China, Iran, Russia accuse France of human rights violations

France has been criticised by the United Nations Human Rights Council for increased police violence, including incidents that occurred during recent pension reform protests.

Overview of the Human Rights Council at the United Nations in Geneva, Switzerland, September 12, 2022. REUTERS - DENIS BALIBOUSE

France’s human rights record was examined during three hours by the UN’s Universal Periodic Review (UPR) Working Group for the fourth time on Monday, 1 May 2023.

The group, which comes under the auspices of  the UN's Human Rights Council (HRC,) is a UN body consisting of 47 members from acorss the globe (13 from Africa, 13 from Asia-Pacific, 6 from Eastern Europe, 8 from Latin America and 7 from Western Europe and others.)

All 193 UN member countries undergo a human rights review once every four years.

France's 20 minute presentation was read by Isabelle Lonvis-Rome, Minister for Gender Equality, Diversity and Equal Opportunities.

Talking points included gender-parity, measures against domestic violence and sexual harassement in the workplace as well as the implementation of the same sex marriage law ten years ago.

Other points included the launch of a new "national action plan" against LGBT discrimination, racism and anti-semitism as well as measures against online hatred.

'Facing the past'

Lonvis-Rome also pointed out that Paris now commemorates " the slave trade and its abolition" every year on 10 May.

She added that France is now "clear sighted and responsible" when it comes to its "past during the Second World War" pointing out that since 1945, 45,000 looted artifacts, including paintings by Gustave Klimt and Marc Chagall, have been returned to the owners or surviving family members.

France is also "looking at its colonial past" and has recently returned  artifacts to former colonies like Benin, Senegal and Madagascar. 

Apart from that, she said, France has unveiled numerous measures aimed at improving housing, healthcare and educatoin for the poor, she said.

A l’#UPR43, @RomeIsabelle, Ministre d'@egalite_gouv, a déclaré que la #France a :
-accepté + de 80% des 297 recommandations qu’elle a reçu lors de son dernier EPU
-déployé tous ses efforts pour mettre en œuvre ces recommandations
-fait de l’inclusivité le maître mot de son action pic.twitter.com/W8q33niDIw

— UN Human Rights Council (@UN_HRC) May 1, 2023

The HRC is controversial as members are elected from all UN states for a three-year period, which they can extend once.

This means that countries with notoriously bad human rights records can also sit in, or even chair, the body.

The current HRC, which was elected in December 2022, has countries like Mauritania, Sudan, China and Cuba as members.

Some of these countires have been identified as undemocratic human rights violators by watchdogs such as Freedom House, Human Rights Watch or Reporters Without Borders.

Other countries, including Iran or North Korea can sit in and comment.

After France's presentation, Council members each had 55 seconds to criticise France and give a "recommendation" for the record.

Most of the critics started by commending Lonvis-Rome's remarks, and added some minor comments.

Much of the criticism against France focused on "discrimination" (South Korea,) better rights for asylum seekers (Senegal, South Africa, South Sudan, Sri Lanka, Tunisia).

Sweden's representative urged France to "take transparent measures to address allegations regarding the excessive use of force by police and  thegendarmerie against protestors during demonstrations.

The UK representative, for its part, pointed out that "every three days, a woman is killed by her spouse or ex-spouse" in France.

South Africa called on Paris to implement "measures against racial discrimination against people of African descent," and encouraged it to take measures to "ensure impartial investigations by bodies external to the police in all cases where allegations of racisim have been levelled at the police.

"Unprecedented Russophobia"

But some of the more notable remarks were made by representatives of countries that don't have a  clean human rights record themselves.

Russia's representative, Kristina Sukacheva, mentioned "cases of unprecedented Russophobia," noting that "attacks against priests of the Russian Orthodox Church are unacceptable," a

She added tghat Russia is concerned about "harsh and at times violent measures used to disperse peaceful citizens" and asked Paris to "guarantee journalists the right to protect their sources." 

The UN Genral Assembly formally suspended Russia from the HRC on 7 April last year after its invasion of Ukraine.

However, Thomas Schmidt, Co-Secretary General of the European Association of Lawyers for Democracy ELDH, told RFI that Russia "as member of the UN and the UN Security Council, can sit in"  on the HRC sessions, and present recommendations "in order to influence" the process. 

While France defended its human rights record during a session of the UN Human Rights Council on 1 May 2023, Police in Paris dealt, sometimes harshly, with demonstrators during the May 1 events in the French capital. REUTERS - BENOIT TESSIER

Turkey, in an apparent attack on France's recognition of the Armenian genocide scolded Paris for a "biased representation of historical facts" and recommended that France counters "actions that restrict poltical debate and that such biased representation of historical facts be removed from school books."

China, itself under heavy international criticism over its treatment of the Muslim Uyghurs, Tibetans and Mongols charged that in France "fundamental rights and freedoms of ethnic minorities such as people of African descent, Muslims, Roma and refugees are violated".

It added that Beijing is "deeply concerned" and recommended the adoption of "effective legislative and administrative measures to combat discrimination and violence against ethnic miniorities."