Recently, the annual report of the NGO "Human Rights Watch" was published, which reports on the human rights situation in different countries. France was also examined more closely. We would like to present a few results here. For interested readers, the entire report can be found as a PDF here. Among other things, the reactionary government's handling of the corona virus is denounced. The handling of giving more power to the executive has already been criticised in the past. But now the effects of the measures are also becoming apparent:
Every third person lost their income, millions of people were catapulted into poverty. The school closures also only highlight the contradictions between the different social classes.
Another thing, which we have also reported on here in several contexts, is the continuing police violence. For a long time, for example, an explosive tear gas grenade was used at demonstrations, which was now banned last year but replaced by a non-explosive variant. In addition, rubber bullets continue to be used, which have dangerously and fatally injured thousands of people. When the police act outside demonstrations, it can still be seen that they act in a particularly humiliating way against migrant youth. However, this is not only a problem of the police itself, but also imperialist chauvinism in general is very strong, which is also fuelled again and again by the reactionary government or also bourgeois media (we remember Charlie Hebdo). Figures have now been published on racist offences in 2019; unfortunately, these are still pending for last year and will only be published in the course of this year. The various offences are broken down into anti-Semitic acts (up 27%), anti-Muslim (up 54%) and "all other racist acts" (up 131%). The old French state is at the forefront of this when, for example, it dismantled a settlement of Roma families near Paris without providing them with replacement accommodation. But also the numerous violent evictions of self-built refugee camps give a hint that these are not a few "exceptions".
