The plan should make it possible to “better measure” phenomena such as racism, “better educate and train”, “better punish” perpetrators and “better monitor victims”, making young people less vulnerable to hate messages.
French Prime Minister Elisabeth Borne presented a plan on Monday to combat racism, anti-Semitism and discrimination based on origin, with the aim, in particular, of making young people less vulnerable to hate messages.
Commission Against Racial Discrimination with 408 complaints in 2021 and two convictions
“By publicizing it, we prevent history from repeating itself,” said Borne, whose Jewish father was deported and then killed himself when she was 11.
In an unusual procedure, the French government’s plan explicitly includes the fight against discrimination against Roma and Roma people.
During their schooling, each student will be required to participate in “visiting a historical or memorial site related to racism, anti-Semitism or the fight against Roma”, because “it is from childhood that stereotypes can be established”declared the head of the French Executive.
“It is in our youth that some conspiracy theories abound. It is also in our young people that hate messages on social networks have the most repercussions, ”she stressed.
The new 2023-2026 plan provides for a series of measures that affect sectors from education to employment, including the fields of justice and sports.
Its objective is to detect and combat discrimination in employment, business, school, transport and other areas and to “develop tools” with digital platforms and influencers.
For the months of March and the plan will also focus on access to housing to “highlight good practices and denounce bad ones”.
Borne promised “total firmness in the response to crimes” of racism, anti-Semitism and discrimination, allowing “issuance of arrest warrants” against people who “misuse freedom of expression” for this purpose.
“There will be no impunity for hate”said the head of the French Government, who chose the Institute of the Arab World to present this plan, which includes 80 measures.
Among them, it also provides for the aggravation of sanctions in cases of racist or anti-Semitic expressions by people who belong to public authorities or who are attached to a public service mission, he added.
The plan should make it possible to “better measure” these phenomena, “better educate and train”, “better punish” the perpetrators and “better monitor the victims”, summed up the French prime minister.
A code of conduct for video games and electronic sports will also be implemented.
Elisabeth Borne also announced, during the presentation of the plan, the creation on the site of a former concentration camp, in western France, of a museum in memory of those who were housed there during the Second World War.
In June, the French government is expected to present another plan against discrimination based on sexual orientation.
Source: Observadora
