The ECLJ has submitted a report to the UN group of experts in charge of the Universal Periodic Review on human rights violations in France. You can read it here.

To meet the requirements of the United Nations body, the ECLJ focused its report on three essential points on which France contravenes the respect of rights:

- The right to life, the most fundamental right. France does not guarantee the right to life for all its citizens. France does not seek to reduce recourse to abortion by helping pregnant women socially, but instead actively promotes abortion and indeed prohibits associations from working to concretely help women wishing to keep their unborn child. The euthanasia debate also illustrates the lack of respect for life that the government seeks to endorse.

- Freedom of conscience. Conscientious objection in France is not only frequently questioned but also, in an entirely arbitrary way, often misapplied or not recognized to various medical professions.

- Lastly, freedom of education has been arbitrarily restricted by the anti-separatism law, even though international texts give parents priority over the right to educate their children. The law restricting IEF should be repealed.

You can view our full report here.

This report will be taken into account by the Group in charge of the Universal Periodic Review which will summarize it with the reports submitted by other NGOs as well as the official report produced by the French government. The Review Group will present its recommendations to France in a years’ time. These recommendations will be the subject of a debate at the United Nations Human Rights Council and the ECLJ will not fail to intervene at this event.