France’s highest administrative court has recognised discriminatory police identity checks based on racial profiling exist in France and are not isolated cases, but said it could not change political policy on the issue.
In a class action against the French state, six French and international organisations including Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch and the Open Society Justice Initiative had asked for French authorities to be found at fault for failing to prevent the widespread use of racial profiling.
They had asked the court to impose measures to make France end the practice, arguing that non-white people across France, notably young men perceived to be black or from north African backgrounds, are routinely singled out and stopped in the street, asked for identity papers and frisked without explanation – often several times a day and from as young as 10 or 11 years old.
The court – the Conseil d’État – stopped short of calling the issue systemic, but did say such checks were “not limited to isolated cases”.
Significantly, it also said the practice amounted to “discrimination for the people who have had an identity check on the basis of physical characteristics associated with their real or perceived origin”. But it added that it did not have the jurisdiction to force a change in political policy.
France has experienced widespread protests and unrest over the police shooting of Nahel, a 17-year-old boy of Algerian descent, at a traffic stop outside Paris in June.
During the protests over his death, teenagers and young people of black and north African origin said they faced widespread discrimination, and were often stopped several times a day by police for identity checks without explanation.
Maïté De Rue, a senior lawyer at the Open Society Justice Initiative who is involved in the case, said: “The decision of the state council is extremely disappointing. It recognised that ethnic profiling is a serious and pervasive problem in France.
“But it missed the historic opportunity to order the French authorities to take measures to to end this racial discrimination, in compliance with their international obligations.”
Various organisations involved in the case said it was symbolic that the court had recognised that the discrimination existed and was not just a question of isolated incidents. But they said the ruling had not gone far enough.
Bénédicte Jeannerod of Human Rights Watch said she hoped this would stop what she called the “posture of denial” of successive governments over the existence of the problem of racial profiling in France.
Issa Coulibaly, the head of Pazapas, a local youth group based in the Paris suburb of Belleville, who was part of the legal action, said the court had “failed to understand the violence and exclusion generated by these police practices”.
He added: “They failed to grasp the historic opportunity to improve the daily lives of millions of their fellow citizens, particularly those perceived as black and north African.
“It was a missed opportunity. The court had the opportunity to change the daily reality of people subjected to this. They considered they couldn’t do it. And that raises a lot of questions. How will that be seen by people affected by racial profiling?”
He said people would once again feel that the problem was being minimised.
Coulibaly said he had turned to the court because politics and politicians had failed to address the problem for 40 years. “And today the court is sending us back to politics, but for decades the political class has failed to acted on this,” he said.
In a separate ruling, the court said police officers must clearly display their identification number badge, which campaigners hope would improve investigations into alleged police violence
Officers’ number badge, known as a RIO, should be made bigger so it is readable, especially when they intervene in large gatherings, the court said. Although wearing the RIO has been a legal obligation since 2013, it is often too small, not clearly displayed or completely hidden, rights organisations had told the court.
Lawyers said the badge ruling was a “very good decision” butwould not prevent discriminatory identity checks.
In 2017, the French rights ombudsman estimated that men perceived to be black or north African were 20 times more likely than others to be stopped by police for identity checks.
France’s interior minister, Gérald Darmanin, told a parliamentary commission in July: “It’s false to say there is systemic racism in the national police.”
