Miviludes forced to pay €1,500 twice to CAP Liberté de conscience
by Willy Fautré, director of Human Rights without Frontiers — On 15 May, MIVILUDES (Interministerial Mission for Vigilance and the Fight Against Cultic Deviances) was again convicted in two cases brought before the Paris Administrative Court by the association CAP Liberté de conscience. In both cases, MIVILUDES was required to pay the sum of €1,500 for financial compensation to the said association.
In the first case, MIVILUDES was accused by CAP Liberté de conscience of having published a misleading statement in its 2021 activity report that purported to legally justify the refusal of access to administrative documents concerning subsidies granted by MIVILUDES to the anti-cult organization UNADFI (National Union of Associations for the Defense of Families and Individuals Victims of Cults). In an effort to dispel any form of opacity concerning the granting of state subsidies to associations, the administrative court ordered MIVILUDES to remove the incriminated passages.
The contested interpretation of the right of access to administrative documents concerned not only citizens or associations monitoring the proper use of French citizens’ taxes, but also administrative officials responsible for enforcing the right of access. Without this judgment, any subsequent investigation by anyone in civil society into the granting of subsidies by MIVILUDES, or other state institutions, to associations would have encountered the opacity organized by their administration. Transparency is essential in a state governed by the rule of law, and the Paris Administrative Court clearly understood this.
In the second case, MIVILUDES was accused by CAP Liberté de conscience of having refused it access to the said administrative documents concerning the use of subsidies granted to UNADFI in 2021. It is now compelled to do so by court order and must deliver these documents within two months, failing which it will be subject to a penalty payment.
In both cases, MIVILUDES was ordered to pay €1,500 to CAP Liberté de conscience, known for its meticulous investigations and its fight for the judicious use of public funds by certain associations.
These two successes add to the series of recent convictions of MIVILUDES for a lack of rigor and objectivity in its reports:
On 14 June 2024, the Paris Administrative Court had already sanctioned the deletion of defamatory passages targeting Jehovah’s Witnesses, for “inaccuracies” and a lack of objectivity.
On 21 February 2025, the same court forced MIVILUDES to remove the reference to “cultic deviations” from the report on the Malrevers Kibbutz, deeming the description unfounded and misleading.
See the two decisions of the Paris Administrative Court on 16 May: decision one and decision two.
For more information, contact: CAP Liberté de Conscience – Email: contact
coordiap.com (contact[at]coordiap[dot]com)
Source: HRWF
