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London - France’s proposed new bill that would allow state of emergency measures to become the law of the land, must be opposed in order to prevent widespread abuse. The bill normalises banning protest marches, shutting down places of worship, forcing people under house arrest to give police access to their electronic devices and using electronic tagging for purposes of surveillance. It gives complete power to police to implement these measures without judicial oversight.
Ibrahim Mohamoud, CAGE spokesperson, said:
“This would open the powers to normalised and regular abuse and discrimination with absolutely no basis. These measures will give way to officials to make sweeping intrusions in the lives of many French Muslims without any judicial scrutiny. This will only reinforce the feelings of Muslim citizens as having second class rights to those of their fellow French citizens. “Given the serious abuses resulting from use of those power, abusive and discriminatory raids and house arrests against Muslims have created economic hardship, stigmatisation and traumatised children. “Beyond the moral debate, we should also ask the question of the efficiency of these measures. Following the Bataclan, France has seen some of the worst attacks in its history while under the state of emergency. Turning these failed policies into law does not seem to make much sense. Instead, efforts should be invested in fair treatment of its minority and cessation of foreign intervention.” CC image courtesy of ev on Unsplash
<em>London</em> - France’s <strong><a href="http://www.lemonde.fr/police-justice/article/2017/06/07/le-gouvernement-compte-faire-entrer-l-etat-d-urgence-dans-le-droit-commun_5140018_1653578.html">proposed new bill</a> </strong>that would allow <strong><a href="http://en.rfi.fr/europe/20170609-macrons-security-law-plan-under-fire-state-emergency-criticised">state of emergency measures</a></strong> to become <strong><a href="http://www.france24.com/en/20170609-france-state-emergency-macron-police-powers-civil-liberties-terrorism">the law</a> </strong>of the land, must be opposed in order to prevent widespread abuse.
The bill normalises banning protest marches, shutting down places of worship, forcing people under house arrest to give police access to their electronic devices and using electronic tagging for purposes of surveillance. It gives complete power to police to implement these measures without judicial oversight.
<h3>Ibrahim Mohamoud, CAGE spokesperson, said:</h3>
“This would open the powers to normalised and regular abuse and discrimination with absolutely no basis. These measures will give way to officials to make sweeping intrusions in the lives of many French Muslims without any judicial scrutiny. This will only reinforce the feelings of Muslim citizens as having second class rights to those of their fellow French citizens.
“Given the serious abuses resulting from use of those power, <strong><a href="https://www.hrw.org/news/2016/02/03/france-abuses-under-state-emergency">abusive and discriminatory raids</a> </strong>and house arrests against Muslims have created economic hardship, stigmatisation and traumatised children.
“Beyond the moral debate, we should also ask the question of the efficiency of these measures. Following the Bataclan, France has seen some of the worst attacks in its history while under the state of emergency. Turning these failed policies into law does not seem to make much sense. Instead, efforts should be invested in fair treatment of its minority and cessation of foreign intervention.”
<em>CC image courtesy of<a href="https://unsplash.com/photos/nLwq3zD4Qlk"> ev</a> on Unsplash</em>
