French court should reject lawsuit on police racial profiling, adviser says

Layli Foroudi
·2 min read
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FILE PHOTO: A view shows the Conseil d'Etat, France's highest administrative court, in Paris

By Layli Foroudi

PARIS (Reuters) - An adviser to France's top administrative court urged it on Friday to reject a class action lawsuit against the state alleging police inaction on racial profiling, saying the government could not be held at fault over a lack of reform.

Six human rights groups petitioning the Conseil d'Etat (State Council) argued the police discriminate against young Arab and Black men during routine patrols. The case asks the council to require concrete reforms from the government.

If successful, the landmark petition could open the way for similar broad legal challenges in a country where activism has traditionally taken the form of direct protest, and where class actions only became possible in 2014 and remain rare.

At Friday's hearing, the adviser, public rapporteur Esther de Moustier, said judges did not have the power to impose legislative changes and that the state could not be held "at fault" if policy measures had not brought results.

The State Council, of which the public rapporteur is a member, is not bound by such opinions but follows the adviser's lead in most cases.

A decision in the case is expected in the coming weeks.

A lawyer for the rights groups, which include Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch, urged the council not to follow the recommendation.

Rejecting the case would be like saying that "the pain exists, but the doctor doesn't want to intervene," said the lawyer, Antoine Lyon-Caen.

The rights groups' case is supported by statements from 40 victims as well as police.

The government and police are under scrutiny after an officer shot dead Nahel, a teenager of North African descent, during a traffic stop in June, bringing long-simmering resentment among urban immigrant communities to the boil.

Lawyer Slim Ben Achour, who has defended racial profiling victims in cases where the state was found to be at fault, said if the court rejects this type of class action "it will be catastrophic and an important indicator for what is happening in this country".

(Reporting by Layli Foroudi; editing by Rami Ayyub)