Freedom of Religion or Belief Anti-Sect Movements and State Neutrality A CASE STUDY: FECRIS CONTACT ADDRESS AND COPYRIGHT © HUMAN RIGHTS WITHOUT FRONTIERS, AVENUE D’AUDERGHEM 61/16, B-1040 BRUSSELS TEL./FAX: +32 2 3456145 WEBSITE: HTTP://WWW.HRWF.ORG EMAIL: [email protected] 1 TABLE OF CONTENTS INTRODUCTION By Willy Fautré, Director of Human Rights Without Frontiers (Brussels) FECRIS: EUROPEAN FEDERATION OF RESEARCH AND INFORMATION CENTERS ON SECTARIANISM By Prof. Regis Dericquebourg (University of Lille) FECRIS AND ITS AFFILIATES IN FRANCE The French fight against the “capture of souls” By Attorney-at-Law Patricia Duval (Paris Bar) FECRIS AND ITS AFFILIATE IN RUSSIA The Orthodox clerical wing of FECRIS By Human Rights Without Frontiers correspondent in Russia FECRIS AND ITS AFFILIATE IN AUSTRIA State and mainline religions against religious diversity By Christian Brünner and Thomas Neger (University of Graz) FECRIS AND ITS AFFILIATES IN GERMANY The country with the most anti-sect organizations By Prof. Gerhard Besier (University of Dresden) FECRIS AND ITS AFFILIATE IN SERBIA Centre for Anthropological Studies: Spreading of Religious Intolerance or Struggle for Human Rights and Freedoms By Attorney Miroslav Jankovic (Beograd) CONCLUSIONS & RECOMMENDATIONS By Willy Fautré, Director of Human Rights Without Frontiers (Brussels) 2 3 Introduction Willy Fautré In the last few years, religious issues have again been prominent in the news and on top of political agendas. The EU institutions which were so indifferent, if not reluctant to initiating any debate on religious topics until the end of the first decade of the 21st Century, are now interested in religious freedom issues outside the European Union. At the European Parliament, conferences on Christian minorities in Muslim countries and also on the veil or the burqa in the European Union have been organized. Other initiatives meant to create new mechanisms to mainstream religious freedom issues in the machinery of the European Parliament are also in progress. However, this also wakes up well known polarizations which namely oppose religious circles to supporters of a certain laicité and associations defending women's rights hostile to the Catholic Church. The office of the European Union's High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy, Lady Ashton, has already integrated religious freedom into its organization chart and someone has been appointed to this end. Since the beginning of this legislature, a mushrooming in the numbers and activities of the religious and anti-religious lobbies has suddenly accelerated in Brussels where European institutions have their permanent seat and where the Parliament works 2-3 weeks per month. The awakening of society and politics to certain religious issues does not necessarily mean that a new wind has started to blow. A calm sea has long reigned and debates have been frozen for too long but the religious climate has started to warm up, to melt the ice of indifference, to move the waves and to fill the sails of the public debate. The wind that has started to blow now appears to be swirling and capricious. 4 The return of religious issues into the public debate, sure, but also the return of powers opposed to the freedom to believe and to change one's religion whatever the clothes they adorn. One of these powers is FECRIS (European Federation of Centers for Research and Information), an organization uniting 25 anti-sect organizations in Europe which was founded in Paris in 1994 on the initiative of the French association UNADFI (National Union of Associations for the Defense of the Family and the Individual). This organization is controversial and its crusade against sects poses a number of fundamental questions. This study will focus on the FECRIS member associations in five European countries: France, the cradle of laïcité and the driving force of the anti-sect fight in Europe promoting the separation between State and religion; Austria and Germany, where public powers and dominant churches lead a common struggle against “sects”; and Serbia and Russia, two Orthodox countries in which FECRIS member associations include Orthodox missionary departments instrumentalizing the sect issue to eliminate competitors of Orthodox Churches. Various specialists from the five countries have contributed to this research under the aegis of Human Rights Without Frontiers. 