The IRF Roundtable and EIFRF (European Interreligious Forum for Religious Freedom) circulated a letter regarding the bill on “reinforcing the fight against cultic deviances” that is currently discussed in the French Parliament. Please see below for more information from their organization:
 
The bill is currently reviewed by a special committee in the French Senate, and will be sent to the plenary assembly of the Senate to be voted upon on December 19. The bill contains 7 articles, and all are problematic and contrary to the internationally agreed standards on freedom of religion or belief. It targets religious and spiritual minorities by calling them “cults” and creates a new crime of “psychological subjection,” which will be applied to minority religions while being a notion devoid of any scientific basis. It will also give the possibility to “anti-cult” associations to be civil parties (plaintiffs) in criminal trials against so-called “cults” even if they haven’t suffered any damage, endangering the right to a fair trial of the faithful.

The letter intends to warn French MPs about the danger of passing such a bill, which represents a psychiatric criminalization of belief and a serious threat to fundamental
freedoms.

INFORMATIVE SOURCES:

• Article on European Times, “Freedom Of Religion Or Belief, There Is Something Rotten in France”

• Article on Bitter Winter: “France Plans to Make a Bad Law Even Worse”

• Analysis of the bill on EIFRF website

• Letter to French Senators by The Center for Studies on Freedom of Religion Belief and Conscience (LIREC)