What to do with an association that resembles a cult?
Verified 07 February 2022 - Directorate for Legal and Administrative Information (Prime Minister)
Cults can sometimes use the associative form to exercise their activities. The latter are characterized by mental control which adversely affects a person's moral, health, financial and family balance. Victims of these acts (members, former members, or family members) can take various actions.
After collecting certain information about the association, victims can inform the Inter-ministerial Mission for Monitoring and Combating Sectarian Abuse (Miviludes), make a report or file a complaint with the competent authorities.
To get information about an association that seems to be drifting sectarian, you can do the following:
- Find available information about this association
- Inform you about the clues that facilitate the characterization of a risk of sectarian drift
- Ask the Inter-ministerial Mission for Monitoring and Combating Sectarian Abuse (Miviludes) for its opinion on this association.
At the Miviludes
You wish to inform the Miviludes of the existence or risk of sectarian drift in order to be assisted or to be guided in your efforts:
Inform the Miviludes of the existence or risk of sectarian drift
You can also contact the local correspondents of the Miviludes in regional or departmental administrations.
Who shall I contact
Letters to the local correspondents of the Miviludes in the regional or departmental administrations, and to the professionals are to be sent to the correspondent Sectarian Drifts of the service or organization concerned.
With professionals
You can also contact the health professionals (departmental councils of the college of doctors, pharmacists,...) or the associations of victims of sectarian abuse.
They can provide you with help and information.
At the National Center for Assistance and Prevention of Radicalization (Cnapr)
If you are faced with the violent radical involvement of a relative, you can contact the National Center for Assistance and Prevention of Radicalization (Cnapr).
Répondez aux questions successives et les réponses s’afficheront automatiquement
By telephone
Who shall I contact
- National Center for Assistance and Prevention of Radicalization (CNAPR)
Listens, informs and advises families wishing to report radicalization.
By telephone
0 800 005 696
Free service and calls
Monday to Friday, 9 am to 6 pm
Via the Internet
Report to department services
The departmental child welfare services (Ase) are responsible for collecting and processing information of concern regarding minors at risk or at risk of danger.
After assessing the situation, the ESA service may refer the case to the public prosecutor if its actions have proved ineffective in remedying the danger situation of the minor.
Call the National Child in Danger Hotline
Adults and minors facing or concerned by a risk and danger situation can report to the National Child in Danger Telephone Service (SNATED). This service is commonly called Maltreated Hello Childhood.
Information of concern shall be forwarded to the department concerned.
Who shall I contact
- Children in danger - 119
A phone number for any child or adolescent victim of violence or anyone concerned about a child's situation that is in danger or at risk of being in danger.
By telephone
119 (free and confidential call)
24/7
119 does not appear on phone records.
By foreigner phone
01 53 06 38 94
On www.allo119.gouv.fr
- Real-time chat for children under 21 (Mondays and Fridays from 5 p.m. to 9 p.m. and Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Thursdays from 3 p.m. to 7 p.m.)
- Sign Language Translation Platform for the deaf and hard of hearing
- Online collection form to file a situation
Request the intervention of the Children's Judge
The children's judge may act when the health, safety or morals of a minor are at risk.
Children's judges may also be called upon if the conditions of education or physical, emotional, intellectual and social development are seriously compromised.
The intervention of the judge may be requested by one of the two parents or the two jointly or by the person or department to whom the child has been entrusted or the legal guardian or the minor himself.
You can go to the police station or the gendarmerie brigade as soon as a infringement is committed.
This may be the case, for example, in the case ofswindle, ofbreach of trust, ofsexual abuse of minors, of elder abuse.
You can also file a complaint for abuse of weakness, if no specific offense of sectarian drift can be invoked.
Your complaint must be directed against the association (and its offending members) in order to be initiated criminal liability as legal person.
On the spot
You must go to a police station or a gendarme brigade of your choice.
You may not be refused the receipt of the complaint.
The complaint is then forwarded to the public prosecutor by the police or gendarmerie.
By mail
You can file a complaint with the public prosecutor.
We need to send a free-form letter the court of law of the place of the offense or of the domicile of the offender.
Who shall I contact
The letter should specify the following:
- Your marital status and full contact information (address and telephone number)
- Detailed account of the facts, date and place of the offense
- Name of the alleged perpetrator if known (otherwise, the complaint will be filed against X)
- Names and addresses of any witnesses to the offense
- Description and provisional or definitive estimate of the damage
- Evidence: medical certificates, work stoppages, miscellaneous invoices, findings ...
- Willingness to take civil action
File a complaint with the public prosecutor
Who shall I contact
You can send your complaint by registered letter with acknowledgement of receipt, by simple letter or by letter followed.
You can also file your complaint directly at the courthouse.
In any case, a receipt is given to you as soon as the Public Prosecutor's Office has registered your complaint.
- Penal Code: Articles 223-15-2 to 223-15-4Fraudulent abuse of ignorance or weakness
- Act No. 2001-504 of 12 June 2001 on strengthening the prevention and repression of sectarian movements that violate human rights and fundamental freedoms
- Criminal Policy Circular of 19 September 2011 on vigilance and combating sectarian abuses (PDF - 165.2 KB)
- Query the Miviludes
Online service
- Inform the Miviludes of the existence or risk of sectarian drift
Online service
- Assistance to families and prevention of violent radicalization
Online service
- Online Pre-Complaint
Online service
- Sectarian abuses under private lawInter-ministerial mission to monitor and combat sectarian drifts (Miviludes)
- Sectarian abuses under administrative lawInter-ministerial mission to monitor and combat sectarian drifts (Miviludes)
- Clues facilitating the characterization of a risk of sectarian driftInter-ministerial mission to monitor and combat sectarian drifts (Miviludes)
- International strategies of sectarian movementsInter-ministerial mission to monitor and combat sectarian drifts (Miviludes)
- What authorities should be seized in the event of sectarian driftInter-ministerial mission to monitor and combat sectarian drifts (Miviludes)
- Protecting minors from sectarian abuse (PDF - 2.4 MB)Inter-ministerial mission to monitor and combat sectarian drifts (Miviludes)
- Anti-jihadist machineryMinistry of the Interior