Black Report On Racism Against Arabs, Muslims And Africans In France

The United Nations Human Rights Council has issued a “black” report on the situation of the rights of African and Arab immigrants and their families in France, calling on the Paris authorities to end policies that violate their rights and to stop campaigns of racism and hatred against Muslims.
On Tuesday, the UN Human Rights Council spent more than three hours discussing the human rights situation in France, a procedure regularly followed by all UN member states, and called on the authorities to provide guarantees to protect the rights of migrant workers by ratifying a law. The Convention on the protection of the rights of migrants, their families and all political asylum seekers, the right of these groups to housing, the rights of women, the disabled and fundamental freedoms.
The report states that the work of people of African descent is still seen through the “colour of their skin”, and people interviewed by UN investigators said that these difficulties were present in many areas even during their education, and I recommended that France intensify its efforts to combat crimes and threats of violence motivated by religious hatred, such as anti-Semitism and Islamophobia.
The report criticised the racist treatment of detainees by the French security forces and called for steps to be taken to ensure impartial investigations by state bodies in all racist cases and incidents involving police officers, and by the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights’ Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination, in its preparatory work, that police and other law enforcement officials often carry out disproportionate identity checks, through discriminatory stop-and-search operations and severe punishment, against certain minorities, in particular Africans of African descent, people of Arab descent, Roma, travelers and foreigners.
The Committee called on the French authorities to include in their legislation the prohibition of racial or ethnic discrimination and to ensure that all law enforcement personnel are given clear instructions to prevent such discrimination, while the Council’s report recommends that “police officers of all ranks” receive comprehensive training in human rights, with an emphasis on the necessary and proportionate conduct of work in a democratic society.
The report by the experts and working group of the 128-nation UN Commission on Human Rights will be submitted to the UN secretariat on Friday.