What to do with an association that resembles a cult?
Verified 15 June 2023 - Directorate for Legal and Administrative Information (Prime Minister)
A cult is characterized by a mental control which carries damage to themoral, health, financial and family balance of a person.
To do this, the cult seeks to isolate, de-socialize, indoctrinate, de-empower a person in order to push him or her into a loss of autonomy or financial loss.
The victims of these acts (members, former members, or family members) may to initiate various actions.
For information on an association that seems to be drifting sectarian, you can:
- 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.
After you have collected some information about the association, you can inform the following instances:
- Inter-ministerial mission to monitor and combat sectarian drifts (Miviludes)
- Professional and/or association of aid to victims
- National Center for Assistance and Prevention of Radicalization (Cnapr)
- State administration
- Police station or gendarmerie (to make a report or lodge a complaint).
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 and associations
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 radical involvement of a relative, you can contact the National Center for Assistance and Prevention of Radicalization (Cnapr).
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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
To the rectorate, the Regional Health Agency or the DDETS
You can also send a letter to the rectorate, the regional health agency, the departmental directorate for employment, labor and solidarity (DDETS).
At the police station and gendarmerie
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 can go to a police station or a gendarme brigade of your choice.
The police or gendarmerie refer the complaint to the public prosecutor.
If the police or gendarmerie refuse to take your domestic violence complaint, you can alert the competent control authorities.
Submit online to the Inspectorate General of the National Police
Contact the Inspectorate General of the National Gendarmerie online
By mail
You can file a complaint with the public prosecutor.
To do this, you must send an email to the court of law of the place of the offense or of the domicile of the offender.
Who shall I contact
Your mail should include 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)
- Name and address of any witnesses to the offense
- Description and provisional or definitive estimate of the damage
- Your proof documents: medical certificates, work stoppages, photographs, videos, miscellaneous invoices, findings, etc.
You can use the following mail template:
File a complaint with the public prosecutor
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.
The presence of a lawyer is not mandatory for the lodging of a complaint and throughout the procedure until the trial before the correctional court. However, you can get legal assistance if you wish.
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 referred to as Hello Child Abuse.
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.
On www.allo119.gouv.fr
- Real-time chat for children under 21 years of age (7 days a week from 3:00pm to 9:00pm)
- French Sign Language Device for the deaf and hard of hearing
This platform is open Monday to Friday from 8:30 a.m. to 7 p.m. and Saturday from 9 a.m. to 12 p.m. - Online collection form to file a situation if you are an adult
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.
Fraudulent abuse of ignorance or weakness
Online service
Online service
Service-Public.fr
Inter-ministerial mission to monitor and combat sectarian drifts (Miviludes)
Inter-ministerial mission to monitor and combat sectarian drifts (Miviludes)
Inter-ministerial mission to monitor and combat sectarian drifts (Miviludes)
Inter-ministerial mission to monitor and combat sectarian drifts (Miviludes)
Inter-ministerial mission to monitor and combat sectarian drifts (Miviludes)
Inter-ministerial mission to monitor and combat sectarian drifts (Miviludes)
Ministry of the Interior