MIVILUDES true nature

December 20, 2010 The Hon Robert McClelland MP Attorney General Parliament House Canberra ACT 2600 Dear Attorney General McClelland: I am the public spokesperson of CAP (Coordination des Associations et des Particuliers pour la Liberté de Conscience — Coordination of...
MIVILUDES Contravenes European Court of Human Right Findings

MIVILUDES Contravenes European Court of Human Right Findings

miviludes-ECHR-2010The French Interministerial Mission of Vigilance and Fight against Sectarian Deviances (MIVILUDES) has adopted and implemented a policy of repression of religious minorities which is in contravention of international human rights instruments, in particular the Helsinki Accords standards on freedom of religion and non-discrimination in matters relating to religion and the European Convention on Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms (European Convention) as interpreted by the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg.

How the French government and parliament were leaded into a witch-hunt

The phenomenon of religious persecution has been known through the ages, as witness the Bacchanals affair in Rome in 187 BC or even, if we may believe Aristophanes, the process against Socrates, accused of having wanted to introduce a new religion. These persecutions were particularly intense against monotheistic religions, even though they tolerated the practice of several ancient cults with which they felt ties. In the 19th century, the French revolution hailed the end of persecution of protestants and marked the integration of Jews in the nation, even if refractory priests were treated extremely harshly. With the law of 1905 on the separation of church and state in France, discrimination appeared to have become impossible and yet only a few decades ago, France and other western countries saw the emergence of campaigns against “sects”. The word sect has two origins: a minority group that has separated (from the Latin secare) or a group that has followed a leader (from the Latin sequi).

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