Secretary of State for Citizenship Sonia Backès during greetings from the Minister of the Interior, in Paris, January 25, 2023. Bertrand GUAY / AFP
While the phenomenon is growing strongly, the Ministry of the Interior is calling for a change of scale. “Seven priority areas” are currently on the table.
The Secretary of State for Citizenship, Sonia Backès, called on Thursday March 9 for a “change of scalein the fight against sectarian aberrations, by openingsitting“, which aim to establish a “multi-year roadmap“.
This meeting, which takes place at the Ministry of the Interior until Friday March 10, takes place four months after the publication of the last report of the Interministerial Mission for Vigilance and the Fight against Sectarian Abuses (Miviludes), an organization attached to the ministry. The latter alerted, among other things, to an increase of nearly 50% in reports received between 2015 and 2021.
Read alsoSects: the intimate fight of Secretary of State Sonia Backès, “saved” from Scientology abuses
“Seven priority areas”
“Miviludes carries a clear message: the sectarian phenomenon has been constantly increasing in our country for many years.“, with “more than 4000 reports” received in 2021, declared Sonia Backès by opening these meetings. “It is therefore important to take the measure of this alert“, she continued: “to do this, the State must, with all the stakeholders, readapt its organization and its tools to better respond to this societal challenge. We must now scale“.
The Minister notably considered that it would be difficult to “save on strengthening our legislative arsenalquoting as “urgent” the fact of “strengthen the possibilities of prosecuting perpetrators», «to improve the reparation due to the victims“, or even of”shorten the processing times for procedures“. Another objective, according to Sonia Backès: “put all our energy into prevention, awareness, information on risks“. And for her,the decisive battle is fought on social networks“.
Read alsoSectarian excesses: in Lyon, the dangerous liaisons of the town hall
The ministry, which brings together during these two days State services, Miviludes, associations, personalities, parliamentarians, will work according to “seven priorities“, among which “develop the law and judicial responses», «consolidate the partnership between the State and associations in the territory», «better support victims“, or “fight against sectarian aberrations on the Internet“. It will be a question, according to Sonia Backès, of achievingthe definition of a multi-year roadmap for the fight against sectarian aberrations including concrete and strong measures“.
SEE ALSO – Who is Raël, the man at the origin of the sect which believes in the return of the extraterrestrials?