ODIHR’s insights

In 2024, ODIHR received reports of 332 incidents that took place in France in the following bias motivation categories: anti-Christian, anti-Muslim, anti-Roma, anti-Semitic, gender-based, and racist and xenophobic hate incidents. In addition, several incidents involved multiple biases, such as anti-Semitic and anti-Christian, anti-Semitic and disability, anti-Muslim and gender-based, gender-based and anti-LGBTI, and racist and xenophobic and anti-Muslim.

ODIHR observes that more than one third of incidents reported in France were anti-Christian, the majority of which involved attacks against property, including vandalism of churches and cemeteries, theft of consecrated objects, and arson. ODIHR notes that many anti-Christian incidents targeted Jehovah’s Witnesses, who faced threats, harassment, physical assaults, and damage to Kingdom Halls and literature carts. Approximately one quarter of the incidents reported in France were anti-Semitic, and frequently targeted visibly Jewish individuals, schools, and places of worship, often accompanied by references to the Holocaust or the conflict in the Middle East. ODIHR further observes that anti-Muslim incidents included threats, physical assaults and the harassment of women and girls, often linked to their visible Muslim appearance or clothing. Incidents motivated by racism and xenophobia included harassment, threats, physical assaults, and vandalism, often affecting people of North African descent, sometimes overlapping with anti-Muslim, anti-Christian, anti-Semitic, gender-based, or disability bias. Finally, ODIHR notes that only a small number of anti-Roma incidents were reported, among them the homicide of a pregnant Roma woman.

It should be noted that ODIHR did not receive any reporting on France relating to other religion or belief and a low number of reports of anti-LGBTI, gender-based and disability hate incidents. This indicates potential gaps in the information reported here.