E/CN.4/2006/5/Add.4 page 16 also included cases of violations of family law, defamation, infringement of private life, tax-related offences and violations of labour or social law. However, the commission considered that judicial convictions were not enough to demonstrate the dangers represented by these groups because the victim is not always conscious of the harm caused to him or her and only a few members readily complain. It is also difficult to obtain evidence and existing criminal law reportedly does not cover all the acts that raise concern. 77. The Commission report together with the above-mentioned list was made public in 1996. It was followed by the creation of the Inter-ministerial Observatory on sectes (observatoire ministeriel des sectes), which was dissolved in 1998 and replaced by the Inter-ministerial Mission to Combat “Sectes”. (Mission interministerielle de lutte contre les sectes) (MILS). By a decree of 28 November 2002, MILS was replaced by MIVILUDES. 78. Besides governmental bodies, a number of groups have been created at the national or regional level, including by alleged victims, to combat sectes. One of these groups was declared of public utility and benefited from financial government support. 79. At the legislative level, after a long process, a new law called the About-Picard Law (named after the two Members of Parliament who proposed the draft) was adopted on 3 May 2001. The law was designed to dissolve those groups or movements which had been convicted several times, as well as to extend the criminal offence of wrongful abuse of an individual’s state of ignorance or weakness (délit d’abus frauduleux de l’état d’ignorance ou de faiblesse). In addition to the above, the law also extends criminal responsibility for legal entities personnes morales and limits the ability of sectarian movements to advertise. 80. On 25 November 2004, on the basis of investigations revealing risks of collective suicides, inter alia, the Tribunal correctionnel de Nantes convicted the first person under the About-Picard law and sentenced the leader of a group called Néophare to a suspended sentence of three years’ imprisonment for having abused the state of ignorance of four members of the group. The conviction and sentence were confirmed on appeal. 81. More recently, by (government instructions) circulaire of 27 May 2005, the former Prime Minister elaborated on the main tasks of MIVILUDES. B. Consequences of the measures taken 82. During her visit, the Special Rapporteur met with representatives of some of the religious groups or communities of belief that were included in the 1996 list, including members of the Church of Scientology and Jehovah’s Witnesses. Most have recognized some improvement in their situation but cases of unlawful discrimination continued to be raised, including in the school system because of the anti-sectes campaign that is often conducted without appropriate guidance, resulting in the stigmatization of a number of children that were said to be members of these groups. 83. The existence and publicity of the list of sectes has not affected only freedom of religion or belief. In addition, the mere fact that one is a member of a group on the list has constituted an element for judicial or other decisions that negatively affect an individual’s other rights, for example, in child custody cases.