France faces court action over widespread use of racial profiling

Rights groups hope to bring end to discrimination they say has gone unaddressed by successive governments

France must end the widespread racial profiling of people of black and north African heritage who are routinely stopped by police and asked to show their identity papers with no explanation, a lawyer for rights groups has argued at a historic court hearing in Paris.

In the first class action of its kind against the French state, six French and international organisations including Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch and the Open Society Justice Initiative, want French authorities to be found at fault for failing to prevent the widespread use of ethnic profiling.