UN Experts Warn of Excessive Force Against French Student Protesters

United Nations human rights experts have voiced alarm over what they call the "excessive use of force" by French authorities in breaking up recent student protests across the country.

In a statement released on Wednesday, four experts mandated by the UN Human Rights Council said the scale of arrests and detentions, which have affected several thousand people and mainly minors, appears disproportionate. They warned that it discourages people from exercising their freedoms of expression and peaceful assembly. The group included Gina Romero, special rapporteur on the freedom of peaceful assembly, and Farida Shaheed, the UN expert on cultural rights.

The experts acknowledged that authorities launched several initiatives in October to encourage dialogue and respond to student demands. However, they said the emphasis on a mainly security-focused response has pushed the underlying causes of the mobilisation to the sidelines.

The protests have continued since mid-September. They began over conditions in high schools, where young people complained of deteriorating buildings, overcrowded classrooms and teacher absences. Students have since joined nationwide demonstrations over the rising cost of living, and some of those events saw riots and looting on their margins.

France's Interior Ministry said the government deployed 70,000 security forces on Saturday and arrested 1,000 people during demonstrations that drew 410,000 protesters nationwide. A week earlier, public buildings were vandalised, hundreds of businesses were looted and 2,700 people were arrested. Interior Minister Laurent Nunez vowed to be "extremely vigilant, extremely firm" in containing future unrest.

Alice Cohen-Morzadec, a spokesperson for the Union Etudiante, told Al Jazeera that the movement reflects broader anger. "What we are seeing right now is a general outburst of resentment against [French President Emmanuel] Macron and his policies that have destroyed our rights, destroyed our living conditions," she said.

Analysts say the government has struggled to meet students' demands because of a severe fiscal crisis and planned budget cuts, which have reduced the country's education budget.

The policing of some protests has drawn criticism. In the northern city of Lille, a teenager lost a hand when a grenade exploded as school protesters clashed with police. The UN rapporteurs called the serious and, in some cases, irreversible injuries suffered by underage demonstrators during law enforcement operations "unacceptable and unjustifiable."

The experts also recalled earlier discussions in which they urged French authorities to carry out a comprehensive review of their policing strategies and practices, so that demonstrators can voice their concerns and social conflicts can be resolved peacefully. They said they remain in contact with French authorities on the issue.