Paris:
France’s human rights watchdog on Monday urged authorities to take key measures to fight racial discrimination as the country has seen a series of anti-racism gatherings in the wake of the death in the US of George Floyd. In an 80-page report, France’s Defender of Rights, Jacques Toubon, said discrimination affects the lives of millions of people and their fundamental rights in the country.
“People with foreign origins, or perceived as having them, are disadvantaged in terms of access to jobs or housing and more exposed to unemployment, poverty, poor housing, police ID checks, poor health and educational inequality,” Toubon said in a statement. Statistics and scientific studies show that racial discrimination has a “systemic dimension” in French society, Toubon noted.
The report came as two Paris statues related to France’s colonial era were daubed with red paint Monday amid growing demands by anti-racism activists in several countries to take down monuments that honor prominent historical figures who played a role in the slave trade or colonialism. In his report, the Defender of Rights proposed creating a body to better monitor the situation in the country and to organise national testing campaigns to uncover racial discrimination in hiring, housing and in business.
He also suggested stricter rules for police ID checks and legal changes to make it easier to prove discrimination cases in court and ensure “dissuasive” penalties.
