A prominent human rights watchdog lashed out on Thursday at French authorities for embedding into the law and continuing to apply some of the measures that were introduced as a means to mitigate the terrorist threat in 2015 and should have been abolished last year along with the state of emergency.
MOSCOW (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 22nd November, 2018) A prominent human rights watchdog lashed out on Thursday at French authorities for embedding into the law and continuing to apply some of the measures that were introduced as a means to mitigate the terrorist threat in 2015 and should have been abolished last year along with the state of emergency.According to a report published by Amnesty International, French law enforcement can still restrict people's freedom of movement and force them to not contact certain people, among other things, based solely on assumptions and vague criteria.
"Measures introduced under the state of emergency were intended to be exceptional and temporary, but have now been firmly embedded into ordinary French law. They are damaging people's lives by ruthlessly stripping away basic rights," Amnesty International's West Europe researcher Rym Khadhraoui was quoted as saying by the watchdog's official website.
The watchdog also noted that French authorities were applying measures to people who had not committed any crime, or been tried or charged.
"By granting substantial discretion to the authorities to penalise people outside of the normal criminal justice system, administrative control measures are open to abuse and discriminatory application, including toward Muslims," the watchdog added.
A state of emergency was enforced in France in 2015 following the deadly terrorist attacks in Paris on November 13. While President Emmanuel Macron ended the state of emergency in October 2017, France adopted a new law, meant to reinforce national security and combat terrorism, that preserved some of the measures applied as part of the state of emergency.
