European court rules France discriminated in police identity checks

Europe’s top human rights court ruled that French police discriminated against a man of African descent, marking a landmark case of racial profiling against France.

The European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) on Thursday issued a precedent-setting ruling against France, finding that police had carried out discriminatory identity checks on a French citizen of African descent — the first such judgement against the country for racial profiling.

The Strasbourg-based court said the French state had failed to justify three separate ID checks conducted on Karim Touil over a 10-day period in 2011 in central Besançon. It ordered the government to pay Touil €3,000 ($3,512) for violating Articles 8 and 14 of the European Convention on Human Rights, which protect private life and prohibit discrimination.

However, the court rejected claims from five other applicants, also young men of African heritage, citing insufficient evidence and noting that their ID checks largely occurred amid local tensions.

Lanna Hollo, a human rights advocate from the French group RECLAIM and a long-time supporter of the case, welcomed the decision in Touil’s favour but warned that the court's reasoning may reinforce systemic discrimination in marginalised communities.

“The ruling does not go far enough in safeguarding rights for all — particularly those in France’s disadvantaged, minority-heavy neighbourhoods,” she said.

The ECHR has previously ruled against Germany and Switzerland for similar cases of discriminatory policing.

The judgement coincides with a report released this week by France’s human rights watchdog, which found that young Black and Arab men — or those perceived as such — were four times more likely to be stopped by police and 12 times more likely to face extensive procedures such as searches or detention.

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