In a report published on Tuesday, the European Council’s Commissioner for Human Rights, Nils Muižnieks, paints a sorry picture of the intolerance and racism that he says is on the rise in France. Anti-Semitism, Islamophobia, racism against Roma and “serious and chronic inadequacies” regarding policies towards asylum seekers are some of the issues he highlights in the report, in which he slams behaviour by sections of both the country’s institutions and citizens.
Based on the results of a fact-finding mission to France between September 22nd and 26th last year, its contents have particular significance with regard to the societal debate prompted by the Paris terrorist attacks in early January. Muižnieks found that the generalised intolerance he observes as present in French society indicates a “disturbing erosion of social cohesion and the principle of equality”.
“In recent years, there has been a huge increase in anti-Semitic, anti-Muslim and homophobic acts,” he observed. “In the first half of 2014 alone, the number of anti-Semitic acts virtually doubled, while the number of Jews leaving France for Israel tripled compared with 2012, which is a telling indication of their feeling of insecurity. The rising number of anti-Muslim acts, 80% of which are carried out against women, and homophobic acts, which occur once every two days, is also cause for great concern. It is essential to put an end to such acts, including on the internet, and to punish those responsible.”
The acts and speech he targets are not only those found perpetrated among the general public, but also those of politicians. Widely circulated by the media, intolerant speech from political figures sends a negative signal towards the police, public service employees and, by return, citizens in general, argues the Commissioner in his report entitled 'France: persistent discrimination endangers human rights'. He says the consequence of this is to make prejudices more common, where institutionalised discrimination places human rights at risk.
Muižnieks pays tribute to “advances” in legislation to combat racism, and the “sound legal and institutional framework” for that purpose, but urges the French government to do more, such as giving “full effect” of legislation that allows undercover tests for racist behaviour by employers and landlords to be used as legal evidence. The Commissioner says there is an “urgent” need for “a sustained and systematic” approach to fighting racism and intolerance.
But the French government also comes under fire: “The trend towards more stringent and more complex rules in the asylum and immigration field raises serious questions of compatibility with France’s international commitments, particularly with regard to being granted asylum and the reception of asylum seekers,” observes Muižnieks.
“The serious and chronic inadequacies in the reception of asylum seekers force many of them to live in extremely vulnerable and degrading conditions,” notes the Commissioner. “Lasting solutions need to be found as a matter of urgency to ensure that everyone has effective access to reception centres and social protection.”
It would appear that the presidential election pledge by François Hollande to ensure equal rights for all has left foreign nationals living in France by the wayside. Comparing Nils Muižnieks’ report to that of his predecessor, Thomas Hammarberg, published in 2008, one year after the conservative Nicolas Sarkozy was elected as president, there appears to be no significant difference in their observations.
Muižnieks criticised the treatment meted out to unaccompanied migrant minors. “There are between 7,000 and 12,000 such children living in France, 3,000 of whom are in Mayotte,” he says. “Many are left without any social or educational support or medical care and some are even homeless. Their age is often determined following certain highly questionable procedures, especially when these involve bone age tests. It is not uncommon for these children to be deprived of their liberty when they arrive at the border unlawfully. The French authorities must put an end to these practices and provide better reception conditions, including overseas.”
On the subject of Syrian refugees, the Commissioner calls on France to accept more than the 500 that President Hollande has said will be given asylum, and to “remove all barriers, such as the obligation to have an airport transit visa, which undermine their chances of being granted asylum”. The airport transit visa system was put in place after the civil war in Syria began. Muižnieks argues that visa applications at French consulates should be made easier.
He also highlighted the situation in Calais, where recently increasing numbers of migrants (an estimated 2,300 in October 2014) have gathered in precarious living conditions in the hope of finding an illegal passage across the Channel to Britain. The Commissioner argues that the crisis there “cannot be resolved by security measures alone”, and calls for the authorities to take measures to improve the conditions of the migrants, most of who live in makeshift camps around the port, and to give them improved protection against “violent xenophobic attacks”.
Regarding the French government’s proposed bill to speed up asylum procedures, Muižnieks suggests this should be abandoned until what he calls “structural problems” in the country’s processing of asylum request cases is resolved. These include providing an effective recourse to appeals over asylum decisions and greater legal aid for refugees.
The report found that “like travellers, migrant Roma continue to be targeted and stigmatised” by politicians and negative media coverage. “They are also the victims of violence perpetrated by individuals and at times even by members of law enforcement agencies, in particular during forced eviction operations,” observes Muižnieks. He said it was “urgent” that Roma be given access to housing, healthcare, employment and education. The report concludes that “high levels of anti-Gypsyism have prevailed in France for a very long time”.
The Commissioner also investigated the situation of disabled people in France. While praising “a well-developed legal framework and the priority given to independence and social inclusion” he bemoaned that these were insufficiently put into practice, to the degree that there is a perpetuation of a state of “social exclusion and marginalisation of persons with disabilities”. Muižnieks criticised the “serious delays” in opening up access for the disabled to public places, and noted “with concern” that some 20,000 children with disabilities are still waiting for placement in mainstream education.
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The French version of this article can be found here.
English version by Graham Tearse