France

French police used excessive force during sometimes violent demonstrations since late 2018, causing injuries to protestors who were not engaged in violence. An April 2019 protest law risks undermining the right to freedom of peaceful assembly. The government failed to pursue necessary reforms to tackle discriminatory police identity checks. Asylum seekers and migrants sometimes face police abuse. Flawed age assessments of unaccompanied migrant children exclude many from care. Counterterrorism powers remain open to abuse. A November 2017 security law grants the authorities emergency powers without judicial safeguards that undermine the rights to liberty, freedoms of movement, association, expression, privacy and security.