HUMAN RIGHTS TESTIMONY REV. SKIP L’HEUREUX: Executive Director of the Queens Federation of Churches testified on a law proposal in France directed against 173 religions including Baptists, a Catholic order, Eastern and minority religions. “Should this law pass, it will place in question France’s commitment to the Helsinki Accords. Such a law would be a cancer on French democracy.”

“A Cancer on French Democracy”

Human rights authorities in Europe and the U.S. concur that the MILS and its leader, former politician Alain Vivien, have greatly increased religious intolerance and severely worsened France’s standing in the international human rights community.

Two recent law proposals in the country have done nothing to help France’s reputation. The first, a failed Senate bill introduced in December 1999, was an extension of a 1936 law effected during the Vichy government for the dissolution of groups. Efforts were redoubled with a 2000 National Assembly proposal to grant the government despot-like powers to dissolve religious groups.

“Should this law pass, it will place in question France’s commitment to the Helsinki Accords,” L’Heureux testified to the committee. “Such a law would be a cancer on French democracy.”

One of the primary criticisms aimed at France is the refusal of those leading the confrontational anti-sect stance to engage in dialogue.

The MILS also “frequently employs anti-American rhetoric in order to justify its position, thinking that that plays well in France,” said Dr. Gunn.

Ambassador Seiple said that the U.S. government “engaged actively in promoting a dialogue with French authorities. President Clinton, Secretary of State Albright, the assistant secretary of state, and myself have each raised these issues of religious discrimination with French officials during the past year.”

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