2023-10-10 21:50:33
The Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) was alarmed, in a report adopted on Tuesday, by the “high number of injuries during demonstrations” in France and called for “carrying out a reform of the inspection bodies of the police and the gendarmerie. The report was approved by 44 votes to 19 with four abstentions.
This text provides an “assessment of France’s compliance with the obligations arising from its membership of the Council of Europe” and focuses on several points, such as the “systemic problem” of prison overpopulation, “concerns” about “ concentration in the media sector” or the need for “transparency” regarding “the action of law enforcement”.
The Assembly thus says it is “particularly concerned” about the “high number of injuries during demonstrations”. She “regrets that the statistical data does not make it possible to clearly identify” the number of people “injured or killed by the police during the demonstrations”. Considering the “feeling that illegitimate violence remains unpunished”, the institution asks the French authorities to “allow access to this information”.
“Serious injury or death”
It also notes that “several cases of use of weapons by the police leading to serious injuries or death” have still not been the subject of a judicial decision “more than four years after the events” , and therefore calls on Paris to “improve the criminal treatment of cases of illegitimate violence”.
She calls in particular for a “reform of the police and gendarmerie inspection bodies”, the IGPN (General Inspectorate of the National Police) and the IGGN (General Inspectorate of the National Gendarmerie), in order to “improve the perception of their independence and impartiality.
The Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe brings together 324 parliamentarians from the 46 member states of the Council of Europe, i.e. the countries which have ratified the European Declaration for the Protection of Human Rights. Twelve French deputies and six French senators sit there, as well as parliamentarians from all EU countries, the United Kingdom, Ukraine and Switzerland.
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