100 cases of "abusive obstacles" which worry a coalition of associations

The repeated fines received by opponents of the Landivisiau gas central project (Finistère) is one of the 100 cases listed in the report -

• The Observatory of Associative Freedoms was launched in spring 2019 by a coalition of associations and is supported by a scientific committee made up of social science researchers.

• In his first report, published on Tuesday, he identified 100 cases of restrictions on associative freedoms since 2010 in France.

  From denigration to police repressions, through fines or cutbacks in subsidies.

• From this analysis, the Observatory of associative freedoms draws twelve recommendations to better recognize, protect and support the associations which act to nourish the public debate.

  The challenge ?

  “Do not weaken our democracy”.

"It is not coherent for us to subsidize an association which attacks the very foundations of our institution", launched Nicole Belloubet, former Minister of Justice, in November 2018. It thus justified the end of the agreement which bound for many years the prison administration in Genepi, which intervenes with imprisoned people.

With, for consequences, a cut of subsidy and a restriction of its access to prisons for the association.

If Nicole Belloubet will eventually review her position, this breach of convention remains symptomatic of the pressures that associations in France may undergo.

100 cases of restrictions identified

One of many?

This is the question that the Observatory of Associative Freedoms, launched in March 2019 by a coalition of French associations, looked into in a report - the very first of the Observatory - published on Tuesday.

The document lists 100 cases of associations, de jure or de facto, whose activities have been repressed, restricted or even hindered by the public authorities over the past ten years in France.

A round figure, symbolic, which is not exhaustive.

“This report should not be seen as a barometer of associative life, warns Julien Talpin, researcher in political science at the CNRS and leader of the scientific committee of the Observatory of associative freedoms.

The idea was to show a reality which is invisible today in the public debate and to put it on the agenda.

"

The Observatory thus claims to have identified many more cases.

"But we only retained those for which the evidence of restrictions of freedom was irrefutable and the victim associations agree to tell them publicly, details Julien Talpin.

We also wanted to have the most diverse panel possible, to show that these restrictions can affect all associations.

But it is undeniable that environmental associations are among the most affected, such as those working on the defense of migrants' rights, the issue of discrimination, the right to housing… ”

Denigration, cuts in subsidies, fines ...

To Génépi's story, the report adds that of Utopia 56, an association to help exiles, which made public a list of 37 fines drawn up against its volunteers in Calais, between March 19 and April 8, while 'they distributed equipment (tents, sleeping bags…) and food to migrants.

That also of the Association Action Droit des Muslims (ADM), faced with the closure, overnight, of its bank account "at the request of the administration and because of its activist commitment", she suspects. *.

That again of the spokesperson for Sepanso, Landes association opposed to the technique chosen to dredge the lake of Hossegor, and which will be attacked on a personal level by the mayor of the town on social networks after an interview given to France Blue.

That also of the Secours populaire in Hayange (Moselle), threatened with being expelled from its premises in 2015 by the new municipal team because it was considered too “pro-migrant”.

We stop there, the list is long.

The 100 cases can be found in detail here.

From these, the Observatory draws up a typology of the restrictions undergone by the associations.

The first category is that of disqualifications, "when a mayor, a prefect, an administrative agent expresses himself publicly on a dispute by attacking the reputation of the association to which he is opposed rather than responding on the bottom of the file ”, explains Julien Talpin.

Another category is that of material barriers.

"It is typically the cuts in subsidies or the difficulty of accessing premises", illustrates Julien Talpin.

The report distinguishes two other types of barriers.

Judicial and administrative (complaints in abusive justice, fines in cascades…) and the disproportionate use of the police force.

An acceleration over the past ten years?

These restrictions have accelerated in recent years.

"Difficult to say, answers Julien Talpin.

There were no similar studies carried out thirty or forty years ago that would allow us to make comparisons, and it would take considerable resources to investigate all the obstacles that we are told.

"For ten years, and especially these last five years, one has the feeling that these obstacles are accelerating", estimates in any case Antoine Gatet, administrator of France nature environment, federation of 3,500 local environmental associations in France.

An observation that does not share Bertrand Sorre, LREM deputy and co-president of the working group "associative life and volunteering of the National Assembly".

"To frequent a lot of local elected officials, and I know very few whose desire is to hamper associative freedoms," he comments.

On the contrary, the deputy has the impression that democratic vitality has never been so important in France, to the point that "the slightest project that sees the light of day is followed by the creation of an association in opposition".

And if it does not question the 100 cases listed by the observatory, "our justice is however independent and each association has the capacity and the freedom to seize it if it considers that its action is hindered.

"

The risk of "discouraged citizenships"

This is the whole problem for Malik Salemkour, president of the League of Human Rights (LDH), in the coalition of associations at the origin of the laboratory.

"Most associations do not have the same power as a public authority or a company, and by extension not the same facility to take legal action and defend themselves there," he reacts.

It is obvious, we are not in a dictatorship in France, but there are, compiled in this report, worrying signs of obstacles to the activities of associations which undermine our national and local democracy.

"

The risk, behind these 100 cases of repressed citizenship, is "to have thousands of cases of discouraged citizenship", points out Adrien Roux, director of Citizen Alliance, member association of the Observatory.

In other words, a weakening of our democracy.

Twelve recommendations to "better recognize, protect and support"

To avoid it, the report makes twelve recommendations that Adrien Roux summarizes in three levers.

"Better recognize already," he begins, by granting associations which seek to feed the public debate this status of citizen alert.

This is not the case today in France.

Even the recent Sapin 2 Law - which strengthens the protection of whistleblowers in French law - precisely excludes legal persons (NGOs, unions, associations) from the scope of protection.

"

This better recognition would reassure and legitimize the citizens who get involved, defends the report.

"It would also make it possible to better protect them, another of our strong recommendations," adds Adrien Roux.

For example, we could strengthen - at least make more visible - the role that the Defender of Rights can play in defending associations in the face of abusive repression.

Few know that they can seize it as such.

In the same vein, another of our recommendations is to facilitate access to legal aid for associations, in order to finance legal proceedings ”.

The last lever, finally, is that of support.

The report calls in particular to rethink the funding systems of associations which actively participate in the democratic debate, in particular by offering them greater independence from the political orientations of the elected representatives in place.

"Political parties, for example, receive state aid which depends on their election results," recalls Adrien Roux.

One could imagine a similar system for associations which would be based, again, on objective criteria.

"

Launch a parliamentary fact-finding mission?

The report puts forward several other avenues: the number of petition signatories, the number of people participating in the demonstrations, the ability to respect a framework of non-violence… They need to be explored further.

This is the twelfth and final recommendation of the report: "Broaden and deepen the analysis opened in this report by creating a parliamentary information mission". 

Lille

Migrants in Calais: The prefecture prohibits the distribution of meals by non-mandated associations

By the Web

Whistleblower: "Our societies are in a permanent state of alert", estimates sociologist Francis Chateauraynaud

* What the Ministry of the Interior disputes. 

• Democracy

• Participative democracy

• Citizenship

• Society

• Association