NGOs Sue French Government Over Racial Profiling by Police

Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch (HRW), MCDS, REAJI, Open Society Justice Initiative and Pazapas seized the Council of State on Thursday, July 22, after the failure of the procedure initiated last January. The associations expect the government to engage in "structural reforms" and take "concrete measures" to put an end to racial profiling. In this sense, Antoine Lyon-Caen, the lawyer who is carrying the case with his colleagues Slim Ben Achour and Alexandra Denis, has sent a formal notice to the representatives of the State, namely the Prime Minister and the Ministers of the Interior and Justice.

The NGO collective has identified hundreds of victims of police violence and discrimination before launching this action. In their petition, the associations demand in particular the adoption of specific regulations and instructions for checks targeting minors, the ratification of Protocol 12 of the European Convention on Human Rights on non-discrimination, as well as the modification of the Code of Criminal Procedure to "explicitly prohibit discrimination in identity checks" or to make available "to any person checked a proof of control," along the lines of the receipt.