Report attacks France's human rights record

[Clara T]

Report attacks France's human rights record

· Overcrowded jails and police brutality exposed
· Immigrant quota system described as 'shocking'

Kim Willsher in Paris and Nick Watt in Brussels
Monday February 13, 2006
The Guardian


France's record on human rights has been condemned in a leaked report exposing police brutality, chronically overcrowded prisons and the jailing of children with adults. It also had harsh words for the country's immigration policy. The 200 pages of damning criticism produced by the influential Council of Europe, due to be released on Wednesday, were leaked to Le Parisien at the weekend.

According to the leaked extracts, the report warns there is a "very large gulf" between what the law requires and common practice in France. The situation is so bad, it adds, that the country that prides itself on being the cradle of the droits de l'homme is increasingly finding itself hauled before the European Court of Human Rights.

The report, by Alvaro Gil-Robles, the council's human rights commissioner, is based on inspections of French prisons and police stations in September 2005. According to Le Parisien, Mr Gil-Robles said the difficulties in France were "persistent, even recurrent". French media, which ran extracts, said the report reserved some of its strongest criticism for the police, who were apparently described by the Council of Europe as operating with a "sense of impunity".

http://www.guardian.co.uk/france/story/0,,1708569,00.html

[Coastie for Truth]

1. That explains a lot. NT

[PDJane]

2. It's not much wonder that muslims are

taking to the streets. They have reason to....and this is just one more proof.

[tocqueville]

4. for the same reasons that Blacks in the US are overrepresented in jails ?

It's not the main reason why they took to the streets. It's a question of unemployment.

[tocqueville]

3. he is right about the prisons

but about immigration it's another story. France immigration laws are not harsher than in other European countries and illegal immigration has been massive. He is going to spoil a good report with that, because it's going to be misunderstood.