Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination

Seventy-seventh session

2–27 August 2010

Implementation of the International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination

List of themes to be taken up in connection with the consideration of the seventeenth to nineteenth periodic reports of France (CERD/C/FRA/17-19)

The following is a list of themes identified by the Country Rapporteur in connection with the seventeenth, eighteenth and nineteenth periodic reports of France. The list is meant to guide the dialogue between the State party delegation and the Committee and does not require written re plies. This is not an exhaustive list as other issues will be raised in the course of the dialogue.

1.France’s integration policy and its implications for compliance with the Convention

(a)The major debate on national identity opened by the Minister for Immigration, Integration, National Identity and Mutually-Supportive Development (arts. 2 and 5):

(i)Objectives of the debate, preliminary observations and next steps.

(b)Ethnic composition of the population (follow-up to the recommendation in CERD/C/FRA/CO/16, para. 10):

(i)Statistics or indications as to the number of people who could be discriminated against on the basis of race, skin colour, ancestry, nationality or ethnic origin, including data on mother tongues, languages spoken fluently and other indicators of ethnic diversity as well as any information on race, skin colour, ancestry and national or ethnic origin taken from social surveys. In the absence of such information, qualitative description of the ethnic characteristics of the population (objective data) (CERD/C/FRA/17-19, paras. 13–14).

(c)Immigration policy (arts. 2 and 5):

(i)Content and scope of Act No. 2007-1631 of 20 November 2007 governing immigration control, integration and asylum and its consequences for the rights recognized in the Convention (CERD/C/FRA/17-19, paras. 194–196).

2.Challenges faced by certain groups in prospering in French society (civil and political rights, the right to housing, the right to education and the right to work)

(a)Access to housing (arts. 3 and 5):

(i)Content and preliminary results of the urban renewal programme launched in 2003 and run by the National Agency for Urban Renewal (CERD/C/FRA/17-19, para. 319);

(ii)Action plans to promote equality of opportunity in access to housing (CERD/C/FRA/17-19, para. 321);

(iii)Statistics and allocation of competence (national versus local) for identifying and suppressing discriminatory practices in access to housing (CERD/C/FRA/17-19, para. 322).

(b)Access to employment (arts. 2 and 5):

(i)Mechanisms to prevent and combat discrimination in the labour market (CERD/C/FRA/17-19, para. 124), as well as results and observations on the implementation of these policies;

(ii)Implementation of legislation to combat discrimination in the workplace and of monitoring mechanisms within companies (CERD/C/FRA/17-19, paras. 290–304 and 309–311).

(c)Discrimination against Roma (arts. 2, 3 and 5):

(i)Scope of the laws on travellers (including the Act of 5 July 2000) and extent of their application to other itinerant persons, notably Roma, particularly in the areas of access to decent housing, health care and education (CERD/C/FRA/CO/16/Add.1, paras. 53–112, and CERD/C/FRA/17-19, paras. 95–116).

3.Preventing and combating racial discrimination

(a)State mechanisms (art. 2):

(i)Follow-up to the Declaration and Programme of Action of the World Conference against Racism, Racial Discrimination, Xenophobia and Related Intolerance (Durban, 2001) and implementation of the national programme of action to eliminate racism, racial discrimination, xenophobia and related intolerance (CERD/C/FRA/17-19, paras. 53–60);

(ii)Organizational chart of State mechanisms (at both the national and local levels) whose mandate is to prevent and combat racial discrimination. Data on coordination between these mechanisms and results obtained (CERD/C/FRA/17-19, paras. 24 and 211 of the French language version). Implications for the competence-sharing envisaged in the draft legislation on a Human Rights Defender (CERD/C/FRA/17-19, paras. 207–224);

(b)Suppression of discriminatory acts (art. 6):

(i)Preliminary results of the anti-discrimination units (CERD/C/FRA/17-19, para. 23);

(ii)Measures taken to encourage all public prosecutors to respond to statistical surveys. Measures taken to supplement the statistical data by extending data collection to civil and administrative courts and including police reports (CERD/C/FRA/17-19, para. 32);

(iii)Mechanisms to combat discriminatory behaviour by law-enforcement personnel (CERD/C/FRA/17-19, paras. 271 and 276);

(iv)Measures taken to combat racial discrimination on the Internet (including on social networking sites and results obtained).