French state faces landmark class action for police racial profiling
France's highest administrative court will on Friday consider its first class action against the state, alleging racial profiling by police – and may in the process shape future social activism.
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Six human rights organisations argue that the police systematically discriminate, especially against young Arab and black men, when deciding who to stop on routine patrols.
If successful, they could open the way for similar broad legal challenges in a country where activism has traditionally taken the form of direct protest, and where class actions only became possible in 2014 and remain rare.
The case, supported by statements from 40 victims as well as police, asks the Conseil d'Etat (State Council) to require concrete reforms from the government, including limiting police powers to check ID and mandating a record of checks.
"It is not acceptable that kids, at a young age, have to learn that their skin colour is a problem," said Omer Mas Capitolan, president of one of the six organisations, Community House of Development in Solidarity.
The government and police are already under scrutiny after an officer shot dead Nahel, a teenager of North African descent, during a traffic stop in June, bringing long-simmering resentment among urban immigrant communities to the boil.
The U.N. Committee for the Elimination of Racial Discrimination decried the "continuing practice of racial profiling" and urged France to address "structural and systemic causes of racial discrimination" in the police.
(Reuters)
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