YESTERDAY was a big day in the annals of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE), a body of legislators which is supposed to act as an important guardian of the continent's democratic freedoms. Not just because of the story that grabbed a few headlines: as a protest against the annexation of Crimea, Russia's delegation was deprived of its voting rights until the end of the year, and they angrily threatened to withdraw from the 47-nation Council altogether. Yesterday also saw a victory in PACE for purist advocates of religious liberty, as a long-planned move to curb the activities of "sects" was unexpectedly knocked off course.
At stake was a resolution which in its original form would have denounced "new religious movements" (to use an alternative, and less loaded description of the groups sometimes described as "sects") and urged European governments to monitor such bodies and restrict their influence on youngsters. To critics, this seemed like a move to extend the policy of France—which takes a relatively harsh view of small religious groups and has an agency dedicated to countering them—across the whole of Europe. The initiative's prime mover was a French politician, Rudy Salles, and it found support in some east European countries which have one prevailing religion and regard new players in the field as unwelcome foreign imports. For example, Naira Zohrabyan, a fiery Armenian politician, declared that "we are simply obliged to halt the dangerous, devastating 'sect parade' in our countries, as they very often lead families and minors to guaranteed destruction, taking advantage of the extreme social conditions people face."