France Launches New Platform to Combat Discrimination, Empowering Victims and Witnesses

This platform is managed by the Defender of Rights, an independent administrative authority. By phone (at 39 28) or directly by chat, the platform allows "to listen to and support people who are victims or witnesses of discrimination, regardless of the reason (origin, disability, sex, etc.) and the field (employment, housing, access to a service, etc.)," explains the Defender of Rights in a press release.

This new government tool, in partnership with associations, will provide an effective, rapid and free response to these individual injustices that undermine our social cohesion, it is specified. The independent administrative authority can, depending on the cases, "initiate amicable settlements, make recommendations, present observations in court."

This new service has five telephone lines that can be reached between 9 a.m. and 6 p.m. Monday through Friday, and about fifteen lawyers will be mobilized at the headquarters and in the territories, Actu.fr reports from the Defender of Rights.

"A commitment of the President of the Republic, the new anti-discrimination platform is intended to fight against all forms of discrimination through the deployment of unprecedented human and financial resources in metropolitan France and overseas," said the minister.