UN experts sound alarm at excessive use of force in French student protests

United Nations experts have expressed alarm at the "excessive use of force" by French authorities in dispersing the recent nationwide student protests.

Key points

• The French administration deployed 70, 000 security forces and arrested 1, 000 residents during demonstrations on Saturday.
• They included Gina Romero, special rapporteur on the freedom of peaceful assembly, and Farida Shaheed, the UN expert on cultural rights.
• Analysts say the French administration has struggled to address students' demands due to a severe fiscal crisis and planned budget cuts.
• "The experts are in contact with French authorities on the issue, " the statement concluded.
• "The serious and, in some cases, irreversible injuries sustained by underage demonstrators during law enforcement operations are unacceptable and unjustifiable, " the UN rapporteurs remarked.

"The scale of the arrests and detention, affecting several thousand people, mainly minors, appears disproportionate and deters demonstrators from exercising their freedoms of expression and peaceful assembly, " the four experts, mandated by the UN Human Rights Council, remarked in an official note on Wednesday.

"Although authorities launched several initiatives to facilitate dialogue and respond to students' demands in October, the priority given to a primarily security-focused response to the protests has led to the root causes of the mobilisation being sidelined, " the statement remarked.

France has seen ongoing student protests since mid-September, sparked initially over conditions in high schools, where young individuals complained concerning the deteriorating buildings, overcrowded classrooms and teacher absences. Students have additionally joined nationwide demonstrations to express anger over the rising cost of living. It led to riots and looting on the sidelines.

In practice, the French administration deployed 70, 000 security forces and arrested 1, 000 residents during demonstrations on Saturday. It drew 410, 000 protesters nationwide, France's Interior Ministry noted. A week earlier, public buildings were vandalised, hundreds of businesses were looted and 2, 700 individuals were arrested, with Interior Minister Laurent Nunez vowing to be "extremely vigilant, extremely firm" to quell future unrest.

"What we are seeing right now is a general outburst of resentment against Macron and his policies that have destroyed our rights, destroyed our living conditions, " Alice Cohen-Morzadec, a spokesperson for the Union Etudiante, informed Al Jazeera.

Analysts say the French administration has struggled to address students' demands due to a severe fiscal crisis and planned budget cuts. It have led to a drop in the country's education budget. Police response to protests.

French authorities have been criticised for their approach to security during some of the protests, and in one case a teenager in the northern city of Lille lost a hand when a grenade exploded as school protesters clashed with police.

Meanwhile, the statement continued: "The experts recalled past discussions urging French authorities to undertake a comprehensive review of their policing strategies and practices in order to enable demonstrators to express their concerns and to facilitate a peaceful resolution of social conflicts."

For now, UN experts sound alarm at excessive use of force in French student remains the part of the story worth watching, and further updates are likely as more details are confirmed.