The United Nations Basic Principles on the use of Force and Firearms by Law Enforcement Officials includes Principle 9, which states: “Law enforcement officials shall not use firearms against persons except in self-defence or defence of others against the imminent threat of death or serious injury […] intentional lethal use of firearms may only be made when strictly unavoidable in order to protect life.” 

On 7 July 2023, in a statement the UN Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination (CERD) stated that they are “deeply concerned by the continuing practice of racial profiling combined with the excessive use of force by law enforcement officials, in particular the police, against members of minority groups, particularly people of African and Arab descent, which frequently results in disproportionately recurrent killings with near impunity”.

In response the French authorities reiterated its claim that “Any accusation of racism or systemic discrimination by law enforcement officers in France is unfounded.” https://www.diplomatie.gouv.fr/fr/politique-etrangere-de-la-france/la-france-et-les-nations-unies/evenements-et-actualites-lies-aux-nations-unies/article/declaration-du-comite-pour-l-elimination-de-la-discrimination-raciale-08-07-23

Amnesty International France are part of a coalition of human rights groups that brought a class action lawsuit in 2021 against the French state’s inaction over ethnic profiling and systemic racial discrimination. The case is ongoing. https://www.amnesty.org/en/latest/press-release/2021/07/france-class-action-lawsuit-against-ethnic-profiling-filed-over-systemic-racial-discrimination/ 

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Amnesty International is calling on the Summit for a New Global Financing Pact (PACT) to ensure wealthier nations honour previous financial pledges they have failed to meet and adopt new ones which guarantee the rights of people in lower-income countries.

The rights to an adequate standard of living and to social security are enshrined in the 1948 Universal Declaration of Human Rights, as well as the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, which has been ratified by more than 170 countries. Article 2 of the ICESCR obliges states to take steps, including through international cooperation and assistance, to support other states to meet their economic and social rights obligations.

“Many vulnerable, lower-income states have been overwhelmed by economic shocks, debts they cannot pay, and the effects of climate change – a crisis to which they contributed very little, but which is costing people in these countries dearly. These are unprecedented challenges that require a rethink of how the world’s financial architecture is set up,” said Agnès Callamard, Amnesty International’s Secretary General.

The rights of many people in vulnerable countries to access healthcare and social protection are not met at even the most basic level

Agnès Callamard, Amnesty International’s Secretary General

“The rights of many people in vulnerable countries to access healthcare and social protection are not met at even the most basic level. There is a vital need to provide financial and technical assistance to these countries so that they can scale up social protection schemes to guarantee people’s right to an adequate standard of living.

“Unsustainable levels of debt can have grave implications for economic and social rights. The cost of servicing existing debt can divert essential financing away from crucial social spending. Coordinated international action offering debt relief can transform the ability of governments to invest in economic and social protections, supporting their capacity to protect the rights of their people.

All creditors – states, private creditors, and international financial institutions – should cooperate to ensure timely debt relief for all countries in and at risk of debt distress and consider all options, including debt restructuring and debt cancellation.

Agnès Callamard

“All creditors – states, private creditors, and international financial institutions – should cooperate to ensure timely debt relief for all countries in and at risk of debt distress and consider all options, including debt restructuring and debt cancellation.

“All states should support and fund the establishment of a global social protection fund to help countries that are struggling to provide adequate protections, as advocated by the International Labour Organization and UN Special Rapporteur on Extreme Poverty and Human Rights.

“It is regrettable that many states, and civil society organizations and social movements representing communities worst affected by these crises, will not be represented at the summit. Those most exposed to the effects of climate change and national indebtedness should be allowed to contribute to discussions and engage in reforms that can achieve climate justice and economic security.

Whether the Paris meeting, called by France’s President Macron outside of the usual UN framework for discussions, is an appropriate forum for the substantial reforms required is questionable.

Agnès Callamard

“Whether the Paris meeting, called by France’s President Macron outside of the usual UN framework for discussions, is an appropriate forum for the substantial reforms required is questionable.

“Nonetheless, we urge the summit’s participants to recognize the urgency of this unfolding crisis and encourage them to harness the growing momentum for change. It is crucial that they enable further progress at the G20 Leaders’ Summit and COP28 climate meeting later this year.”

