of an administrative or legal dissolution.
It would thus be desirable if the existing procedures of dissolution are systematically applied when the conditions envisaged by the law are met. It is particularly the case for the legal procedure.
Admittedly, this would not constitute a radical answer. It is noted, indeed, that the sects prosecuted or threatened with dissolution express an astonishing capacity to auto- dissolve themselves and to reconstitute themselves in the form of another organization. Thus, the Association of the New Age Pioneers was dissolved in January 1981, but its persons in charge find themselves today in the Church of the Unification, the Association for the Unification of World Christianity, and the International Crusade for a One World. In the same way, the persons in charge of the Dianetic Association, dissolved in 1982, continue their activities within the Association for Defense of French Scientologists, and those of Transcendental Meditation Paris East, in the French Federation of Meditation.
The fact remains that systematic and fast dissolutions could have a strong dissuasive effect. One can think that if, in parallel, the persons in charge are continued [or challenged legally], even condemned, the re-creation of these associations will be much more difficult.
It is, in any event, significant that the police departments try to identify associations which are in fact identical to those which would have been dissolved, and to check with detailed attention that they conform to the law.
6. To make sure that the recipients of certain allowances who are members of a sect do not transfer all or a part of the amount of these services to the sect of which they are a part.
According to the information provided to the Commission, it would seem that the members of certain sects, recipients of the minimum income of insertion [in French, "revenu minimum d'insertion" or RMI, a special allowance started in 1988, given to any person looking for a job and without resources], transfer completely or partly the amount of this allowance to the sect of which they form part. Such a practice obviously constitutes a diversion of the object of the RMI. Your Commission is quite conscious of the difficulty for the qualified services of locating the existence of such facts. [NŽanmois?], this type of diverting can only be extremely negligible with regard to the very large majority of the people who profit from this service in accordance with the law. Also, it would be appropriate, when it can be noted that a member of a sect transfers all or part of the RMI which he receives to the sect, to remind the person concerned of his obligations and, if need be, to suspend the payment of the allowance as long as those are not respected.
The same vigilance must be exerted for the attribution of other allowances having a precise assignment, for example scholarships.
7. To increase international cooperation, community [European community?] in particular.
A reinforcement of international cooperation appears essential today.
Indeed, many of the dangerous cults have, as one saw, an international dimension. They could thus all the more easily be dismantled if countries are able to set up a common action.
Moreover, the cults prosecuted in France often decide to transfer their activities abroad. As a group of specialists writes in a confidential report submitted to the Commission: "... the illegal practice of medicine [and] the non-compliance with the elementary rules contained in the French fair labor standards act oblige them to flee towards more favorable skies guaranteeing them a tax exemption or enabling them to escape the payment of their obligatory social security contributions." And to conclude: "a national approach not allowing this, only a correct comprehension and an effective action, an international coordination is essential."
This cooperation is, as it will be seen, also necessary to better help the French expatriates who are prey to difficulties with sects.
If this cooperation is not easy to implement on an international scale, it should at least exist within the European Union. However, no particular action seems to exist in this field.
It is advisable to evoke, in this respect, the creation in Paris in 1994 of the European Federation of Information and Research Centers on Sectarianism (FECRIS) whose object is, according to its statutes, "to seek and inform as to the practices and the effects of destructive sectarianism on individuals, families and democratic enterprises; to help the victims; to represent them in these matters to the authorities civilly and morally responsible, to draw their attention and to assist their action." However, this association is too recent to be able to draw conclusions as to its action. In any case, it is a purely private initiative and not a joint action of the Member States of the European Union.
It would thus be desirable to found an intergovernmental cooperation. This could start at least between the Fifteen initially. It would be based initially on an exchange of information and the development of proposals.
This process could lead then to international agreements on a certain number of key points.
It is besides as Mr. De Puig conceived things in his opinion on sects and new religious movements, written within the framework of the Council of Europe: "One can do much in the field of international cooperation to increase the effectiveness of the control of sects and to obtain information and to divulge it. It would thus be desirable to conclude the international agreements necessary to this effect."
To be effective, these agreements should concern: the study of the phenomenon and the exchange of free information, in particular, at a data bank; the coordination of devices for control, taking into account the disparity of the legal systems; the search of people continued [or with a legal case pending against them] in justice or by the administration; the search for missing people.
3.- To improve the legal device
If the legal arsenal which makes it possible to fight against the dangers the sects pose to individuals and society appears overall adapted, it could nevertheless be supplemented or modified on some points in order to make the response against the sectarian drifts more effective.
