The Council of Europe human rights commissioner, Dunja Mijatovic, declared this Friday alarmed by “the excessive use of force” against protesters against the new pension law, urging France to respect the right to demonstrate.
“Violent incidents have occurred, including some that have targeted law enforcement, but sporadic acts of violence by some protesters or other reprehensible acts committed by others during a demonstration cannot justify excessive use of force by of state agents,” the commissioner said in a statement.
“Such acts are also not enough to deprive peaceful protesters of the enjoyment of the right to freedom of assembly and demonstration,” he continued.
According to the official, “it is up to the authorities to allow the exercise of these freedoms, protecting the peaceful demonstrators and the journalists who cover these demonstrations from police violence and violent acts outside the protest marches.”
In recent days, associations of lawyers and magistrates and left-wing politicians have condemned police violence in demonstrations against the revision of the pension law, which increases the retirement age from 62 to 64 years without economic sanctions in France and triggered the 19 January a wave of protests and strikes across the country.
The non-governmental organization (NGO) Reporters Without Borders (RSF) today appealed to Interior Minister Gérald Darmanin to “put an end to police violence against journalists.”
Dunja Mijatovic also expressed her concern about the arrest and custody of some protesters and people who were in the vicinity of the demonstrations, questioning “the necessity and proportionality of the measures to which they were subjected.”
“The lack of communication of a demonstration is not enough, by itself, to justify an attack on the right to freedom of peaceful assembly of the protesters, nor the imposition of a criminal sanction on the participants in such a demonstration,” he argued, referring to to the statements of Gerald Darmanin.
The French minister had declared on Tuesday that participating in a “demonstration not communicated” to the authorities constituted a “crime” that “deserves arrest.”
Already today, Gérald Darmanin also announced the opening of 11 judicial investigations for alleged acts of police violence committed in the last week, as part of the popular mobilization against the revision of the pension law throughout the country.
The Council of Europe was created in 1949 to defend human rights, democracy and the rule of law and is currently made up of 46 member states, including all the countries that make up the European Union (EU).
Source: TSF
