France has been criticized by the United Nations Human Rights Council for increased police violence, including against protesters, as widespread Labor Day demonstrations take over the country.
France must “take measures to, in a transparent manner, address allegations regarding excessive use of force by police and gendarmerie against protesters during demonstrations,” Sweden’s representative told the Human Rights Council in Geneva on Monday, when France marks its annual Labor Day. Paris was also called out for religious intolerance, attacks against migrants, and racial profiling by several countries at the UN Council as members carried out France’s Universal Periodic Review—a process all 193 UN countries must undergo every four years.
Besides the recent tensions between police forces and demonstrators at the country’s pension-reform protests, rights groups have also previously pointed out the extensive scale of police violence in France during the 2018 “gilets jaunes” yellow vests protests and the 2022 Champions League finals, and have called on Paris to address the issue. Sabrine Balim, a judicial adviser with the French interior ministry, told the UN Council that France “condemns any form of racial profiling” and said that force used by police was “strictly supervised, controlled, and in the case of erroneous use, sanctioned.”
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