police

Police database critized by French rights groups

Tuesday 22 July 2008

French police introduced a new database on July 1 to collect information on politicians, businessmen and trade unionists. Human rights organisations, as well as the CNIL watchdog (photo), have slammed the system.

A new database, nicknamed Edvige, will be shared by several police services and is being slammed by human rights groups as a repressive instrument to control French citizens.

The database centralizes information about people who participate or have participated in politics, trade unions or businesses. It also contains information about individuals as young as 13 years old and enables users to check entered data against other sources of information. The data collected includes political opinions, sexuality and ethnic origins.

Uproar among human rights groups

Over 300 human rights groups have circulated petitions over the Internet condemning the new database as an attack on human rights and on the rights of children.

In an interview with FRANCE 24, Mouloud Aounit, president of the movement against racism and for friendship between people (MRAP) says Edvige is a clear attack on freedom. He believes the French parliament should vote on the introduction of such a database and regrets that leftwing parties are “incapable of rising against the ideological bulldozer of rightwing parties.”

Other pressure groups question Edvige such as Gaylib, a pressure group representing homosexuals belonging to the rightwing UMP party. It asks “why the government wants to gather information on the sexual orientation or health of individuals” and calls for the the scrapping of the database.

The French Association of Paralytics (APF) calls for the database to be scrapped, saying the new measure “attacks anybody who has acted to defend ideas, rights or people.”

Faced with angry reactions from human rights groups, the Interior ministry justifies its database. Ministry spokesman Gérard Gachet said that although the Freedom and IT National Commission (CNIL) issued reservations over the new database, Edvige got the official green light. However, the CNIL will be allowed to monitor the database.