Rights groups attack merger plan

A plan to merge several civil rights bodies will lead to less protection for foreigners and children, say human rights groups.

The government wants to create a new body headed by a figure called the Défenseur des Droits (Rights Defender) which will swallow up four current groups. These are:

- The offices of the Médiateur de la République, who intervenes in disputes between the public and state

- The Défenseur des Enfants (Children’s Defender) whose service looks into complaints of abuse of children’s rights

- Anti-discrimination body La Halde

- The CNDS which deals with complaints about the police

Opponents fear the different tasks will be watered down and that the new Defender may also be less independent.

Justice Minister Michèle Alliot-Marie has claimed the Rights Defender will give “unprecedented scope to protection of rights and freedoms, bringing the institutions together to be stronger.”

The Defender is to be put in place by next year but their exact role is being hammered out in parliament.

La Halde president Jeannette Bougrab and the Défenseur des Enfants, Dominique Versini, have spoken out against the plans.

Ms Bougrab said in Le Monde that La Halde was a body that “worked” and “I will fight like a tiger to defend it.”

Ms Versini said the Défenseur des Enfants was being silenced because it had criticised the government’s actions over children in prison or asylum centres, she claimed on radio station France Info.

In last minute changes the Senate has agreed there can still be a Children’s Defender as an assistant to the Rights Defender but Mrs Versini says the role will lack autonomy.

The president of leading anti-racism group SOS Racisme, Guillaume Ayné, spoke of “diluting” the bodies’ powers into a “vague” new one.

The public had just got used to the idea they could appeal to La Halde and it was just starting to be effective, he said.

“It takes time for bodies to be a familiar part of the scenery, so there will be a loss of visibility for the fight against discrimination.”

He added: “The Halde is effective over matters like illegal discrimination in civil service jobs or immigration policies. It has upset the powers-that-be and instead of addressing them they want to weaken it.”

He added the CNDC was a “small but very effective body which has spoken out in many cases where the police have messed up and not acted in a Republican way.”

Unicef France has said they would prefer to keep a separate body for children’s rights.

Its president, Jacques Hintzy, said: “The Children’s Defender is well-known to everyone who wants to appeal to them, including children, and also has a wider role promoting children’s rights.

“They report annually to the President about areas where they are not being properly taken into account.

“It remains to be seen if they will still have the same visibility under these plans.”