March 28 () –
The United Nations recalled on Monday the right to peaceful protest, after several international organizations and NGOs expressed their concern about the excessive use of force in the demonstrations that have taken place in France in protest of the pension reform.
“People have the right to demonstrate peacefully. The security forces have to be there to protect that right to demonstrate peacefully,” said the spokesman for the UN Secretary General, Stéphane Dujarric, after being asked at a press conference.
Police violence is at the center of the political debate in France as a result of serious riots between demonstrators and agents in the context of protests against the judicial reform promoted by the Government and that raises the retirement age.
The Council of Europe is one of the organizations that has recently expressed its concern about the “excessive use of force” by the French Police in the context of demonstrations against the pension reform. Human rights organizations such as Human Rights Watch (HRW) or Amnesty International have also lamented this situation.
Following this complaint, the General Inspectorate of the French National Police (IGPN) announced over the weekend the opening of 17 investigations since January 19 — when the protests began — for possible cases of excessive police violence.
