France must end the widespread racial profiling of people of black and north African heritage who are routinely stopped by police and asked to show their identity papers with no explanation, a lawyer for rights groups will argue at a historic court hearing in Paris on Friday, reports The Guardian.
In the first class action of its kind against the French state, six French and international organisations including Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch and the Open Society Justice Initiative, want French authorities to be found at fault for failing to prevent the widespread use of ethnic profiling.
They argue that non-white people across France, notably young men perceived to be black or north African, are routinely singled out and stopped in the street, asked for identity papers and frisked without explanation, often several times a day and from as young as 11 years old.
The conseil d’etat, France’s highest administrative court, will be urged to make the state end the practice, which has been condemned for more than a decade by independent bodies from the United Nations to the Council of Europe and France’s rights’ ombudsman.
The legal challenge is also being brought by three French associations: Maison Communautaire pour un Développement Solidaire, Pazapas and Réseau Egalité, Antidiscrimination, Justice Interdisciplinaire (Reaji).