Climate funding

Lower income countries cannot fairly phase out fossil fuels, protect people from the harms of the climate crisis and provide remedy to those most affected if wealthier states continue to evade their obligations of international cooperation and assistance under human rights law and the commitments taken under the 2015 Paris Agreement and the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change to provide climate finance to developing countries.

Countries have failed to fulfil a pledge to provide US$100 billion annually to help states mitigate and adapt to climate change. A separate loss and damage fund has yet to be funded and become operational. A climate meeting in Bonn this month was hampered by disputes between wealthy and developing countries over climate finance.

“Commitments to ensure urgent and sufficient relief for nations in debt distress, and more grants, are required to support those states struggling to protect the rights of people against the devastating impacts of the climate crisis and other disasters,” said Agnès Callamard.

With average global temperatures rising and set to far exceed the 1.5˚C increase over pre-industrial levels previously agreed to, the world is standing on the precipice of a climate disaster.

Agnès Callamard

“With average global temperatures rising and set to far exceed the 1.5˚C increase over pre-industrial levels previously agreed to, the world is standing on the precipice of a climate disaster. This summit should offer a chance for global leaders to protect the rights of the world’s most marginalized people, not move the burden further onto those who are suffering the most but contributed the least to causing this crisis.”

Tax and financial reform

The global financial system has failed the people most at risk from an unprecedented combination of crises, and fundamental reform to make it more inclusive, sustainable, and equitable is long overdue.

Amnesty International shares many of the concerns about this summit made by civil society organizations and some Global South countries, including the absence of a scheduled discussion on a UN Tax Convention and Tax Body to create fairer global tax governance, and on the imperative to shift finance away from fossil fuels and towards economic and social rights.

Background

PACT is a two-day event, called last year by France’s President Macron. It will be held in Paris from 22-23 June. More than 50 heads of state or government are expected to attend.

The meeting was inspired by the Bridgetown Initiative, a framework agreed in 2022 in Barbados to reform the global financial system and address the debt, climate, and cost-of-living crises.

Amnesty International has set out its recommendations for how economic and social rights should be financed.

The UN guiding principles on foreign debt and human rights provide specific guidance on the human rights obligations and responsibilities of all debtors, and state and non-state lenders, including multilateral development banks.

The post Global: Paris finance summit must deliver urgent assistance to states struggling with debt and climate crises appeared first on Amnesty International.

“Diplomatic moves by the French government fly in the face of established human rights principles and call into question the very essence of universal jurisdiction. Their proposal, if accepted, could grant states a loophole to avoid prosecuting or extraditing those suspected of crimes under international law. Simply put, this disturbing amendment could let suspected torturers and war criminals off the hook, and even lead to providing them with a safe haven.

Diplomatic moves by the French government fly in the face of established human rights principles and call into question the very essence of universal jurisdiction.

Agnès Callamard, Secretary General, Amnesty International

“The amendment would drastically dilute the potency and power of the new convention. It is tantamount to making justice subservient to politics. It signals a worrying slide backwards in international law, as well as the universal fight for justice, truth and reparation.

“The draft convention must incorporate the highest standards of international human rights. The French proposal risks undermining existing rules in globally accepted treaties against torture and enforced disappearances.

“Amnesty International calls on all states participating in the conference to strongly reject the French proposals on draft Articles 6 and 11 of the draft convention, and to keep the original text as proposed.”

Background

Government officials from over 77 countries are meeting in Ljubljana, Slovenia from 15-26 May to conclude negotiations and adopt a landmark treaty, the Convention on International Cooperation in the Investigation and Prosecution of the Crime of Genocide, Crimes against Humanity, War Crimes and other International Crimes.

The purpose of the treaty, also known as the Mutual Legal Assistance Convention, would require governments that have joined it to investigate and, if there is sufficient admissible evidence, prosecute suspected perpetrators of these crimes in their own domestic courts, or hand them over to another country or to an international criminal tribunal for trial.Supported by the UK, among others, France has proposed amendments that would defeat the object and purpose of the new convention. These include changes to Draft Articles 6 and 11 to make the obligations of states to set up a mechanism of universal jurisdiction and to extradite or prosecute suspected perpetrators of crimes under international law discretionary.

