AMU Emergency Management Public Safety

Watchdog: Extended State of Emergency in France Undermines Human Rights

State of Emergency in France now stands until January 2017

On July 20, 2016, France [link url=”http://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-36842311″ title=”extended the nation’s state of emergency”] for six additional months. The extenstion pushed the state of emergency all the way through the end of January 2017.

France originally went under its first [link url=”https://www.theguardian.com/world/2015/nov/16/france-nationwide-state-of-emergency” title=”nationwide state of emergency since 1961″] in November 2015, following terrorist attacks in Paris in November that resulted in at least 130 deaths. This latest extension — the fourth renewal of the of the original emergency declaration — went into effect after a separate terrorist attack on Bastille Day in the city of Nice left another 84 people dead, along with many others injured.

Shortly after the July extension of the declaration, Human Rights Watch, a nonprofit, nongovernmental (NGO) organization focused on human rights, published a [link url=”https://www.hrw.org/news/2016/07/22/france-prolonged-emergency-state-threatens-rights” title=”scathing report”]. The report bluntly stated that the extended state of emergency “undermines human rights and the rule of law.”

Expansion of police powers

According to Human Rights Watch, the current state of emergency in France allows for the expansion of police powers, and specifically allows for expansion of powers that deal with search, seizure, and detention by police officers.

For example, the current emergency law allows police power to conduct searches and “follow up raids” without a judge’s approval. And the current emergency law also makes it easier for police to seize data from computers and mobile phones, as well as search luggage and vehicles.

Letta Tayler, senior terrorism and counterterrorism researcher at Human Rights Watch, said that an extended state of emergency sets a “dangerous precedent” and that authorities should use serious measures like the nationwide state of emergency “for the shortest time possible.”

“A rolling state of emergency risks trampling rights and eroding the rule of law and sets a dangerous precedent for abuse elsewhere,” — [link url=”https://www.hrw.org/news/2016/07/22/france-prolonged-emergency-state-threatens-rights” title=”Letta Tayler”, senior terrorism and counterterrorism researcher at Human Rights Watch

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