06/09/2012 Legal Affairs and Human Rights
Strasbourg, 06.09.2012 – “The difficulty of striking a European consensus on the issue of ‘sects’ does not mean that we should drop the idea of establishing rules and policies at European level to protect minors against sectarian excesses,” said Rudy Salles (France, EPP/CD), rapporteur on the protection of minors against sectarian influence, speaking today at the opening of a hearing on this subject organised in Paris by PACE’s Committee on Legal Affairs and Human Rights.
“Given the vulnerability of children and teenagers, it is vital to remain vigilant and clamp down on any practices subjugating them in the name of religious beliefs. The Council of Europe - and its Assembly in particular - have an important role in combating this deeply worrying phenomenon,” he added.
Presenting the approach of the Netherlands towards new religious movements, Sophie van Bijsterveld, Professor in the University of Tilburg and member of the Dutch Senate, explained that no specific policy or law with respect to such movements exists in her country. They are subject to the general law, including the general law on religion.
In 1984, she said, “a parliamentary committee report on the subject concluded that no specific law or policy was desirable or necessary, whether preventive or repressive. This continues to be the policy today.” At present, the role of religion in the public domain is lively debated in the country, both academically and politically, as well as in the broader society. However, in this context, “the new religious movements do not attract special attention”.
Maksym Yurshenko, a lawyer representing the Family and Personality Protection Society from Ukraine, said that this issue should be viewed within the context of the interaction between the human rights to freedom of thought, conscience and religion and the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child.
“The state primarily reacts to direct acts of physical violence and harm that have a clear-cut character and are legally defined, such as physical or sexual abuse, but protection does not work when the harm that affects the child’s physical, psychological health and healthy development is not of such an obvious character,” he pointed out.
Those who speak in favour of new religious movements appeal to the legal acts confirming the right to freedom of thought, conscience and religion, but in connection to the Convention on the Rights of the Child, the States parties undertook a commitment to protect child’s rights according to the principle of the child’s best interests from all forms of abuses, maltreatment and neglect. That link can be achieved by empowering the existing state’s structures to regulate the sphere of religious activities, or by establishing special state bodies (such as France’s ‘Miviludes’), he concluded.
Georges Fenech, a member of the French National Assembly and former President of Miviludes (France’s Inter-ministerial Mission for vigilance and action against sectarian excesses) spoke about the work of this body. Miviludes aims to observe and analyse movements perceived as constituting a threat to public order or that violate French law, co-ordinating the appropriate response, informing the public about potential risks and helping victims to receive aid.
“As we all know, one of our main difficulties comes from the problem of terminology, if not the impossibility of defining the word ‘sect’. France’s Miviludes is a unique example because it does not aim to combat sects but to combat sectarian abuse, and by that I’m referring inter alia to the denial or limitation of medical care, food restrictions and sexual abuse.” Although many international instruments exist, “it is urgent that we come up with specific proposals at European level aiming to reinforce the protection of children without undermining the right to religion”, he underlined.
The rapporteur announced his intention to carry out fact-finding visits to certain member States with a view to holding on-the-spot talks with representatives of institutions and civil society involved in combating sectarian excesses and protecting children. He will also send a questionnaire to the member States parliamentary delegations, or use the European Centre for Parliamentary Research and Documentation (ECPRD), in order to gather more data on the extent of the phenomenon of sects and the state of legislation in the field of protection of minors against sectarian excesses.