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“Hundreds of millions of people around the world are expected to mark Earth Day this year, reflecting growing and well-founded concerns about the damage being inflicted on our climate and environment. Amnesty International salutes everyone who is helping to promote the protection of our planet and human rights.

Amnesty International salutes everyone who is helping to promote the protection of our planet and human rights.

Marta Schaaf, Director of Climate, Economic and Social Justice, and Corporate Accountability Programme, Amnesty International

“The impacts of climate change are not borne equally – many countries that contributed little to carbon emissions face near existential threats and overall there are severe health and other human rights consequences experienced mostly by racialized and marginalized people. The more attention and public support that is mobilized, the better the chances we have of limiting and reversing damage.

“The effects of the climate crisis are increasingly evident. A severe heatwave is currently gripping large parts of Asia, including Thailand, Laos, Bangladesh, parts of China and swathes of India, with temperatures far exceeding 40˚C. There is water rationing in Tunisia and a shortage in Spain, the forest fire season has already begun in France, and there are warnings that the harvest in Morocco and the wider Maghreb will be reduced by drought. A just energy transition away from fossil fuels has never been more urgent and we are not moving fast enough to prevent a catastrophic rise in global temperatures.”

This international show of solidarity should motivate many more to engage in the campaign to protect our human rights from the potentially devastating impact of climate change.

Marta Schaaf

“Yet the public pressure on states and corporations to act is having some effect. Output from renewables has never been higher, and there are tangible advances in international and domestic legislation towards delivering climate justice and holding polluters accountable. There has been progress towards establishing a fossil fuel non-proliferation treaty and a loss and damage fund to help those who have suffered most from climate change but done the least to cause it.”

“Everyone marking Earth Day should be encouraged to know that their collective action is having an impact and that this international show of solidarity should motivate many more to engage in the campaign to protect our human rights from the potentially devastating impact of climate change. We see too how essential the right to protest is to claiming human rights and on this Earth Day, we thank climate activists.”

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“France’s decision to allow the use of mass surveillance measures during the 2024 Olympics undermines the EU’s ongoing efforts to regulate AI and protect fundamental rights through the AI Act. This decision, which legalizes the use of AI-powered surveillance for the first time in France and the EU, risks permanently transforming France into a dystopian surveillance state, and allowing large-scale violations of human rights elsewhere in the bloc. 

“While France promotes itself as a champion of human rights globally, its decision to legalize AI-powered mass surveillance during the Olympics will lead to an all-out assault on the rights to privacy, protest, and freedom of assembly and expression. It has also been well-documented that hostile surveillance technologies are disproportionately used to target marginalized groups, including migrants and black and brown people. 

“As an influential member state of the EU, France is setting a worrying precedent at a time when the bloc should be focusing on cementing rights protections in the AI Act. The European Parliament must urgently take a strong position on banning mass surveillance technologies, including remote biometric identification and categorization in public spaces.”  

Background:  

The text of the bill was approved by the Senate on 31 January and cleared a legislative hurdle on March 8 after the committee vote. The French National Assembly adopted article 7 that allows the use of AI-powered video surveillance on March 23.

Amnesty International, alongside a coalition of civil society organizations led by the European Digital Rights Network (EDRi), has been calling for the EU to regulate Artificial Intelligence as part of efforts to protect and promote human rights. 

In an open letter initiated by the European Center for Not-for-Profit Law, 38 civil society organizations, including Amnesty International, have called on French policymakers to reject the draft legislation on allowing invasive surveillance at the 2024 Olympics.

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Re-stocking security apparatus with AI-driven mass surveillance is a dangerous political project which could lead to broad violations of human rights. Every action in a public space will get sucked into a dragnet of surveillance infrastructure, undermining fundamental civic freedoms.  

Agnès Callamard, Secretary General, Amnesty International

The draft bill was approved by French senators in January and, if passed, it will legalize the use of a pervasive AI-powered mass video surveillance system for the first time in the history of France — and the European Union. This colossal surveillance architecture, according to French lawmakers, is “experimental” and will be used to ensure safety and security during the games. Amnesty International fears, however, that this bill will expand police powers by broadening the government’s arsenal of surveillance equipment, permanently.     

