President Macron was due to lead a crisis meeting of ministers after the third night of protests. (File)
Geneva, Switzerland:
France must address the deep issues of racial discrimination in its police force, the United Nations said Friday, following a third night of unrest sparked by the fatal shooting of a teenager by police.
The death of 17-year-old Nahel during a traffic stop has revived long-standing complaints about policing and ethnic profiling in France’s poor and multi-ethnic suburbs.
“We are concerned about the murder of a 17-year-old boy of North African descent by police in France on Tuesday,” UN Human Rights Office spokeswoman Ravina Shamdasani said at a press conference in Geneva.
“We note that an investigation into alleged voluntary manslaughter has been launched.
“This is a time for the country to seriously address the deep problems of racism and discrimination in law enforcement.”
French President Emmanuel Macron was due to lead a crisis meeting of ministers on Friday after a third night of protests that saw cars burned, shops looted and hundreds arrested.
“We also emphasize the importance of peaceful assembly,” Ms Shamdasani said.
“We call on the authorities to ensure that the use of force by police to deal with violent elements in demonstrations always respects the principles of legality, necessity, proportionality, non-discrimination, precaution and accountability.
“All allegations of disproportionate use of force must be promptly investigated.”
Ms Shamdasani said the UN rights office was concerned about the unrest that followed the shooting and the large number of injured police officers.
“There has also been quite a bit of looting and violence by certain elements using the protests for these purposes,” she said.
The UN Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination (CERD) is a body of independent experts that monitors how states implement the convention on the elimination of all forms of such discrimination.
In December, CERD expressed its own deep concern about France’s widespread use of identity checks, discriminatory checks and criminal fines that the commission said disproportionately targeted members of certain minority groups.
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NewsMadura staff and is being published from a syndicated feed.)
