This is one of the “fundamental principles of a democratic society”, and it is “weakening”: the Defender of Rights is concerned, this Friday, about an intensification of the risks of attacks on the freedom of association. “For several years, the Defender of Rights has denounced a weakening of this freedom which manifests itself in different ways, more or less insidious” in France, underlined the independent institution in a press release.
“Such a development is highly problematic in a democratic state,” she continues. It is reflected in particular by the intimidation of the police against associations for the defense of the most precarious, during the eviction of camps of exiles, for example. The Defender of Rights also denounced, on the occasion of the adoption of the law confirming the republican principles, the restriction of the freedom of association, which constitutes the conditioning of the allocation of subsidies on the signing of a ” republican contract of engagement”.
LDH “stigmatized”
This position comes in the midst of a controversy over the subsidies granted to the League of Human Rights (LDH), which “is the subject of such stigmatization by political leaders”, recalls the Defender of Rights.
Before the Senate Law Commission on April 5, Interior Minister Gérald Darmanin declared that “the subsidy given by the State” to the LDH “deserves to be considered in the context of the actions that have been carried out “. Then, Prime Minister Élisabeth Borne questioned Wednesday April 12 on the evolution and the role of the association, pointing out the “ambiguities” of the LDH “in the face of radical Islamism” and on the recent demonstration in Sainte- Solina. However, she assured that there was “no question of lowering the subsidy of this or that” association in principle.
Mentioning a suspension of subsidies granted by the State and communities “implicitly validates the idea that the League for Human Rights could seriously challenge the State, to the point of being able to justify the abolition of subsidies”. This could “lead to a substantial reduction in its activity”, specifies the Defender of Rights.
And to recall: “The European Court of Human Rights considers that the stigmatization of associations by the public authorities, combined with the threat of control measures and sanctions, can undermine the freedom of association”.