“Re-stocking security apparatus with AI-driven mass surveillance is a dangerous political project which could lead to broad violations of human rights. Every action in a public space will get sucked into a dragnet of surveillance infrastructure, undermining fundamental civic freedoms,” said Agnes Callamard, Amnesty International’s Secretary General. 

“French lawmakers have failed to prove that this legislation meets the principles of necessity and proportionality, which are absolutely fundamental to ensuring security and surveillance measures do not threaten the rights to freedom of assembly and association, privacy, and non-discrimination. While the need for security during the event is understandable, international human rights law still applies to the Olympics. In their existing format, these blanket applications of AI-driven mass surveillance are in complete violation of the right to privacy and other rights.”  

If the AI-powered mass surveillance measures are implemented, millions of people — whether they are heading to stadiums or using public transport to access the premises of the great sporting event — will be tracked and monitored. AI algorithms scan and capture data from all people within its radius. The ubiquitous presence of CCTV cameras and drones at the Games, allowing officials to detect “suspicious” or “abnormal” activity in the crowds, is as such particularly problematic.  

“These overly broad definitions set by officials to categorize ‘suspicious’ and ‘abnormal’ activities in crowds are highly concerning. We must ask ourselves some urgent questions: Who sets the norm for what is ‘normal’? Officials who control the designations of ‘abnormal or suspicious’ activities in societies also have the power to exacerbate a chilling effect on dissent and protest, and to supercharge discrimination against communities already targeted,” said Agnes Callamard. 

The human rights threats posed by AI development and usage by private companies and public authorities in the European Union (EU) are well documented. 

“These technologies amplify racist policing and threaten the right to protest. Ethnic minorities — including migrants, and Black and Brown people — are most at risk of being targeted by certain surveillance tools, especially facial recognition systems,” said Agnes Callamard.   

This bill is not only a threat to privacy and human rights, but it also betrays the spirit of the European Union’s (EU) AI Act — a globally significant piece of legislation that aims to regulate AI and protect fundamental rights in the EU, of which France is an influential member. 

“France’s plan to use intrusive surveillance measures during the Olympic Games should serve as a wake-up call for the EU. The first-ever use of this security apparatus in the EU could ultimately warp the bloc’s AI Act legislation in a way that risks a human rights crisis through the large-scale violation of rights of millions of people, who are unknowingly and non-consensually surveilled and potentially targeted by experimental mass surveillance technologies. Through its AI Act negotiations, the EU should put an end to the use of artificial intelligence technologies used for mass surveillance and for discriminatory monitoring of civilians. We are also calling for a ban of facial recognition systems used for mass surveillance,” said Agnes Callamard. 

If France legalizes mass surveillance at the national level, one of the biggest sporting events on Earth risks becoming one of the greatest-ever violations of the right to privacy. 

Background:  

The text of the bill was approved by the Senate on January 31 and cleared a legislative hurdle on March 8 after the committee vote.     

In an open letter initiated by the European Center for Not-for-Profit Law, 38 civil society organizations, including Amnesty International, have called on French policymakers to reject the draft legislation on allowing invasive surveillance.  

Amnesty International, alongside a coalition of civil society organizations led by the European Digital Rights Network (EDRi), has been calling for human-rights-compliant EU regulation of artificial intelligence technologies and practices.  

Amnesty International has previously documented the use of thousands of facial recognition-capable CCTV cameras across New York City, many of which were used in communities of colour and amplified racially discriminatory policing. 

Following the London Olympics in 2012, numerous surveillance measures used for security during the event became permanent.  

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“As governor of Xinjiang, Erkin Tuniyaz will have a leading role and be intimately aware of the Chinese government’s massive and systematic abuses targeting Uyghurs, Kazakhs and other Muslim communities living in the region. These include torture, persecution and mass imprisonment, which the UN, Amnesty International and others have found may constitute crimes against humanity.

“A visit to Europe, where he will reportedly meet officials from the UK government, the EU and EU member states, will undoubtedly be used for propaganda purposes by the authorities in Beijing who have repeatedly attempted to hide or whitewash the ongoing grave crimes under international law and other human rights violations they have committed in Xinjiang.

“Questions need to be asked about the purpose of his visit. If officials choose to meet him, they cannot allow themselves to be complicit in this blatant piece of Chinese propaganda.

