OSCE 2022 Plenary Session III: Tolerance and Non-Discrimination I MIVILUDES

Warsaw Human Dimension Conference 2022

26 September 2022, 14:00 – 7 October 2022

Sofitel Victoria Warsaw Królewska St. 11, 00-065, Warsaw

Organized by The Polish 2022 OSCE Chairmanship-in-Office,

with the support of the OSCE Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights (ODIHR)

Thursday, 28 September

Plenary Session III: Tolerance and Non-Discrimination I

Addressing racism, xenophobia, discrimination and intolerance, including based on

religion or belief

CAP LC OSCE 2022 download the full statement

France, recognized for its values towards secularism and respect for freedom of religion and belief, has serious deficiencies in its territory in its commitment to respect freedom of religion and belief.

Our recommendations to France are to consider more seriously its commitments regarding:

Article 9 of the European Convention on Human Rights

Article 18 of the UDHR

Article 18 of the ICCPR

And to implement them to all religions, beliefs and spiritual and convictional minorities without distinction.

In 2021, the French government restarted its hunt against spiritual and convictional minorities through a press campaign led by the Minister Delegate to the Minister of the Interior at the time, Mrs. Marlène Schiappa.

Mrs. Schiappa had announced in the media that Miviludes (Interministerial mission of vigilance and combat against sectarian drifts) would be reinforced, that it would be provided with a more substantial budget and that the so-called “anti-sect” associations would be subsidized more.

Mrs. Schappia had also declared in the media that Miviludes had a list of five hundred sects, that around eighty thousand children and five hundred thousand adults were threatened by sectarian movements.

CAP LC had formally asked the Miviludes to provide the list of five hundred sects and on what sources it relied to establish the number of children and adults in danger.

In its reply, Miviludes admitted that it didn’t have recent data and that it had published statistics that were more than ten years old and already controversial at the time.

When we published Miviludes’ response, its working methods and information were critically analyzed by international experts.

Since then, the campaign of discrimination and stigmatization of spiritual minorities continues in France and the false allegations have still not been officially denied.

We call on France to definitively put an end to this campaign of discrimination and stigmatization with regard to spiritual minorities or beliefs.

Recommendations to France :

To consider more seriously its commitments regarding :

– Article 9 of the European Convention on Human Rights

– Article 18 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights

– Article 18 International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights ICCPR

Sources :

https://bitterwinter.org/russian-repression-of-religious-minorities-promoted-in-paris/

https://hrwf.eu/eu-fecris-and-affiliates-defamation-is-in-their-dna/

https://bitterwinter.org/jehovahs-witnesses-in-the-french-miviludes-report-five-mistakes/

http://coordiap.com/fecris-russie-patriarche-kirill-de-moscou-et-la-guerre-en-ukraine/

https://bitterwinter.org/alexander-novopashin-calls-ukrainians-nazis/