UN Human Rights Committee: France must compensate victims of New Caledonia protests

The United Nations Human Rights Committee has called on France to hold accountable those responsible for using excessive force against protesters in New Caledonia and to compensate the victims of such actions by French authorities.

Report informs that, according to the Committee's statement, French law enforcement officers used excessive force during protests in New Caledonia, resulting in the deaths of several people and hundreds of injuries, including among the indigenous Kanak people of Caledonia.

"The Committee is also seriously concerned about the excessive use of force in policing demonstrations and deeply alarmed that since May 2024, when protests erupted in New Caledonia against a proposed change to the constitutional law <...> law enforcement officials used excessive force resulting in the deaths of several people..." the body reported.

The UN noted that France is also infringing on the rights of foreign migrants by forcibly turning them back at the border with Italy and restricting their access to asylum procedures. Such actions by the French authorities demonstrate a disregard for people's lives.

"The Committee also urged France to step up its efforts to provide migrants with adequate housing in sufficient quantities and to stop the ill-treatment of asylum seekers and illegal migrants in border areas, especially on the Franco-British border and in Mayotte," the statement said.

The document, in general, notes that the Committee is extremely concerned about the infringement of French citizens' right to peaceful assembly, pointed to the increasing cases of arbitrary checks and arrests of demonstrators, and also draws attention to the growing number of bans on holding demonstrations, including in support of the Palestinian people.