UN complain about racism
Paris defends French police
07/08/2023, 3:40 p.m
The UN is of the opinion that France’s police must fight racism harder within their own investigative methods. The government in Paris flatly rejects this. The French tend to the right after the unrest surrounding the death of a 17-year-old.
The French government has described statements by a UN committee on racism in the ranks of the French police as “exaggerated” and “unfounded”. Any “racial profiling” by the police is “banned in France,” the Foreign Ministry said in Paris. The fight against excessive police controls based on racism has long been “intensified”. “Any reported discriminatory behavior will be followed up” and punished if found, the State Department said in a statement.
After the death of 17-year-old Nahel during a police check in Nanterre, a UN committee called on France on Friday to take action against “racial profiling” by the security authorities. There is talk of “racial profiling” when people are checked by the police because of external characteristics, such as the color of their skin.
The UN Committee on the Elimination of Racism (CERD), made up of 18 independent experts, had also denounced “excessive use of force by the police” in France and called for a “thorough and impartial” investigation into the Nahel case.
Unrest strengthens Le Pen party
The Foreign Ministry in Paris emphasized that France is a constitutional state “that respects its international obligations and in particular the International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination”. The fight against racism and all forms of discrimination is a “political priority”. The security forces in France are “internally, externally and legally” monitored as closely as in only a few other countries.
Since the 17-year-old’s death almost two weeks ago, France has been shaken by serious riots and protests against police violence. There were repeated looting, arson attacks and violent confrontations between police officers and rioters. The officer who fired the fatal shot at the youth is being investigated on suspicion of manslaughter. The unrest has since abated. The concern, however, is that they will flare up again on the national holiday on July 14th.
In France, right-wing populists are the main beneficiaries of the unrest. Almost a third of the French were convinced that Le Pen would have been better able to handle the crisis after the fatal shooting than the current government. When asked which party would emerge stronger from the crisis, every second person named Marine Le Pen’s Rassemblement National (RN). Le Pen has now established itself in public opinion as a guarantor of order and security, observes political scientist Bernard Sananès, chief by the opinion research institute ELABE.