“They must be outspoken and publicly hold the Chinese authorities to account over the crimes against humanity being committed in Xinjiang. Dismantling the cruel system of discrimination and persecution of ethnic minorities must be the main concern of any state invited to receive Erkin Tuniyaz.

“Officials must demand information about the well-being and whereabouts of the many people who have been detained or gone missing without a trace and call for the release of everybody arbitrarily detained.

“As a starting point, judicial authorities in European states should launch their own investigations into whether Erkin Tuniyaz has responsibility for crimes under international law, including torture, or other serious human rights violations that would warrant a prosecution.”

Background

Since 2017, there has been extensive documentation of China’s crackdown against Uyghurs, Kazakhs and other predominantly Muslim ethnic minorities in Xinjiang, carried out under the guise of fighting terrorism. In 2021, a comprehensive  report by Amnesty International demonstrated that the systematic state-organized mass imprisonment, torture and persecution perpetrated by Chinese authorities amounted to crimes against humanity. In August 2022 the UN Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights released a report finding that crimes against humanity may have occurred in China’s Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region.

Amnesty International’s Free Xinjiang Detainees campaign has, to date, profiled 126 individuals who are among the perhaps one million or more people in arbitrary detention in internment camps and prisons in Xinjiang.  

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Small business leaders in France and Germany want alternatives to Facebook and Google’s dominant tracking-based advertising, new research commissioned by Amnesty International and Global Witness has shown.

Ahead of a key EU vote this week aimed at imposing stricter rules on tracking-based digital advertising, a poll of leaders of small and medium-sized businesses in the two countries revealed 75% believed tracking-based advertising undermines peoples’ privacy and other human rights.

A total of 69% of business owners surveyed said that while they were uncomfortable with Facebook and Google’s influence, they felt they had no option but to advertise with them due to their dominance of the industry.

The constant and invasive monitoring of our lives to target people with ads is unacceptable

Claudia Prettner, Legal and Policy Adviser at Amnesty Tech

The survey results, from a poll of more than 600 people conducted by YouGov, come ahead of this week’s plenary vote by the European Parliament on the Digital Services Act, with MEPs considering stricter rules for tracking-based advertising. 

“The constant and invasive monitoring of our lives to target people with ads is unacceptable, annihilates our right to privacy, and fuels discrimination,” said Claudia Prettner, Legal and Policy Adviser at Amnesty Tech.

“These results show that business owners are extremely uncomfortable with the approach to tracking-based advertising that their customers currently experience.

“This week’s plenary vote on the Digital Services Act represents a vital opportunity for MEPs to stand up for human rights, and to take action to address advertising practices that rely on intrusive surveillance.” 

Alternative solutions now needed

Ahead of this week’s vote, Facebook and other industry leaders have emphasized their belief that targeted advertising is necessary for the survival of European small and mid-sized enterprises.

But the survey showed that 79% of respondents felt that large online platforms – such as Facebook and Google – should face increased regulation of how they use personal data to target users while advertising online.

The survey also showed that business owners believed their customers were not comfortable being targeted with online ads based on their race or ethnicity (62%), their sexual orientation (66%), information about their health (67%), their religious views (65%), their political views (65%), or personal events in their life (62%).

“It’s been part of Facebook and Google’s lobbying playbook to use small business’ reliance on their services as a fig leaf to justify their invasive profiling and targeting of users for advertising,” said Nienke Palstra, Senior Campaigner on Digital Threats to Democracy at Global Witness.

“In fact, our polling shows small business leaders in France and Germany are deeply wary of their ad tech practices – but don’t see an alternative. Given the overwhelming support from small business to regulate ad tech giants, there is every reason for MEPs to go further in the Digital Services Act and protect individuals from surveillance advertising.”

The latest findings support previous Global Witness polling conducted in February 2021 that investigated French and German social media users’ attitudes to targeted advertising. Those results showed overwhelmingly that people were deeply uncomfortable about the ways they are targeted by advertisers every day, from being categorized by income and religious views to life events such as pregnancy, bereavement, or illness.

The post France/Germany: Small businesses want EU to get tough on Google and Facebook’s invasive advertising – new research appeared first on Amnesty International.

