FRANCE-SOGI-TBs-CAT

Concluding Observations on Report 8 (2025) (Link)

Conditions of detention

18. … The Committee remains concerned, too, about reports of inadequate psychiatric care in prisons, the shortage of medical personnel, including psychiatric personnel, in prison infirmaries and the frequent use of solitary confinement for prisoners with psychiatric pathologies and for homosexual and transgender prisoners.

19. The State Party should:

…(e) Put an end to the practice of placing prisoners with psychiatric disorders in solitary confinement either in prison infirmaries or in affiliated hospitals where this practice could worsen their condition and consider introducing alternatives to solitary confinement to ensure the protection of homosexual and transgender prisoners;…

 

***

Hate crimes

42. The Committee notes the measures taken by the State Party to combat hate crime, including the adoption of Act No. 2020-766 of 24 June 2020 on Combating Hateful Content on the Internet and the establishment in 2020 of the National Centre to Combat Online Hate at the Paris Public Prosecutor’s Office. It is nonetheless troubled by the large and increasing number of hate crimes motivated by racist, Islamophobic, antisemitic, xenophobic or homophobic prejudices and by the relatively small number of these crimes that have resulted in prosecution and conviction. It notes with concern the growing hostility towards persons belonging to ethnic or religious minority groups, including people of African descent, Roma, Muslims, Jews and lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and intersex persons. The Committee is also concerned about the increase in violent attacks on migrants, refugees and asylum-seekers and notes with concern the growing number of anti-immigrant remarks amounting to racism or xenophobia made by political figures. In addition, it regrets the lack of information about the impact and effectiveness of policy and awareness-raising measures on reducing incidents of hate speech and hate crime and the insufficient data collection in that regard (arts. 2 and 16).

43. The State Party should:

(a) Encourage the reporting of hate crime and ensure that hate crime is thoroughly investigated, perpetrators prosecuted and punished and victims provided with effective remedies;

(b) Provide appropriate training to central and local authorities, law enforcement officials, judges and prosecutors on combating hate speech and hate crime and to media workers on promoting acceptance of diversity;

(c) Strengthen the outreach efforts it makes to promote respect for human rights and tolerance for diversity, as well as to combat and eliminate conventional prejudices based on race, ethnicity, religion, sexual orientation gender identity;

(d) Provide statistics on the number and nature of hate crimes, the convictions and sentences imposed on perpetrators and the compensation awarded to victims, where applicable.

 

Intersex persons

44. While noting that the number of surgical operations on intersex children has, according to the delegation of the State Party, dropped considerably since the adoption of Act No. 2021-1017 of 2 August 2021, the Bioethics Act, and that such operations take place only when necessary, following medical and psychological advice, the Committee remains concerned about reports of unnecessary and irreversible surgery and other medical treatment with lifelong consequences, including severe pain and suffering, to which intersex children have been subjected before they have reached an age at which they are able to provide their free, prior and informed consent (arts. 2 and 16).

45. The State Party should:

(a) Consider adopting legislative provisions that explicitly prohibit the performance of non-urgent and non-essential medical or surgical treatment on intersex children before they are old enough or mature enough to make their own decisions and provide their free, prior and informed consent;

(b) Ensure independent oversight of decision-making to ensure that medical treatments for children with intersex traits who are unable to consent are necessary, urgent and the least invasive option;

(c) Provide redress, including appropriate compensation and rehabilitation, to victims of non-urgent and non-essential treatment and ensure that all intersex children and adolescents and their families receive professional counselling services and psychological and social support.

---

Concluding Observations on Report 7 (2016) (Link)

[no mention]

---

Concluding Observations on Report 4-6 (2010) (Link)

[no mention]

---

Concluding Observations on Report 3 (2005) (Link)

[no mention]

---

Concluding Observations on Report 2 (1998) (Link)

[no mention]

---

Concluding Observations on Report 1 (1989) (Link)

[no mention]

---