A United Nations group on Tuesday raised the issue of racial profiling by French police during identity checks.
The UN’s committee responsible for verifying the application of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights said it “continues to receive disturbing information about systemic racism and the persistence of racial and ethnic profiling, and about the inadequacy of complaints handling procedures.”
Yvonne Donders, the committee’s vice-president, said during a regular examination of France that the body had been informed that “people of colour are subject to identity checks by police approximately 20 times more often than other citizens.”
The French delegation at the meeting responded that the codes governing France’s security forces “explicitly” ban discriminatory identity checks, and that the security forces all receive training on this issue.
Donders replied that there could be a gap between practice and the law, adding that “greater ethnic and racial diversity within law enforcement can help reduce racial profiling.”
The committee’s final observations, covering several countries and subjects, will be released in early November at the end of this year’s session.
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