About-Picard Law - Government and Religion in France

Government and Religion in France

Freedom of religion and separation of church and state have formed part of the French idea of the state since at least the French Revolution and in some ways long before, since the 16th century period of the Reformation and of the Wars of Religion. Separation of religion and state in France takes the form of laïcité, by which political power avoids interference in the sphere of religious dogma, and religion avoids interference in public policies. The French understand "freedom of religion" primarily as the freedom of the individual to believe or not to believe what any religion teaches. Also, because of a long history of one single dominating church (the Catholic Church), the French state sees its duty less in protecting religion from state interference than in protecting the individual from interference by religion.

With this viewpoint in mind, the French state took a different attitude from that of some other nation-states with regard to the rise of new religious movements (NRMs): in light of the various tragedies of destructive cults and following complaints from families of adherents of NRMs, it looked for means of protecting the population (and especially vulnerable persons) from abuses by such cults. As early as 1983, deputy to the National Assembly Alain Vivien published a report, at the request of then-Prime Minister Pierre Mauroy, entitled, "The cults in France: Expression of moral liberty or carriers of manipulations?".

In the wake of the Order of the Solar Temple murders and suicides, the French Parliament established the Parliamentary Commission on Cults in France to investigate cults. In December 1995 the Commission delivered a report on cults which caused much controversy, some of it due to a list extracted from a report by the French National Police on purported cults. (The Commission assimilated information and analysis from the French police secret service, the Renseignements généraux.) To this day this list forms the basis of many accusations against France regarding restriction of freedom of religion.

Following the recommendations of the report, Prime Minister Alain Juppé set up in 1996 the "Interministerial board of observation of sects", followed in 1998 by the "Interministerial Mission in the Fight Against Sects" (MILS). In 2002 the "Interministerial Monitoring Mission Against Sectarian Abuses" (MIVILUDES) replaced MILS.

Other action of the French government against potential abuses by cults resulted in the passing of the About-Picard law.