1. To undertake a study on the dissuasive effect of the sanctions incurred by the sects and on the advisability of making these sanctions more harsh.
According to several opinions collected by the Commission, the penalties and allowances for damages which the sects incur would not be sufficiently dissuasive.
Thus, for example, a person who expressed herself before the Commission, who had several lawsuits against sects, said that all told, she calculated that the amount of damage she had undergone directly because of the sects and which was not recouped rose to approximately 120,000 francs [$20,148 US Dollars].
It is difficult to come to a conclusion a priori on the dissuasive effect of the sanctions incurred by the sects and about the advisability of making them harsher.
In spite of work which it undertook, your Commission does not estimate itself able to come to a conclusion about whether the sanctions incurred by sects are sufficiently dissuasive or not, and, less still, on the advisability of making these sanctions more harsh. It is not less inclined to think that the question seriously deserves to be raised.
So, the Commission thinks it would be interesting if the observatory whose creation is recommended would make a thorough study of this question, which would be followed, if necessary, by proposals.
2. To re-examine the mode of slandering
Certain sects are, as one knows, usually slandering. But they cannot always be prosecuted, much less convicted.
Indeed, as the Commission noted, certain sects found a means of circumventing the law concerning the rules relating to the regulation of this infringement. Article 65 of the law of 29 July 1881 on freedom of the press lays out, as one will recall, that "public action and civil action resulting from crimes, offences, and infringments envisaged by the present law, itself prescribing after three months completed counting from from the day when they were committed or from the day of the last act of instruction [legal term?] or of continuation [legal suit] if it has been made." But, these sects sometimes publish reviews containing defamatory items, for which they satisfy the obligation of registration of legal copyright, but do not distribute them, except possibly to a restricted public; then they wait three months to carry out their diffusion, by which delay they avoid being sued.
It appears desirable to your Commission to cure this state of things.
A first possibility would be to lengthen the above mentioned time from three to six months. However, this solution would present several disadvantages. Initially, it would not solve the problem definitively; the organizations in question would then wait six months before carrying out the diffusion. However, to distribute a review six months after the date of publication which it mentions would undoubtedly constitute an embarrassment. The most serious obstacle is rather the political and practical difficulties which the modification of the law of 1881 on the press on this point would raise at the same time. Would it be convenient, indeed, to touch with a significant legislation, which represents a certain balance, and to which the press is very attached? It does not seem so.
A second solution would consist in providing that the date on which was the slandering was made slandering is defined as that of the first setting in distribution with the public - within the meaning of general public, in opposition to a restricted circle, except if this one has vocation only to be diffused within such a circle - the publication which contains it.
Besides, it is in this sense that jurisprudence seems to evolving. Indeed, it was judged that the achievement of the formalities of registration of copyright does not establish any presumption that publication took place on this date and must be held as only one element of appreciation (Cass. Crim. July 1, 1953, Bull crim. No 228); that, in addition, the starting point of the term of three months' limitation is not the date related to the cover of the issues of the number of a weekly magazine, but that of its effective publication resulting from its being put on sale, independent of the fictitious date related to the cover for purely commercial purposes (Paris, January 28, 1977, D. 1978.IR80).
Still, however, it remains to specify that this effective distribution is indeed intended for the public. Your Commission is inclined to think that the best solution is undoubtedly to let jurisprudence bring this precision.
3. To reinforce the protection of expert witnesses before the courts
The expert witnesses before the courts undoubtedly today are not sufficiently protected.
Admittedly, article 434.8 of the new penal code provides that "any threat or any act of intimidation made towards a magistrate, one sworn [a witness] or any other person sitting in a jurisdictional formation, an arbitrator, an interpreter, an expert, or lawyer of a party, in order to influence his behavior in the performance of his duties is punished with three years of imprisonment and a fine of 300, 000 francs [$50,370 US Dollars]." In addition, article 222.12 of the same code lays out that violence against, among others, a magistrate, one sworn, a lawyer, a public or ministerial officer, or any other person acting as an agent of public authority or charged with a mission of public service, in the exercise or at the time of the exercise of his function or of his mission, involving a total disablement of work for more than eight days is punishable with three years of imprisonment and a fine of 300,000 francs [$50,370 US Dollars]."
However, it is not obvious, initially, that article 222.12 applies to legal experts. Even if this were the case, this article presents two principal limits: it is necessary that there was violence which involved a disability lasting more than eight days; this violence must occur in the exercise or at the time of the functions. Which means, in the case of serious violence which does not cause this incapacity and of those - whatever their gravity -- made when the functions are definitively finished, with the purpose, for example, of revenge, that the expert does not benefit from any particular protection.
