What’s behind French protests against a new police bill?

France was rocked by protests on Sunday against proposed legislation that would grant additional protections to law enforcement officials using firearms in the line of duty.

The new law, which critics say will grant police officers a “licence to kill”, comes amid mounting allegations of police brutality in recent years, particularly against immigrant communities in the banlieues – outlying suburbs – of Paris and other major cities.

So what is the new law, why is it controversial and where have protests taken place?

Where are protests taking place and what are they about?

Thousands of people marched in France over the weekend against the proposed law which would grant armed police and gendarmes the presumption of self-defence if they use their weapons while carrying out their duties.

This means that complainants against police brutality would have to prove that a police officer was not acting in self-defence.

A petition against the bill lodged by Issam El Khalfaoui, whose son was shot dead by a police officer in ۲۰۲۱, on the website of the National Assembly, gathered ۷۳۰,۰۰۰ signatures earlier in the year, but a parliamentary law committee dismissed it in July.

Thousands of people marched in the French capital Paris over the weekend while many other protests were organised in cities across France. Police said about ۸,۲۰۰ people demonstrated in the southern French cities of Lyon and Toulouse alone.

Protests were also held in Marseille, southern France, and Rennes, in the country’s northwest, where officials said eight people were arrested and three police officers were injured when projectiles were thrown at them.

Left-wing politicians, rights groups including Amnesty International, France’s magistrates’ union and the country’s League of Human Rights also participated in the protests.

What is the new police law coming in?

Draft bill ۶۹۱ aims to establish a presumption of legitimate self-defence or of legality for law enforcement officials when they use their firearms in the line of duty.

In other words, the proposition would mean that officers who killed someone in a shooting incident would be presumed to have acted within the limits of the law, unless there was proof to the contrary.

The text says the presumption of self-defence “may be rebutted if the judicial investigation demonstrates that the use of weapons was manifestly disproportionate or contrary to the principle of absolute necessity established by law”.

Deputies in the National Assembly approved the bill in July. A vote on the proposed legislation will now take place in the Senate, the upper house of the French parliament.

Why is this new law being brought in?

A longstanding demand of France’s far-right National Rally party, the legislation was proposed by Member of Parliament Eric Pauget, from France’s right-wing Les Republicains (LR) party.

Proponents of the law, including French Interior Minister Laurent Nunez, say it is an important legal measure, required to protect police officers working in dangerous conditions, particularly when tackling organised crime.

What have the responses to the proposed law been?

Nunez told the French parliament in July that “it does not lead to penal irresponsibility – at any moment, if the circumstances are reunited, any prosecutor can reverse this presumption”.

But critics say the measure amounts to a “licence to kill”.

Mathilde Panot, president of the hard-left France Unbowed (LFI) party, condemned the bill, saying “the police kill already”.

Addressing crowds in Paris during Sunday’s protest, she said, “In the Republic there can be no organised police impunity. In the Republic, there cannot be a category of citizens who have the right of life or death over other citizens.”

Pouria Amirshahi, a left-wing lawmaker representing French residents overseas, also condemned the bill.

“There will be more deaths – if you authorise someone to use their firearm with the idea that they won’t ⁠be accountable, then they will just shoot,” said Amirshahi. “This law grants police impunity.”

Amnesty International’s Cedric Picard, who took part in the Marseille protest, said, “We are afraid police violence would only grow with this law.”

Why is this new law controversial?

The United Nations has condemned the proposed law, saying it could “legitimise and normalise” violence against civilians.

“The duty to investigate every potentially unlawful killing rests with the State,” said Morris Tidball-Binz, United Nations special rapporteur on extrajudicial, summary or arbitrary executions.

“It cannot be displaced, in law or in practice, by requiring victims or their families to rebut a legal presumption that the use of potentially lethal force was lawful before the facts have been independently established.”

Tidball-Binz said that if the proposed legislation is adopted, it would violate Principle ۹ of the UN Basic Principles on the Use of Force and Firearms by Law Enforcement Officials, which mandates strict limits on the use of lethal force.

Marie-Laure Geoffray, also of Amnesty International, echoed Tidball-Binz’s statement in July, saying that the law would slow down investigations into police violence, as the burden of proof would fall on the victims or their families rather than on the police.

Critics have warned the new law could trigger a rise in fatal shootings and a sharp decline in public trust in the police.

Do other countries have this law?

Pauget, the MP who put the bill forward, said Italy’s anti-protest law is similar in nature.

Proposed by Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni’s far-right wing government and adopted in June ۲۰۲۵, the law introduced harsher penalties for protest-related offences, including property damage and sit-ins deemed disruptive, and granted broader powers to law enforcement officers.

It also allowed intelligence agents to commit certain “crimes” for national security purposes without facing prosecution.

That law similarly prompted widespread demonstrations across Italy, with human rights organisations accusing the government of criminalising dissent, limiting civil liberties and restricting the right to protest.

When has the French police been accused of brutality?

The French government has come under pressure from activists and the public over repeated allegations of police violence and harassment, ⁠largely against Black and Arab men and boys in the suburbs (banlieues) of Paris and other major cities in France in recent years.

Furthermore, the number of fatal shootings by police in France is among the highest in Europe and continues to rise.

The agencies that carry out investigations of police in France – the IGPN and IGGN – recorded ۶۹ people killed by police or gendarmerie officers in ۲۰۲۴, compared with ۴۹ in ۲۰۲۳ and ۵۰ in ۲۰۲۲.

Below are some of the most high-profile incidents across the country over the past decade:

• In June ۲۰۲۳, Nahel Merzouk, a ۱۷-year-old boy of Moroccan and Algerian descent, was shot dead by police in Nanterre, west of Paris, while in the driving seat of a rental car. The incident prompted nationwide protests against police violence. The police initially maintained that Nahel had driven his car at the officer. But this was contradicted by mobile phone footage, which showed two officers standing by a stationary car, with one pointing a weapon at its driver. In March, a French appeals court ruled that Florian M, the policeman who shot and killed the teenager, should stand trial for violence that led to the death.
• In August ۲۰۲۱, Souheil El Khalfaoui, a ۱۹-year-old man of North African descent, was shot and killed by a trainee police officer during a traffic stop in Marseille’s Belle de Mai neighbourhood. Authorities initially ruled the shooting a matter of “absolute necessity” after Souheil allegedly reversed his car towards police, but the case was reopened following family appeals regarding withheld CCTV evidence. The incident set off protests, which intensified after Romain Devassine, the officer involved in the shooting, performed as a BMX rider in the Paris Olympics opening ceremony. The investigation into El Khalfaoui’s death remains ongoing. Devassine has not been formally indicted, placed under arrest or suspended from duty.
• In July ۲۰۱۶, Adama Traore, a ۲۴-year-old man of Malian descent, died in custody after being restrained and apprehended by police following a dispute over an identity check. His death triggered nationwide protests over police brutality. There was another resurgence in demonstrations in ۲۰۲۰ despite COVID-related restrictions, with protesters drawing parallels with the circumstances of the murder of George Floyd in the United States. In ۲۰۲۰, French medical experts exonerated the three police officers involved in the incident, dismissing a medical report commissioned by the young man’s family that said he had died of asphyxiation. Earlier this year, France’s top court ruled against reopening an investigation into Traore’s death, confirming a previous decision to dismiss the case against the arresting officers.