March 3, 2002

LATEST: MP Picard: “Proselytism is illegal in France”

French National Assembly member Catherine Picard, coauthor with Senator Nicolas About of the most repressive law passed by any western European democracy since the 1940s, has declared that one of the most fundamental human rights — articulated in every major international human rights instrument from the Universal Declaration of Human Rights onward — is illegal in France.

In a February 25th, 2002 article published online by the Christian Broadcasting Network (CBN), Picard, whose “Law to Reinforce the Prevention and Repression of Groups with a Sectarian Character” was passed in June 2001, stated:

“Proselytizing is not authorized by the French government. When religious groups talk about having the right to proselytize — the local government may authorize such activities but in reality such practices are illegal.”

Picard’s extraordinary pronouncement is directly contrary to international human rights instruments. The European Court of Human Rights, the United Nations Human Rights Committee and other human rights bodies have made clear in their rulings that they specifically understand the right to proselytize as included in the right to religious freedom.

Picard also admits to advising the Chinese government on how to draw up an anti-religious law based on the French model:

“I met with the Chinese leader of religious affairs,” she told CBN.

Strasbourg-based attorney Joel Thorton comments in response, “That’s not something that you want to be walking around and bragging about.” Amnesty International has documented the Chinese government’s torture of members of the Falun Gong, a religious movement that China has brutally persecuted. In addition, Chinese authorities have engaged in systematic harassment and persecution of Chinese Catholics and other Christian organizations.

Like her cohort Alain Vivien, President of the French “Interministerial Mission to Fight Against Sects (MILS)”, Picard professes blatant anti-Americanism:

“Europe is very concerned about protecting its democracies,” states Picard. “We are fully aware that behind all these prominent religious movements, 90 percent of which come from the United States, there are hidden agendas that are against the democracies.”

Picard’s fanaticism has evidently blinded her to the fact that European human rights organizations, including the International Helsinki Federation for Human Rights, the Brussels-based Human Rights Without Frontiers, and the Italian Centre for the Study of New Religions (CESNUR) have all condemned the About-Picard law. The Council of Europe’s Committee of Ministers has recommended against any new legislation in the field of new religious movements.

The new law is now to be used against Pastor Samuel Peterschmitt of a Christian Church in Mulhouse. According to CBN, a former church member, armed with the law, has brought charges against the congregation and the pastor faces imprisonment if convicted. His church would be dissolved.

One of the tactics of the anti-religious movement in France, exemplified in particular by Vivien and MILS, is to propagandize against the traditional religious role of offering help and succor. Says Pastor Vince Easterman, whose evangelical church in Paris was blacklisted in a 1995 parliamentary commission report, “If we want to have children’s church, Sunday school, that can be seen as influencing minors. If we do work for old people, it’s preying on the vulnerable. If we want to have a time of prayer and fasting — it’s seen as deprivation of food and sleep.”