2002 Leipzig Human Rights Award

(originally the "2000 Alternative Charlemagne Award") Alain Vivien receives the Human Rights Award of the European-American Citizens Committee for Human Rights and Religious Freedom in the USA The European-American Citizens Committee for Human Rights and Religious Freedom in the USA is involved in human rights and religious freedom in the USA and worldwide, and is engaged in the discussion in particular about new totalitarian organizations.

In doing so it lets itself be guided by the stance taken by 17 million Americans in 1950 when they signed a pledge to the Berlin Liberty Bell:

"I believe in the sacredness and dignity of the individual. I believe that all men derive the right to freedom equally from God. I pledge to resist aggression and tyranny wherever they appear on earth."

We are dismayed that, for the last few years, the Scientology Organization (SO) has managed to exert its influence in US foreign politics. The SO, responsible for the 17 days of anguish immediately preceding the death of Lisa McPherson (USA), for the financial ruin of the Aigner family (Germany) and for the tragic death of Patrice Vic (France), tries to inflict damage upon the European-American friendship for which we have all been working so hard in the past decades. As European friends of the United States of America and or as US citizens, we are concerned about the attacks by the Scientology organization on the lives and human dignity of not only its own members, but also of its critics. 2002 Human Rights Award for Minister Alain Vivien In Leipzig, the city of the East German civil rights movement, we will bestow the Human Rights Award of the European-American Citizens Rights Committee for Human Rights and Religious Freedom in the USA to Minister Alain Vivien, the third such person to receive this distinction.

Minister Alain Vivien has been dealing with the problems of totalitarian cults and sects since 1983. That is when National Assembly Representative Alain Vivien, as commissioned by Minister President Pierre Mouroy, submitted the first situation report about this problematic area. He also worked to produce the first French Enquete report on sects and totalitarian organizations in 1993, and, since 1998, has been the president of the Mission Interministerielle pour la lutte contre les sectes for the Prime Minister of the Republic of France (MILS).

Alain Vivien recognized the multi-dimensionality of the problem early on, and, in his thorough analysis, he clearly outlined the threat from totalitarian organizations and movements to the liberty of the individual, as well as to free society as a whole. As President of MILS, he has dedicated himself to seeing to it that France, the country of human rights, recognizes the new threats to human rights, and has interceded on behalf of the freedom of the individual and of the democratic society for the necessity of state protection against totalitarian misuse by private organizations. He has also been involved with the fates of those affected by destructive groups, has worked toward the legal, organizational and political shoring up of their human rights, and toward the protection of victims of Scientology and similar organizations in the creation and implementation of a legal framework for the French National Assembly.

In doing this he has demonstrated courage, not only in using his expert knowledge to cope with the intense political pressure, both domestic and foreign, but also in using his personal dedication to publicly debate the new totalitarianism of the Scientology Organization (SO). For this prize winner he has been heavily targeted by the Scientology Organization and its allies.

With his active involvement in a society susceptible to the totalitarianism of Scientology organization, and with his involvement with its former members who have found themselves persecuted and attacked by the SO, Alain Vivien has duly demonstrated merit in the area of human rights, especial in the freedoms of opinion and of religion.

This award is also granted in recognition of the important and successful work done by all the MILS staff, not leaving out the work done by the French National Assembly, which worked through all party differences to enact legislation for the protection of human rights against the new dangers posed by totalitarianism.

At the same time, this award is also a gesture of our appreciation to politicians on either side of the Atlantic for their efforts to put a stop to the human rights violations committed by the Scientology organization in both Europe and in the USA.

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