Neither does Article 434.8 cover possible retaliatory measures against the expert after the opinion or the lawsuit.
According to information collected by the Commission, the absence of sufficient protection for experts would have at least three detrimental consequences:
- the experts in question simply give up coming to a conclusion about businesses likely to attract this kind of trouble to them;
- they continue to fulfill these functions, but they risk suffering an injury from it, of which it is not certain that they will be able to obtain repair because it is not always easy in this kind of situation to identify the culprit and to prove his culpability;
- finally, one cannot exclude the possibility that they may water down their reports or censor themselves, which would be a serious obstacle to the good course of justice.
Your Commission thus considers it desirable to reinforce the legal protection which benefits the experts in order to, as much as possible, make them safe from any pressure or any retaliatory measures.
One could, with this intention, use as a starting point the the various provisions currently protecting magistrates. They are in particular articles 222 and 223 (contempt of court), 227 (attempt at pressures), 228 (violence and ways in fact), 306 (threats), 310 and 311 (aggravated assault) and 434 (destruction, degradations and damage) of the penal code.
4. To permit associations for defense of victims to go 'partie civile' [In searching for the meaning of this legal term, I found the following: ". . . the French system of the 'partie civile' with its procedural rights and guarantees for victims . . . The victim can actively pursue his interests during the trial and ask for compensation. I will use the French term rather than translate.].
No provision currently allows associations for defense of victims of sects to go 'partie civile' in affairs concerning these people.
Admittedly, these associations sometimes succeeded in going 'partie civile' while being based, when the object of the business allowed them, on certain existing provisions. Thus, for example, Article 2.2 of the code of penal procedure states that "any association regularly declared for at least five years [ ] of which the statutory object comprises the fight against the sexual violence [ ] can exert the rights recognized by the [pa?]. It is not thus only in the measure or where the concrete cases authorize associations for defense of victims of sects "to slip" into devices whose principal purpose does not correspond to their specific object that they can go 'partie civile'. Moreover, two associations let the Commission know that several times it had been refused to them to constitute 'partie civile' in affairs concerning victims of sects.
It would however be useful to systematically grant this right to them. And this for three principal reasons:
- these associations could better join the victims and help them in their steps toward justice, in particular those who are most fragile;
- they could compensate them when, for various reasons, in particular the fear that the persons in charge of the sect inspire in them, they do not dare to act themselves;
- they could enrich the information of the magistrates and the legal debates by their interventions.
Granting to these associations the possibility of carrying themselves as 'partie civile' in affairs concerning the victims of sects can itself be accomplished maybe by adding a specific provision to the list of associations mentioned in articles 2.1 to 2.1 of the code of penal procedure, or perhaps by envisaging in article 3 of the code of family that the associations in defense of family benefit, as well as the National Union and the Departmental Union of Family Associations, from this right.
5. To envisage the transmission to the prefecture of an annual budget and reports of general meeting of associations whose annual budget is higher than 500,000F [$83,550 US Dollars].
As one saw, certain sects not only exploit their followers financially, but resort to fraudulent means such as, for example, the dissimulation of certain resources, the use of companies or associations as screens, and the continuation of lucrative activities within the framework of declared associations.
It would thus be advisable to subject these sects to obligations of transparency [or openness] in financial matters. But since it would be difficult, for reasons already mentioned, to single out sects for this action, these obligations should be imposed on all associations starting from a certain level of budget.
It appears reasonable to your Commission to provide that all associations whose annual budget is equal to or higher than 500,000 francs [$83,550 US Dollars] will have to transmit each year to the prefecture of their department a copy of this budget as well as the minutes of their general meeting. The choice of a threshold of 500,000 francs apparently constitutes a good balance between the concern for financial transparency and a wish not to overwhelm the prefectures. This measure would, in fact, relate to only approximately 16,900 associations of a total estimated at 187,600, that is to say 9% of them.
The tax services could then exert a control on these documents of their own initiative or at the request of the prefect.
6. To create a High Council of Religions made up of representatives of the religious, scientific, and administrative authorities, charged to decide on requests relating to recognition as a cultuelle association, even those concerning obtaining the statute of congregation.
Several organizations commonly considered today as cults demand the right to benefit from the statute of cultuelle association envisaged by the law of December 9, 1905.
The question now arises of knowing if the existing legal device is satisfactory to face this type of request.
