‘Dehumanising’ counter terrorism measures in France

A new report from Amnesty International has criticised the ‘dehumanising’ counter terrorism measures in France that have been used to unjustly punish people without charge or trial.

Despite the lifting of state of emergency measures in October 2017, the Punished without trial report reveals how the imposition of control orders is bypassing the ordinary criminal justice system in France, imposing severe restrictions on people’s rights and leaving many ‘languishing in a legal limbo’.

Control order measures allow the French Ministry of Interior to impose a wide range of restrictions on people, including forbidding individuals from leaving a specific town, requiring them to report to the police daily, and prohibiting them from contacting certain people.

However, with the measures able to be imposed on the basis of concerns over what someone might do in the future, Amnesty says that ‘pre-crime’ initiatives such as these can have a dramatic impact on the lives of those affected and their families, with communities such as the French Arab and Muslim communities most heavily impacted.

Rym Khadhraoui, Amnesty International’s West Europe researcher, said: “Measures introduced under the state of emergency were intended to be exceptional and temporary, but have now been firmly embedded into ordinary French law. They are damaging people’s lives by ruthlessly stripping away basic rights.

“France has created a second-tier justice system which targets people based on broad and vague criteria, relies on secret information, and fails to offer a meaningful opportunity for them to defend themselves. The state of emergency has been lifted only to reveal a permanent and draconian state of securitisation. Extraordinary measures have been normalised, evidence has been substituted for secret intelligence, and people are being persecuted rather than prosecuted.

“Whilst protecting people from violent attacks is vital, side-stepping the criminal justice system in order to target people on the assumption that they might commit crimes in the future is absurd and unjust. These control orders must be scrapped.”