The United Nations Human Rights Committee found that France violated the human rights of two women by fining them for wearing the niqab.
In 2016, the Human Rights Committee received two complaints from women who were prosecuted for wearing clothing that hides a face.
The Human Rights Committee received two complaints in 2016, after two French women were prosecuted and convicted in 2012 for wearing articles of clothing intended to conceal their faces in public.
France in 2010 adopted a law stipulating that «No one may, in a public space, wear any article of clothing intended to conceal the face.»
The Committee found that the general criminal ban on the wearing of the niqab in public introduced by the French law disproportionately harmed the petitioners’ right to manifest their religious beliefs, and that France had not adequately explained why it was necessary to prohibit this clothing. In particular, the Committee was not persuaded by France’s claim that a ban on face covering was necessary and proportionate from a security standpoint or for attaining the goal of «living together» in society.
The UN acknowledged that the ban is too radical. States may require to show a face to identify a person. Within 180 days, French authorities will have to report to OHCHR and pay compensation to the women.
