227 referrals were made by demonstrators against the pension reform believing that their rights had been violated. The Defender of Rights recalls that “the principle is the freedom to demonstrate”.
“The principle is the freedom to demonstrate.” The Defender of Rights has been seized 227 times since the start of the protests against the pension reform. “In the referrals there are situations of traps, violence, arrests considered arbitrary, journalists, and that for us is new”, details this Friday morning Claire Hédon on BFMTV and RMC.
The institution is now working in its investigations “to find out whether force was used in a necessary and proportionate way”. “We are not only trying to understand the fact denounced but in this investigation we are trying to find out what is the framework, what orders have been given and what is the training?”, Details the Defender of Rights, invited at the beginning of the month to attend a demonstration from the command room of the Paris police headquarters.
“The principle is the freedom to demonstrate and it is also the principle of maintaining order, she insists.
The organizers must declare their demonstration, but it is not a request for authorization, and participating in an undeclared demonstration is not illegal”.
Unidentifiable police officers
Condemning “all forms of violence”, whether they come from the police or demonstrators, Claire Hédon recalls that “the police have the use of force”. “But what must be studied is what generated unnecessary forces”, she insists, taking the example of a demonstrator “controlled on the ground, and a policeman continues to hit him, helmeted, masked policeman, RIO (police identification number, editor’s note) not visible”.
“We were never able to identify him, she laments. The police around did not know, the management did not know. I doubt perfectly that those who were around did not know who it was…”
Claire Hédon “doubts (…) that no one has managed to find out who it was”. If the management is not able to know who it is, I find it very worrying”, she continues, recalling her fight for the visible port of the RIO.
The Defender of Rights is also concerned that France has not engaged in “a de-escalation of violence”. “What is happening in Germany, in Great Britain? They have worked a lot more on this question of de-escalation which is played out at all levels”, concludes the Defender of Rights.
