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GENEVA (Reuters) – The UN Human Rights Committee said on Tuesday that France's ban on the niqab, the full Islamic veil, was a violation of human rights. and called for a review of the legislation.
PHOTO FILE: The French police and gendarmes check identity cards of two women wearing the full veil, or niqab, on their arrival to protest after the Internet call of Islamist groups protesting against an anti-gay video. Islam, in Lille on September 22, 2012. REUTERS / Pascal Rossignol
France has failed to justify its ban, said the commission, and gave Paris 180 days to report on the actions taken.
"In particular, the Committee was not convinced by France's allegation that a ban on covering the face was necessary and proportionate from the point of view of safety or to achieve the objective to "live together" in society, "he said.
The group of 18 independent experts ensures compliance with the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights. The implementation of its decisions is not mandatory, but under an optional protocol to the treaty, France is legally obliged to comply "in good faith".
A spokesman for the French Foreign Ministry said the law was legitimate, necessary and respected religious freedom. The ban aims to hide his face, not any type of religious clothing leaving his face uncovered, he told the press.
RISK OF MARGINALIZATION
The French spokesman also pointed out that the French Constitutional Court and the European Court of Human Rights, whose decisions are binding, had upheld the ban on the full veil, claiming that it does not did not violate freedom of religion.
The UN Human Rights Committee disagreed in Tuesday's statement, saying the ban disproportionately infringes women's right to manifest their religious beliefs and could lead them to be confined to their homes and marginalized.
The commission's findings follow complaints from two French women convicted in 2012 under a 2010 law stating that "no one in a public place can wear a garment to hide the face".
In its conclusions, the panel called on France to pay compensation to the two women.
Under the ban, anyone wearing the full veil in public is liable to a fine of 150 euros ($ 170) or a lesson of French nationality. According to the media of Metronews, 223 fines were imposed in 2015 for wearing the full veil in public.
Other European countries have adopted legislation on Islamic dress. The Danish parliament banned the wearing of the facial veil in public in May. Belgium, the Netherlands, Bulgaria and the German State of Bavaria have also imposed some restrictions on the full veil in public places.
France has the largest Muslim minority in Europe, estimated at 5 million or more out of a population of 67 million. The place of religion and religious symbols worn in public may be controversial in this resolutely secular country.
The UN Human Rights Committee has come to similar conclusions about the 2008 case of a woman sent away by a nursery for wearing the veil. In September, the newspaper Le Monde quoted a prominent French judge who said that court decisions, although not binding, could still influence French case law.
Supplementary Report by Ingrid Melander Editing by Raissa Kasolowsky and David Stamp