“This is an important decision in a case that has become emblematic of the attacks by police on asylum seekers and the human rights defenders who support them.

“This prosecution which was only successful due to video evidence and determination of a small group of campaigners, will hopefully send a clear signal that the impunity for police violence will no longer be tolerated.

Tom Ciotkowski said:

“It has been a long and stressful three years, but I am pleased to see the police being held to account for their actions. If police abuses are left unchecked and unpunished the whole system rots from within. It is vital that such instances are able to be recorded and brought to light.”

“I dread to think what might have happened if myself and others were not able to film the incident. I could very well be the one being convicted today. I hope this decision contributes to a rethink of the hostile environment policy towards asylum seekers in Calais and elsewhere and that a new, compassionate approach is taken to the people struggling there and those trying to help them.”

For more information or to arrange an interview contact: 01 53 38 65 41 I 06 76 94 37 05 vtardivel@amnesty.fr or press@amnesty.org

BACKGROUND

Volunteer Tom Ciotkowski was pushed violently by police in 2018, charged with contempt and assault after he recorded a French police officer pushing another volunteer in Calais in 2018. Instead of being treated as a victim of police violence, he was dragged through the courts on trumped up charges until he was finally acquitted in June 2019.

His original prosecution reflected a wider European trend of criminalizing acts of solidarity, as a way of discouraging people from standing up in defense of the rights of migrants and refugees.

For more information see Amnesty’s the criminalization of solidarity report here https://www.amnesty.org/en/documents/eur01/1828/2020/en/0

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“Almost two years on from the protests that began in October 2019 and the widespread attacks against the protestors by the Chilean Carabineros, investigations into serious human rights violations and possible crimes against humanity are making little progress,” said Erika Guevara-Rosas, Americas director at Amnesty International.

“No strategic commander has been prosecuted to date, and in many cases the same officials who are alleged to have committed human rights violations are still in their posts in charge of controlling the protests. The international community cannot be complicit in this impunity by remaining silent.”

Investigations into serious human rights violations and possible crimes against humanity are making little progress.

Erika Guevara-Rosas, Americas director at Amnesty International

Amnesty International has called on the authorities in Spain, France, Italy and the United Kingdom, in their exchanges with President Sebastián Piñera, to express how important it is that the Chilean authorities: 

• Ensure that the National Prosecutor’s Office and the Judiciary have all the information and resources necessary to carry out prompt, thorough, impartial, and independent investigations into each of the responsibilities within the Carabineros’ line of command that were key in allowing the right to physical integrity to be widely violated in the context of the social demonstrations that began in October 2019.
• Adopt all necessary measures to provide reparation to the victims and their families, including adequate rehabilitation, care and reparation for victims of ocular trauma, respecting all international standards of integral reparation applicable. In particular, the current Comprehensive Eye Reparation Programme (PIRO) should be strengthened, in response to the many criticisms raised by the victims themselves who are beneficiaries of this programme.
• Promote the structural reform of the police institution Carabineros de Chile so as to effectively ensure that law enforcement agencies strictly follow international standards on the use of force, respect the life and physical integrity of all people and have effective mechanisms of accountability, both to civilian authorities and to the public.
• Take all other necessary measures to protect freedom of expression and peaceful assembly and prevent the recurrence of events such as those documented by Amnesty International.

Amnesty International hopes that the meeting between the Chilean President and his European counterparts will be an opportunity to advance the protection and promotion of human rights in Chile.

Additional information:

Amnesty International has documented the widespread violation of the right to physical integrity by Carabineros officers during the protests that began in October 2019, which have undoubtedly marked a milestone in Chile’s recent history, due to the massive scale of the social demands and multiple repercussions at the social and political level. According to updated figures from the Public Prosecutor’s Office and the National Institute of Human Rights, there are more than 8,000 victims of state violence and more than 400 cases of eye trauma.

Amnesty International found sufficient evidence to argue that the widespread violations demonstrate a pattern of conduct that reveals an intention to harm demonstrators in order to silence protest, or accept such harm as a necessary evil. The scale and consistency of the human rights violations and possible crimes under international law committed could have been avoided, but the strategic and operational commanders of the police institution deliberately failed to implement certain measures within their power. They also deliberately allowed impunity within the institution and obstructed the Prosecutor’s Office’s access to information.

