It was more than expected by all those involved in the fight against racism. This Monday, January 30, at the Institute of the Arab World, the Prime Minister, Elisabeth Borne, was to present the new plan to fight against racism, anti-Semitism and discrimination linked to origin proposed by the government. Led by Isabelle Rome, Minister Delegate responsible for equality between women and men, diversity and equal opportunities, this four-year plan is in line with the previous system, proposed by Edouard Philippe in 2018 and deployed until 2020.
This file is the result of several months of consultation between the government – fifteen ministers took part in the discussions –, thirty-five associations, representatives of memorial sites, with the support of the Defender of Rights, the National Consultative Commission on Human Rights of Human Rights and the interministerial delegation to the fight against racism, anti-Semitism and anti-LGBT hatred. A dozen ministers will also be present alongside Elisabeth Borne this Monday to present various points of the plan.
A total of 80 measures will be proposed, articulated around five axes: naming the reality of racism, anti-Semitism and discrimination, measuring this phenomenon, better educating and training, sanctioning the perpetrators and supporting the victims. Among the key measures, a visit linked to history or a place of memory should be compulsory for every student during their schooling. Training on these issues should also be strengthened, whether for teachers and school staff, civil servants, sports educators as well as volunteers for the 2024 Olympic Games.
“Rebuilding Confidence”
On the penal level, the government hopes to improve the collection and processing of complaints through a “evaluation grid to better qualify the facts” proposed to the police in order to avoid classifications without follow-up. It also intends to include in the law the possibility of issuing an arrest warrant in the event of an offense of a racist or anti-Semitic nature, while creating aggravated penalties for these same offenses by persons vested with public authority. Finally, this new plan aims to better fight against discrimination in access to housing and work by systematizing testing in different sectors, public and private.
Will these new measures be more successful than those proposed in 2018? All the actors half-acknowledge that the old plan turned out to be a failure. And on closer inspection, some ideas for 2023 resemble objectives already targeted five years earlier, such as the desire to strengthen the training of all staff in establishments.
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