CoE PACE Proposal Might Endanger Parents' Rights to Religious Education
French member of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe proposed a report on the protection of children against 'sectarian drifts' which possibly collides with the parents' right to religious education of their choice.
This report was written by Willy Fautré of Human Rights Without Frontiers. We thank him for alerting us and researching the details.
On 6 September 2012, Rudy Salles, a member of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE), presented a report on «The protection of minors against sectarian influence». A year ago, Rudy Salles, a member of the French National Assembly, was appointed at the PACE as rapporteur to draft such a report. This issue has been pushed for a long time by French anti-cult groups and MIVILUDES (Inter-Ministerial Mission of Vigilance and Fight against Sectarian Drifts).
Various aspects of France's anti-cult policy have been criticized by the United Nations (See the Report of the UN Rapporteur on Freedom of Religion or Belief after her visit in situ in 2005), by the US State Department (See their annual report) and by human rights NGOs at the OSCE/ODIHR.
The parents' right to educate their children according to their religion is one more area of conflict between France and international standards.
In a 2008 report by Georges Fenech, the former head of MIVILUDES, for the French Minister, a psychologist, Sonia Jougla, was quoted to justify special treatment by the Family Matters Judges of cases where a child's parents belong to so-called sects/cults : « It is even more difficult to protect a child from his parents' beliefs than from their beatings or their incestuous sexuality ».
On French TV, Fenech also advocated that governments should « go as far as retrieving the child from a sect and place him in an institution or an external family » and he added « parents are not the owners of their children ».
In a political meeting on 2 December 2010 in Lyon, Fenech said that he regretted the law did not allow putting people under psychiatric supervision because of them belonging to « sectarian movements ».
Today sects and tomorrow mainline religions? Obviously, Jehovah's Witnesses are one of the targets of France's policy but devout Catholic or Orthodox families and Muslim parents are also at risk. During his mandate, Fenech has not hesitated to warn some Catholic clerics against 'sectarian drifts' in some Catholic communities and prayer groups.
On 3 May 2011, the Presidency of the French National Assembly registered a draft resolution proposing the creation of a parliamentary inquiry commission on fundamentalist and sectarian practices in private schools. The draft resolution was targeting alleged "fundamentalist deviations in private schools" and might be used one day against Catholic, Protestant, Jewish or Muslim schools.
UN Special Rapporteur Report, France's anti-sect policy and children: The United Nations Special Rapporteur for freedom of religion or belief, Asma Jahangir, after her visit to France on 18 to 29 September 2005 made specific recommendations in this regard (See E/CN.4/2006/5/Add.4, 8 March 2006, Mission to France, 18 to 29 September 2005).
Her Report of 6 March 2006 provided:
112. The Special Rapporteur urges the Government to ensure that its mechanisms for dealing with these religious groups or communities of belief deliver a message based on tolerance, freedom of religion or belief and on the principle that no one can be judged for his actions other than through the appropriate judicial channels.
113. Moreover, she recommends that the Government monitor more closely preventive actions and campaigns that are conducted throughout the country by private initiatives or Government-sponsored organizations, in particular within the school system in order to avoid children of members of these groups being negatively affected. [emphasis added]
... Source: Willy Fautré, HRWF, 04.09.2012 www.hrwf.net