For more information or to arrange an interview, please contact:

Amnesty International press office (Amnesty International Americas): press@amnesty.org;

Ilsen Jara (Amnesty International Chile): ilsen.jara@amnistia.cl

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Antoine Lyon-Caen, a lawyer before France’s Council of State and Court of Cassation, took the case to the Council of State, the highest administrative court in France, on behalf of the Maison Communautaire pour un Dévelopement Solidaire (Community House for Solidarity Development – ­­­­­­MCDS), Pazapas, Réseau Egalité, Antidiscrimination, Justice Interdisciplinaire (Equality, Anti-discrimination, Interdisciplinary Justice Network – Reaji), Amnesty International France, Human Rights Watch, and Open Society Justice Initiative.

France has failed to take necessary steps to prevent and remedy ethnic profiling by the police during identity checks, a form of systemic discrimination

Amnesty International

The organizations began the procedure in January 2021 when they sent a letter of formal notice to the prime minister, the minister of the interior, and the minister of justice to press for structural reforms and concrete measures to put an end to discriminatory police practices, a problem that has been recognized by the president of the republic. The authorities did not respond in the four-month period provided for under the class action procedure. Their silence is particularly painful for the daily victims of these discriminatory practices, the organizations said.

The class action is an innovative procedure under French law that allows civil society groups to ask the court to order the authorities to take measures to put an end to the widespread illegal practice of ethnic profiling.

The groups are asking the Council of State to find the French state at fault for failing to prevent widespread use of ethnic profiling by the police and to order the authorities to adopt necessary reforms, including:

• Modify identity check powers to explicitly prohibit discrimination in identity checks, abolish preventive identity checks, and circumscribe police authority to ensure that all identity checks, including those based on a prosecutor’s orders, are based on objective and individual grounds;
• Adopt specific regulations and instructions for stops targeting children;
• Create a system to record and evaluate data on identity checks and provide those stopped with a record of the stop;
• Create an effective, independent complaints mechanism; and
• Change the institutional objectives, guidelines, and training of the police, including with respect to interactions with the public.

The landmark lawsuit comes after years of inaction by French authorities, who have allowed the unlawful practices to continue, affecting a significant number of people. The case rests on significant evidence that police engage in widespread ethnic profiling based on physical characteristics associated with a real or presumed ethnic or racial origin.

The absence of a strict legal framework that respects legal nondiscrimination standards allows the police to use overly broad powers to conduct identity checks in a discriminatory manner. Quantitative studies have demonstrated that men and boys perceived to be Black or Arab are disproportionately targeted for stop-and-frisk actions, while qualitative reports have documented the devastating impact of discriminatory policing, including on children as young as 12. 

The legal complaint filed on July 22 demonstrates how ethnic profiling by the French police constitutes systemic discrimination – defined by the UN Committee on Economic, Social, and Cultural Rights as “legal rules, policies, practices or predominant cultural attitudes in the public sector…which create relative disadvantages for some groups, and privileges for other groups”– and details the French state’s inadequate response to date to put an end to it.

Measures adopted that have proved insufficient include the use of body cameras and the obligation on police officers to wear badge numbers. The authorities have consistently rejected all attempts to record identity checks and provide those stopped with some kind of record of the procedure.

On June 28, the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights singled out France for discriminatory police stops in her report on the “Promotion and protection of the human rights and fundamental freedoms of Africans and of people of African descent against excessive use of force and other human rights violations by law enforcement officers.” In the past other UN and European authorities have called on French authorities to end discriminatory identity checks.

On June 8, the Paris Court of Appeals once again condemned the French state for “gross misconduct” for the discriminatory stop of three students in a Paris train station in 2017 as they were returning from a class trip.

The Defender of Rights has repeatedly criticized discriminatory identity checks and called for reform. In 2016, the Court of Cassation ruled that police stops of three young men in 2011 constituted discrimination and “gross misconduct that engages the responsibility of the state.”

The Council of State has the authority to order the state to end these stigmatizing, humiliating, and degrading practices, the organizations said.

For more information or to arrange an interview, please contact Amnesty International press office, press @amnesty.org +44 (0) 20 7413 5566: email: press@amnesty.org  

twitter: @amnestypress 

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