5 FECRIS: European Federation of Research and Information Centers on Sectarianism Regis Dericquebourg The fight against minority religious groups in several Western societies is one of the most difficult social phenomena to be analyzed. Many political analysts and sociologists have attempted to explain it but it seems confusing. This is why scholars and jurists, in this publication, have worked on giving insight into this phenomenon. Numerous anti-sect groups have sprung up and have enjoyed the support of public powers or of traditional religions (the hypermarkets of religion on what they see as the “market of salvation”). The latest example is FECRIS which revisits the fight against heretics at the European level. History FECRIS was founded in Paris on 30 June 1994 at the instigation of the French anti-sect association UNADFI (National Union of Associations for the Defence of Family and the Individual).1 Its first seat was at UNADFI’s address: 10 rue du Père Julien Dhuit, 75020 Paris. Later, its seat was transferred to the same place as the GEMPPI (Study Group on Worldviews for the Protection of the Individual)2 in Marseille3 the President of which is Mr. Didier Pachoud. He was said to be the author of the list of 173 allegedly dangerous sects4 attached to the 1996 1 “Union Nationale des Associations pour la Défense de la Famille et de l’Individu”. 2 “Groupe d’Etude des Mouvements de Pensée en vue de la Prévention de l’Individu”. 3 26 A rue Espérandieu, 13001 Marseille. 4 In an interview with the newspaper “Le Quotidien de la Réunion et de l’Océan Indien” (13 May 2009), George Fenech, then head of the Inter- ministerial Mission of Vigilance and Fight against Sectarian Drifts (MIVILUDES), declared : “In 1995, 173 sects were listed by GEMPPI, the Study Group on Worldviews for the Protection of the Individual”. 6 parliamentary inquiry report on sects, which has no legal value but which is still referred to in France. Mr. Pachoud is FECRIS treasurer. He is also a member of the Federation of Friends of Secular Education.5 GEMPPI was founded in 1988. It claims to be a partner of CCMM – the Centre Against Mental Manipulations6, another member of FECRIS in France - and it enjoys the support of the General Council of the Département of the Bouches du Rhône7 and of Marseille8. It is affiliated to FECRIS. FECRIS is mainly financed by the French State. The share of donations by individual members is very small in comparison with the public funding the organization receives. It can therefore be said that France is deeply involved in the functioning of FECRIS. In 2005, FECRIS got the participatory status as INGO (International Non-Governmental Organization) at the Council of Europe. This recognition was controversial. Movements defending religious freedom and scholars voiced their disagreement. In 2009, FECRIS obtained consultative status with the Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC) of the United Nations (UN) and has hereby access to the UN in New York, Geneva and Vienna. This anti-sect group has become legitimized interlocutor of the media and public powers. However, there can be some shadows 5 “Fédération des Amis de l’Instruction Laïque”. 6 “Centre Contre les Manipulations Mentales”. 7 Département des Bouches du Rhône, one of the 100 administrative territorial subdivisions of the country. The executive power of the Département is the Conseil Général (General Council). 8 This city fights against sects but at the same time, it is accused to finance the construction of the Big Mosque of Marseille, which contravenes the 1905 Law forbidding the financing of a religion by public powers (See Le Cri du Contribuable, 8 December 2009). 7 in this idyllic situation for FECRIS. On 29 September 2009, at the Human Dimension Implementation Meeting of the OSCE/ODIHR in Warsaw, FECRIS vice-president criticized the participation of Raelians, Scientologists and other representatives of belief groups on the grounds that “they are only sects”. The moderator answered him in the presence of the delegations of the 56 Participating States that the word “sect” was not to be used in that forum and that everyone had the right to choose one’s religion or belief system. It is also noteworthy that the list of movements affiliated to FECRIS is growing and that new members come from all over Europe. However, according to observers of the anti-sect phenomenon, this growth is due to the fact that FECRIS is just a melting pot of associations with various, even contradictory, vested interests which see an opportunity to ally to fight against religious minorities. It is experiencing internal dissensions, which is understandable as it has lumped together competing traditional religions, such as the Roman Catholic Church and the Orthodox Churches, and anti-religious movements, such as atheistic associations. Structures, membership, conferences and financing FECRIS is a federation of European associations which is registered in France as a non-profit organization under the 1901 Law on associations. Every year, it holds a general assembly and a colloquium on a specific anti-sect topic.9 It develops intense lobbying inside governmental institutions.10 In 1994, it had 10 representatives in European countries. In 2000, FECRIS 9 In 2002: Children and cults (Barcelona); in 2004: Health and sectarian grip (Marseille); in 2006, Internationalization of sects: a danger to human rights in Europe? (Brussels); in 2007: Cults and Esotericism: New challenges for civil societies in Europe (Hamburg); in 2008, State responsibility to protect citizens against destructive cults.