It is well understood that it would be dangerous to recognize with this statute pseudo-religious movements, movements which are presented in the form of a religion only to better lure people, but which, actually, pursue other goals such as making themselves richer, power, or an unspecified personal interest. The commission had been alerted on this point several times. Thus, one of the specialists whom it heard, moreover one of the most [mesurŽs? measured?], declared: "On what do the sects proliferate? On silence, on their dissimulated [hidden, pretended] side; by the language, which is that of religious language. It is necessary to start by refusing them what they demand, namely a religious statute, which would be the trap of the traps. The alleged argument would be a better control. But for the little bit of control that that would allow and that one can obtain by other means! [Rendez-vous? Appointment? Meeting? or literally Return-you? perhaps meaning Remember?] counts as prestige, which would be offered to them if a denominational statute were granted to them. That would be a true catastrophe."
On the other hand, nothing is more normal than that the authentic religious movements which wish tobe recognized as cultuelle associations and are ready to conform to their system can benefit from it.
It is thus appropriate that the Office of Religion [or Worships] of the Ministry for the Interior can, at the request of the interested organization and after examining its file, deliver this statute directly. Actually, the quality of cultuelle association is not, in effect, recognized that indirectly today by the Office of Religion of the Ministry of Interior or the prefecture at the time of a request aimed to make an association benefit from liberalities envisaged in article 19 subparagraph 4 of law of 9 December 1905, or articles 200 and 238 (a) of the general tax code, which allows their benefactors to claim income tax deductions. It would seem definitely preferable to your Commission that the recognition of this quality be made the object of a specific procedure, on the request of the interested organizations. It is, of course, to the Office of Religion that the care to grant the statute of cultuelle association should fall . But, taking into account the difficulty that there is often today to appraise the cultuelle [religous, worshipful] nature of an association, in particular when this one works towards multiple ends, your Commission estimates that it would be necessary that the Office of Religion decides with the advice of a council of persons qualified to judge.
It thus proposes to create a High Council of Religion, which would be composed of about thirty people named by the Prime Minister. One third of the council would be representatives from various recognized religions, one third would be persons attesting to an undeniable competence in the field of religions, and one third would be representatives from the various interested administrations (Office of Religion and Office of Public Freedoms of the Ministry for the Interior, Central Direction of General Information, Direction of Social Action, Ministry for National Education, etc...). Its opinion would be essential to the Office of Religion.
It would be advisable, consequently, to slightly amend the law of December 9, 1905 by indicating that the quality of cultuelle association is recognized by the Ministry for the Interior on assent of the High Council of Religion according to methods defined above.
Since the same problem can pose itself for requests relative to obtaining of statute of congregation, it is proposed, in order to ensure a parallelism of procedure, that the legal recognition of this statute be granted, not by decree on assent of the Council of State, as it is today envisaged by article 13 of law of 1st July 1901 relative to contract of association, but by decree on assent from the High Council of Religion.
5.- To help the former followers
Certainly it is important to prevent the dangers which the sects pose and to combat them better. But it is also necessary to help the former followers, some of which have lived, sometimes for several years, almost completely cut off from society, be this isolation physical or only mental. Also, after their exiting the sect, they generally encounter great difficulties reintegrating into society. At the same time, they are generally unaware of whom to ask for help with this undertaking. Your Commission thinks that it would thus be necessary that they can have a privileged interlocutor within the administration. In addition, detailed attention must be paid to the situation of former followers abroad.
1. To institute in each department a person in charge of assistance to former followers.
So that people who have just left a sect can easily get information about public services, information that they generally do not know, your Commission proposes that a person in charge of assistance to former followers be named in each department, either by the Prefect, or by the President of the General Council - the choice of the authority of nomination does not fundamentally change the answer brought to the problem. It is appropriate that this person, that this function would not necessarily be full-time, would have a good knowledge of the sectarian phenomenon and of public administration. It [the position] would have as its mission the study of the evolution of the sectarian movements in its department as well as the problems arising for the victims, of accomodating those and of directing them towards the administrative services and associations likely to solve their difficulties. It would give an account of its studies and its activities to its authority of nomination as well as to the observatory of the sects whose creation is proposed in addition. It could turn besides to this organization to obtain information, even consultations.
2. To more effectively help the expatriate followers who wish it.
According to various sources, the number of French belonging to a sect and living abroad is rather significant, without having the means to quantify it with even approximate precision. But, it is an established fact that several sects have an international dimension and do not hesitate, as, for example, Moon or the Church of Scientology, to send abroad followers recruited in France. Moreover, one cannot forget that certain organizations prosecuted by justice or the administration left the national territory.
However, these people are often in a situation even more precarious than that of the the followers residing in French territory, being in an unfamiliar environment and isolated from their family and their old friends.
