Faced with the ever-increasing number of sectarian excesses in France, the government presents a bill

The government presents its bill to combat sectarian abuses on Wednesday November 15 in the Council of Ministers, a text supported by the Secretary of State for Citizenship and the City, Sabrina Agresti-Roubache. The number of these abuses has continued to increase for around ten years: during the last count in 2021, more than 4,000 reports had been made to Miviludes (Interministerial Mission for Vigilance and the Fight against Sectarian Abuses), i.e. 33, 6% more compared to 2020, and this figure has continued to climb since.

This bill plans to strengthen the legal arsenal to fight against these sectarian abuses, including the creation of new offenses, franceinfo learned from the State Secretariat for Citizenship and the City. For example, placing or maintaining a person in a state of psychological subjection (exerting pressure to alter the victim’s judgment) will be categorized as an offense, now punishable by a sentence of 3 years’ imprisonment and 375,000 euros fine.

The health sector particularly targeted

The health sector is also targeted: the latter today represents a third of reports of sectarian aberrations. A new offense will therefore also be created: that of pushing a person not to seek treatment, or to seek treatment via unrecognized practices. Another measure provided for in this bill: the obligation for justice to inform the orders of health professionals about the convictions of deviant practitioners, even when these convictions are not yet final.

A new offense will also be created to penalize practices dangerous to people’s health: it is an offense of provoking the abandonment or abstention of care or the adoption of practices, of which it is clear that They expose the person concerned to a serious or immediate risk to their health.