Joint press release, published by LDH on 15/03/2024 – accessible here.
The Arlette Moreau company, which produces interactive shows in the street aimed at making spectators think about contemporary issues, was refused a subsidy by the Regional Directorate for Women’s Rights and Equality of Nouvelle-Aquitaine on the grounds that its activity report would report “militant commitments that do not comply with the respect of the laws of the Republic recorded in the Republican Commitment Contract (CER)“.
This decision, which seriously infringes on the freedoms of association, expression and artistic creation, is based on an erroneous interpretation of the obligations imposed by the republican commitment contract on associations and of the law reinforcing the principles of the Republic. This interpretation is extremely dangerous in that it would allow public authorities to stop funding associations on the grounds that they are making speeches or carrying out militant, anti-establishment or simply critical actions.
As a result, in the face of this new political instrumentalization of the “separatism” law used as a tool of sanction in the face of political protest, the LDH (League of Human Rights), the Group for Information and Support of Immigrants (Gisti), the Cimade, the Movement against Racism and for Friendship between Peoples (MRAP), the Syndicat des avocats de France (Saf), the Right to Housing (Dal), the Collective of Citizens’ Associations (CAC) and the Federal Union for the Intervention of Cultural Structures (UFISC) filed a voluntary intervention on March 6, 2024 in support of the appeal brought by the company Arlette Moreau.
The repeated attacks on the associative world not only undermine the expression of civil society but are also very worrying for the functioning of our democracy.
Signatories: La Cimade, Collective of Citizens’ Associations (CAC), Right to Housing (Dal), Group for Information and Support of Immigrants (Gisti), LDH (League of Human Rights), Movement against Racism and for Friendship between Peoples (MRAP), Union of Lawyers of France (Saf), Federal Union for the Intervention of Cultural Structures (Ufisc)