FECRIS Abstract: English

Spain was the location of the International Congress on Sects in Barcelona in 1993.This conference resulted in the creation of an international European organisation dedicated to the study of totalitarian groups and Cults.  It was concerned about the world wide mission of these movements in Europe

This resulted in the setting up of FECRIS (European Federation of Centres of Research and Information on Sectarianism[1])  which was founded on 30 June 1994 in Paris. It is an association based on the French law of 1901. It is non sectarian and does not espouse any particular philosophical, religious, political or economic point of view.

In 1999, in Paris, at the French National Assembly, a European Conference was organised by FECRIS which brought together more than 200 participants from all over Europe. The participants at this conference drew up a Common Declaration in which they committed themselves to respect fundamental freedoms as accepted in the 1948 Universal Declaration of Human Rights, the European Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms, the International Convention on the Rights of the Child, and national laws. Our network gathered momentum when Eastern and Central Europe opened up and the great migration of cults/sects from the USA and Western Europe to these countries began. Progressively new family protection associations emerged there to become FECRIS members and correspondents. There were eleven pioneer organisations from seven European countries at the first meetings. To date the Federation comprises 45 associations spread over 29 countries.

The objectives of FECRIS are to:

·         Rally representative European associations confronted by cultist and totalitarian organisations whose practices violate the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and other Human Rights Conventions as specified above.

·         Represent the member associations in their contacts with the European institutions and draw attention to the activities of harmful cultist organisations.

·         Alert public authorities and international institutions in the event of criminal activities.

·         Participate in the creation of a European legal framework to respond to the challenges raised by Sects and Cults.

·         Develop an international information network.

·         Research and study the issue of Sects and Cults in all appropriate areas: psychological,  sociological and with reference to international law. This is done with neutrality in regard to the theological, confessional, ideological, philosophical or political perspectives individual members may hold. FECRIS unites in its common task based on the guiding principle of non sectarianism

The activity of FECRIS are three pronged:

·         pooling of the experience and information of its associations. 

·         organisation of meetings on research at the European level. 

-          In 2001: Meeting of European lawyers (Paris) to discuss specific experiences in the field of defence of cult victims.

-          In 2002, a conference was devoted to Child Protection (Barcelona) with regard to the cult phenomenon.

-          In 2004, a conference on the subject "The Impact of Cults on the Health in Society". (Marseilles)

-          In 2005, a conference on "Cults, Education and Training" (Vienna).

·         FECRIS’ main objective is to give the European authorities the information which they need and make them aware of the phenomenon of harmful cults, of the dangers they represent not only for individuals and families but also for States and democracies

In the expectation of obtaining advisory status of the Council of Europe, FECRIS regularly attends the meetings or regroupings of OING[2] during the sessions of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe.  Mainly it attends the regroupings concerning the "Human Rights”, "Health" and "the Social Charter".