Testimony by
The Reverend N. J. L'Heureux, Jr.
Executive Director, Queens Federation of Churches
Moderator, Committee on Religious Liberty of the
National Council of the Churches of Christ in the USA

June 14, 2000

House International Relations Committee:
The Treatment of Religious Minorities in Western Europe

(cont...)

The Flushing Remonstrance is the earliest declaration of religious liberty on these shores focused on securing that liberty not just for self but for individuals and groups other than the ones making the declaration. It is appropriate – even necessary – that we who are not members of the targeted religious groups speak strongly for the protection of religious freedom for them as well as for ourselves in this land and in every land.

France is a signatory to international human rights laws protecting religious freedom. Unfortunately, French government policy is so far in violation of these tenets that its officials have set up an office called the “Interministerial Mission to Fight Against Sects,” commonly known by its acronym in French, MILS.

MILS’ very name betrays its disregard for internationally accepted standards of human rights and religious pluralism. The United Nations Special Rapporteur on Religious Intolerance, in his 1996 report to the United Nations Commission on Human Rights, noted that:

“A sect is considered to be different from a religion, and thus not entitled to the same protection. This kind of approach is indicative of a propensity to lump things together, to discriminate and to exclude, which is hard to justify and harder still to excuse, so injurious is it to religious freedom... History contains many examples of dissident movements, schisms, heresies and reforms that have suddenly given birth to religions or religious movements. All in all, the distinction between a religion and a sect is too contrived to be acceptable.”

In France, a 1996 parliamentary commission report stigmatized 173 religious movements with the pejorative label of “sect,” including Baptists, Mormons, Jehovah’s Witnesses and Seventh-day Adventists. That report continues to be relied upon by the French government and has led to restrictive and oppressive measures against minority faiths. The U.S. State Department’s Annual Report for International Religious Freedom, published last September, criticized the 1996 commission report on the grounds that “[it] was prepared without the benefit of full and complete hearings regarding the groups identified on the list. Groups were not told why they were placed on the list and, because the document exists as a commission report to the National Assembly, there is no mechanism for changing or amending the list short of a new National Assembly Commission inquiry and report.” The State Department further noted that “the ensuing publicity contributed to an atmosphere of intolerance and bias against minority religions. Some religious groups reported that their members suffered increased intolerance after having been identified on the list.”