The European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) condemned France this Thursday for discriminatory identity control, while rejecting the requests of five other French people. All denounced controls “Au facies”. In its decision, relayed by TF1, the ECDH stresses that with regard to Karim Touil, who underwent three checks in ten days, “It has not been brought about objective and reasonable justification” choice to target it, and that there is a “Presumption of discriminatory treatment that the government has failed to refute”.
The facts date back to 2011 and 2012. The six applicants, all French of African or North African origin, resident in Roubaix, Marseille, Vaulx-en-Velin, Saint-Ouen and Besançon. They claimed to have been checked due to their appearance. After being dismissed by French justice, they had seized the ECHR in 2017. These men were part of a group of thirteen people who have initiated legal action at the time.
In 2015, five of them had won the case before the Paris Court of Appeal, and three files had been definitively validated by the Court of Cassation in 2016. The applicants also asked the ECHR to impose structural measures on France to prevent discriminatory controls, such as the delivery of a receipt after each identity check.
Contradictory studies
This decision comes while a survey of the defender of rights published on Tuesday reports a marked increase in controls: 26 % of those questioned in 2024 claim to have been checked at least once in five years, against 16 % in 2016.
According to this study, young men perceived as “Arab, black or Maghreb” would be four times more exposed to control and twelve times more to in -depth control (palpation, order to leave …). But other works, mentioned by journalist Kévin Boucaud-Victoire in a recent interview with the Tangwall Campagin, point to other factors.
“By frequenting university, libraries, certain professional circles, I understood that all blacks and Arabs were not confronted with the same realities (…) It is a question of social codes, clothing style, attitude … not just skin color »explained the author of my anti -racism (Desclée de Brouwer). And add: “The profile targeted by the police is above all that of La Caillera. »»
It can even happen that a reverse phenomenon occurs. And for good reason: in an investigation published in the Tangwall Campagin at the end of April, an agent of the RATP detailed how the transport company encourages its agents to control (and verbalize) the “solvent” users according to their profile, in particular clothing. Faced with such drifts, the Institute for Justice (IPJ) claims an investigation.
