Claire Hédon, the new Defender of Rights.

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Isa Harsin / SIPA

Precariousness of the most vulnerable people, increase in complaints against the police, decline in public services ... In her report, the Defender of Rights portrays a France hit by an "aggravation of inequalities" linked to the consequences of the coronavirus epidemic.

"The health crisis has not spared the functioning of public services (...) This weakening has contributed to accentuating the widening of social inequalities, first hitting the most vulnerable, underlining their essential role in the preservation of equality », We can read in the report published Thursday of this independent authority in charge in particular of defending the citizens vis-a-vis the administration.

A “sometimes Kafkaesque” bureaucracy

The institution, headed since July by Claire Hédon, former president of the NGO ATD-Fourth World which succeeded Jacques Toubon, received nearly 97,000 complaints in 2020, or 6% less than the previous year.

They mainly concern relations with public services;

more than 60,000 complaints, down 1.6% year on year.

"The population is exhausted by this crisis, our duty is to restore people to their rights, to help them cope with a bureaucracy which is sometimes Kafkaesque", explains Claire Hédon, pointing to a "dehumanization" of services. public and inequalities in Internet access.

The Defender of Rights also warns of the major risks represented by measures eroding rights and freedoms in the long term, such as the closing of counters for asylum seekers, the situation of unaccompanied minors or access to visits for those seeking asylum. residents in nursing homes.

While it is "legitimate" for the State to be able to acquire the "necessary" means to deal with the health emergency, this regime must remain "temporary, be strictly supervised and respect the principles of our rule of law: legality, necessity and proportionality ”, notes Claire Hédon.

"We must not get used to attacks on our freedoms, I think it is important to remind people," she underlines.

Explosion of files linked to "security ethics"

As in previous years, 2020 was marked by questions of relations between the police and the population: the Defender of Rights recorded a 10.5% jump in cases related to "security ethics", with more than 2,100 complaints, the majority of which concerns the action of the police.

According to Claire Hédon, this increase is partly explained by the increase in cases involving municipal police, "particularly mobilized" during this crisis.

“The maintenance of order is legitimate but it must be absolutely irreproachable.

Confidence between the population and the police must be strengthened, and this requires setting an example and sanctions when there is slippage and disproportionate use of force, ”underlines Claire Hédon.

In her report, the Defender of Rights recalls that referrals in matters of security ethics have increased by nearly 210% since 2014. While some of her recommendations have been retained in the new national law enforcement plan (SNMO ), this is not the case with the prohibition of the LBD (defense bullet launcher) during demonstrations or the fact of entrusting the task of maintaining order only to specialized units.

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  • Covid 19

  • epidemic

  • Coronavirus

  • Society

  • Police

  • Public service

  • Defender of rights

  • Inequality