Baku, July 1, AZERTAC

Speaker Sahiba Gafarova and the heads of the Milli Majlis delegations have made an appeal to international parliamentary organizations over the killing on 28 June 2023 of a 17-year-old Algerian taxi driver in Nanterre, a suburb of Paris, as he was shot dead by a police officer without any justifiable reason, the Press and Public Relations Department of the Milli Majlis told AZERTAC.

The appeal, which expressed deep indignation and dismay, was sent to the Inter-Parliamentary Union, the OSCE PA, the Council of Europe PA, the President of the Europarliament, the Euronest PA, the CIS IPA, the TURKPA, the OIC PA, the PABSEC, the GUAM PA, the Asian Parliamentary Assembly, the NATO PA, the PA of the Economic Co-operation Organization and the ASEAN PA.

The leader of the Milli Majlis and the heads of parliamentary delegations strongly condemned this act of violence and deplore the indifference to the rights and security of ethnic minorities in France as well as the deep-rooted disdain, xenophobia and religious intolerance towards members of peoples other than the French themselves.

It is noted that this bloody racial hate crime comes as a manifestation of the systemic problems and double standards faced in France by members of several ethnic minorities including the Algerian community when they demand equal, fair and dignified treatment. People who want their voices to be heard are met with a disproportionate show of force instead of dialogue; this further fuels the tensions. Also, the appeal highlights the scale of the mass protests and unrest caused in Paris and other French cities by the asymmetric police violence, lawlessness and discrimination that have become commonplace in that country. The rising also stems from the distrust of the general public in the government.

The Speaker and the Delegation Heads deplore the fact that European democratic and human rights institutions have not paid due attention to such dangerous tendencies demonstrated by the French Government though they could lead to a deterioration in the protection of human rights in the country, especially the protection of the rights of national minorities.

Finally, the appeal again strongly condemns the violence that has taken place and stresses the importance of the rule of democracy, the rule of law. The French Government is called upon to engage in a constructive dialogue with representatives of ethnic minorities and other social groups as well as civil society, all in line with international human rights instruments, in order to tackle the root causes of such racially and nationally motivated hate crimes. The French Government is also urged to implement reforms aimed at establishing the principles of equality, justice and respect for all human beings.