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...

On 20 May, long-standing trade unionist Frédéric Vuillaume was acquitted by the court in Dijon, eastern France. He was tried on charges of ‘attroupement’ (participation in an assembly that is likely to disrupt public order) for exercising his right to peaceful assembly and was risking up to one...

The trial of long-standing trade unionist Frédéric Vuillaume starts on 20 May. His peaceful participation in protests as part of the Yellow Vests movement since its outset has been marked by multiple pre-charge detentions, arrests and prosecutions, similarly to thousands of other peaceful...

A.S., a Chechen man who was held in immigration detention in France facing imminent deportation to Russia, was released on 20 February. His deportation to Russia, where he would be at real risk of being subject to torture and other ill-treatment, originally scheduled for 26 February, was suspended.

A.S., a Chechen man currently held in immigration detention in France faces imminent deportation to Russia where he would be at real risk of being subject to torture and other ill-treatment. His deportation is scheduled for 26 February. The authorities must ensure the safety of A.S. by not...

Seven investigative journalists have been summoned since February for questioning by the Intelligence Services after the Paris Prosecutor’s office opened a preliminary investigation against them for revealing a national defence secret. In April, the online media portal Disclose published the ‘Yemen...

On 14 and 15 May, journalists Geoffrey Livolsi and Mathias Destal, working for Disclose, and Benoît Collombat, with Radio France, were summoned for a hearing by the Intelligence Services after the Paris Prosecutor’s office opened a preliminary investigation against them for revealing a national...

One of the two Sudanese nationals at risk of being illegally returned to Sudan from France was released on 22 November and is not at immediate risk. The other man was sent back to Sudan on 2 December after his asylum application was rejected.

Two young Sudanese nationals are at risk of being forcibly returned from France to Sudan, where they would be at real risk of serious human rights violations. The two men are in a detention centre near Paris awaiting their expulsion.

A group of 150 people, mostly Roma migrants from Romania, including pregnant women and children, have been camping in front of the town hall of La Courneuve, Parisian region, since September. On 27 August, they were forcibly evicted from the informal settlement “Le Samaritain”. In the run-up to...

The forced eviction of an informal settlement near Bobigny, on the outskirts of Paris, has left about 180 people homeless. Sixty are temporarily living in two social care centres in Paris after having slept several days in a gymnasium. The others were not given any temporary shelter.

The forced eviction of an informal settlement near Bobigny, in the outskirts of Paris, has left more than 60 people, including 15 children and infants, homeless. They are currently sleeping in a gymnasium in the centre of Paris but will have to leave imminently and without any alternative housing...

More than 200 Roma, including around 50 children, living in an informal settlement near Bobigny in the north eastern suburbs of Paris, are at high risk of being evicted in the next 48 hours despite the High Court in Bobigny declaring in July that there was no urgent need to carry out the eviction.