France SE’NAT: Law Commission adopts a more effective and balanced bill

-Nimish Kumar.

Friday March 19, 2021

Meeting on March 17 and 18, 2021, the Law Commission adopted the bill confirming respect for the principles of the Republic by modifying it by 105 amendments , including 73 by rapporteurs, Jacqueline Eustache-Brinio (Les Républicains – Val-d ‘ Oise) and Dominique Vérien (Union Centriste – Yonne) .

Regretting the late awakening of the Government in the face of a separatist phenomenon, in particular Islamist, highlighted by numerous works of the Senate in recent years , the committee wished, according to its president, François-Noël Buffet (Les Républicains – Rhône), “that the action, finally resolved, of the public authorities against this phenomenon can be based on solid and adequate legal mechanisms”.

The committee therefore completed the bill in order to strengthen the means of combating separatism while ensuring in particular that the new control procedures put in place remain proportionate to this objective and do not create unjustified constraints for all associations. with a religious vocation which, for a long time or more recently, have perfectly found their place in the Republic and fully respect its principles. It thus has:

– enriched the “republican contract of engagement” by requiring subsidized associations and foundations to ” not call into question the secular character of the Republic” ( article 6 );

– supervised the new powers of suspension of the Minister of the Interior within the framework of the regime of administrative dissolution of associations and reinforced the penal sanctions in the event of reconstitution ( article 8 );

– created a specific offense criminalizing the fact, for any person, of carrying out examinations aimed at certifying virginity which violate the dignity and privacy of women ( Article 16 ter );

– preserved the necessary procedural guarantees of the law of 29 July 1881 on freedom of the press for journalists who would be prosecuted under the new offense of malicious dissemination of personal data ( article 18 );

– refocused the regulation of the Superior Audiovisual Council on the major social networks vectors of hatred, by excluding online encyclopedias and search engines , while entrusting it with the mission of encouraging platforms to cooperate and promote their interoperability ( Article 19a ) ;

– provided for a renewal by tacit agreement of the recognition of the religious character of associations (article 27);

– abolished the 33% ceiling introduced by MEPs which would limit the annual share of resources coming from the investment buildings of religious associations (Article 28) ;

– reinstated article 35 of the law of December 9, 1905 to preserve the responsibility of the minister of religion who calls for disrespecting the laws of the Republic (article 39) ;

– introduced the possibility of withdrawing refugee status from persons convicted of defending terrorism (article 43 bis).

Consult the Essential with all the contributions of the committee

The bill will be examined in public session from March 30.