ECLJ concerned about religious freedoms situation in France and Belgium

June 07, 2006

(Strasbourg, France)-The European Centre for Law and Justice remains concerned about the discriminatory application of French sect laws to close down or prevent from opening Evangelical and Pentecostal places of worship and to stifle religious free speech. The ECLJ, based in Strasbourg, has been working with several churches in France who have been harassed by local authorities. Those churches in the suburbs of Paris seem to be particularly hard hit by anti-clerical sentiment.

In the past six months alone, ECLJ has received several distressing requests from Evangelical church leaders and individual believers who face a wide array of legal difficulties; from zoning and registration problems, forced closure, harassment from local authorities for handing out proselytizing pamphlets to a child being taken away from her family for nine years because the family belonged to an Evangelical church on the French sect list. ECLJ has been working with these individuals and has in large part, through legal channels, helped many of these churches get the protection afforded to them by Article 9 and 14 of the European Convention of Human Rights, freedom of religion and freedom of expression respectively.

ECLJ has also signed on as counsel for a European Court of Human Rights case involving the child custody matter mentioned above. In that case, within a week of the venue being changed the United Kingdom, custody was given back to the parents. The application to the European Court alleges that the primary reason the French authorities used for quashing their parental rights was membership to an Evangelical church.

Equally troubling is the fact that the Belgian legislature is now in the process of discussing a draft bill on religious sects which mirrors the French law. While French church leaders lament that the closing of Evangelical and Pentecostal places of worship is becoming too frequent an occurrence, it is hoped that the Belgian government will not follow in the footsteps of the French. ECLJ has assisted Belgian based NGO’s in lobbying against the proposed law.