The diplomatic and consular services today give substantial help today to find missing people and to repatriate them.
The Management of French Abroad of the Ministry for Foreign Affairs tries each year to answer several hundreds of requests for information from families about missing people. However, the diplomatic and consular services often rely heavily on the goodwill and the effectiveness of the local authorities to obtain an answer. Moreover, even when the missing person can be found, if this one does not wish that his address be revealed, the Ministry for Foreign Affairs is obliged to conform to this wish pursuant to the principle of respect for private life. Moreover, half of the people found express this wish.
In addition, the ministry has a line of credit of about 5 million francs [$841,500 US Dollars] to ensure medical and emergency repatriations for poor people. The ministry requires families to finance other forms of repatriation.
Two measures would be likely to improve the action of the public authorities in this field.
First, it would be appropriate, within the framework of reinforcement of international cooperation mentioned above, that France obtains from a number of countries, as significant as possible, the guarantee of sustained collaboration for these kinds of problems. Admittedly, no country would find it beneficial to see an illegal and dangerous organization developing in its territory .
Secondly, our diplomatic and consular services could, within this framework, increase their contacts and connections with local authorities likely to help them in the search for missing people.
CONCLUSION
Difficult to define, not very easy to measure, impossible to grasp as a whole, the cult phenomenon does not constitute an any less tangible reality in the contemporary world: the expression of multiple spiritual movements distinct from the traditional religions and characterized by specific beliefs and practices.
In fact, it is closely related to the major problems which arise for current societies, in that it causes the decline of traditional religions, the mutation of family structures, questioning of moral values, the place of policy [or politics], and the economic and social crisis. It is even, in a certain way, the reflection.
If its diversity and its complexity prevent rendering a precise account of its quantitative and qualitative evolution, the research carried out shows that it developed during the last decade in France and abroad. And this, as well as in number of organizations, of followers, and of sympathizers. At the same time, it presents more varied forms, it implements more sophisticated techniques, and has increased financial means.
The followers, growing in numbers, often engage completely, until they lose part of their identity. And it is there that the risk of deviation becomes serious, when engagement and the resulting absolute confidence are not being looked after [or treated, tended], to cut the ties with family, to give all the money one has. The intervention of the public authorities is essential when engagement leads to a psychological dependence which the leaders exploit to their own profit.
The judicial decisions rendered during recent years show well that a number of them are guilty of offences, ranging from deception or fraud to ill treatments, to aggravated assault and sequestration. In addition, information provided to the Commission and testimony that it received leave no doubt about the fact that the businesses exposed by justice give only a partial account of the dangers which the sects pose, which are in fact at the same time more numerous, wider and more serious.
The State cannot, obviously, allow to develop in its womb [the word "sein" which I translated "womb" can also refer to "breast," so this phrase is similar to the English "nursing a viper at one's breast."] that which, with much consideration, is part of a veritable scourge. To remain passive would be, indeed, not only irresponsible with regard to the people affected or likely to be affected, but dangerous for the democratic principles on which our Republic is founded.
Your Commission thus considers it essential to react. That being, it appeared that the best way of counteracting the development of dangerous sects is surely not most spectacular, in the form of anti-sect legislation that the extent of our legal arsenal does not make necessary and which would likely be be used one day in a spirit of restriction of freedom of thought. The essential thing, accordingly, is to fully make good use of the existing provisions, their systematic and rigorous application having made it possible to effectively fight against the sectarian drifts. For that purpose, it is initially necessary to better know - it that would permit the creation of an ad hoc observatory - and, especially, to better make known the phenomenon and the dangers that it can [recŽler?]. In addition, it is necessary to become attached to it [becoming attached to this cause as one would become attached to a person in an affectionate way] so that the institutions charged to apply the law in this field are sensitized there. Moreover, certain adjustments to the existing legislation appear desirable for better taking account of the evolution of sectarian associations. Lastly, it is significant that the former followers can be helped to reintegrate themselves into society. All measures which, according to your Commission, should be taken as soon as possible. In France we do not feel threatened by a tragedy of the Waco type, even an attack like that perpetrated by the Aoum sect in the subway of Tokyo last spring. But the germs of such dramas exist in our territory, and prevention is essential.
That known as, it is necessary to be lucid: the measures suggested here will probably not be enough alone to make these dangers disappear . Reflection of the difficulties of the current world, symptom of a profound social malaise, image of a moral crisis as much as a civic one, the sectarian phenomenon also calls for, indeed, a global response to the whole of the major problems of the contemporary epoch.
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