The government’s response to COVID-19 raised human rights concerns, including in relation to excessive use of force by police, the right to peaceful assembly and the rights of migrants and asylum-seekers. Human rights defenders continued to face harassment and prosecutions. Following the murder of...

Meaningful policing reform and overdue reckoning with systemic racism in law enforcement urgently needed in response to public anger

On 28 June 2023, Amnesty International filed written submissions to the European Court of Human Rights in the case of CCIF v France. Amnesty International’s submission is motivated by a longstanding concern that freedom of association is subject to excessive restriction in many country contexts,...

In this submission, Amnesty International evaluates the implementation of recommendations made to France in its previous Universal Periodic Review, including in relation to the situation of refugees and migrants, arms transfers, climate justice and discrimination in the country. It also assesses...

Poster for Zineb Redouane’s Write for Rights campaign

Case card for Zineb Redouane’s Write for Rights campaign

France’s highest administrative court yesterday decided to uphold a lower court ruling which banned the use of full-body “burkinis” in Grenoble’s public pools after the city had proposed to allow women to wear what they want when swimming in its public pools.

The International Federation for Human Rights (FIDH), the Ligue desdroits de l’homme (LDH) and Salah Hammouri filed a joint complaint in France targeting the Israeli cyber intelligence company NSO Group, for illegally infiltrating the phone of French Palestinian human rights defender Salah...

On 24 February France adopted a new law aimed at democratising access to sports. A group of Senateurs ultimately failed in their repeated attempts to introduce a discriminatory amendment intended to prohibit women who choose to wear headscarves from participating in all sporting competitions and...

An Administrative Tribunal appeal decision issued on 9 February overturned the Paris Prefecture of Police’s ban on a protest organised by women footballers, confirming that the protest should have been able to proceed as planned. The protest organizers had already called off the event in light of...

On 13 December 2018, the Criminal Court of Gap convicted Benoit Ducos, Lisa Malapert, Mathieu Burellier, Jean-Luc Jalmain, Bastien Stauffer, Elenonora Laterza and Théo Buckmaster, known as the Briançon 7, accused of “facilitating the irregular entry of foreign nationals” into France. On 22 April...

Chechen police abducted Magomed Gadaev, an asylum seeker from Chechnya, in the Russian Federation, and a key witness in a high-profile torture investigation against Chechnya’s authorities, two days after he was wrongfully deported from France to Russia on 9 April. Chechen police continue to hold...

The bill “to strengthen respect for the principles of the Republic” was approved by the Council of Ministers and forwarded to the presidents of the National Assembly and Senate on 9 December 2020. The text was passed at first reading on 16 February by the National Assembly. The Senate debate on the...