France amended all hate crime provisions contained in its criminal code to include sexual orientation.
A national action plan against racism and anti-Semitism for the period 2011-2014 was adopted in February 2012. An inter-ministerial delegation against racism and anti-Semitism has been established to monitor the implementation of this plan and to co-ordinate the ministries involved. The improvement of data collection mechanisms from both the Ministry of Justice and the Ministry of Interior is one of the goals of the national action plan.
Official figures record 118 physical assaults and 606 cases of threats.
Official figures record 177 physical assaults, 438 cases of threats and forty cases of damage to synagogues or cemeteries.
Official figures record 54 physical assaults, 149 cases of threats and 84 cases of damage to mosques or cemeteries.
Official figures record 543 cases of damage to churches of cemeteries.
Official figures record 33 physical assaults, including 21 resulting in serious injury; one rape, 114 cases of threats and one case of incitement to violence.
Amnesty International and the European Roma Rights Centre reported an arson attack against the temporary home of a Roma family.
The International League against Racism and Anti-Semitism (LICRA) reported the case of 19 March murders of three children and the father of one of the children, shot outside a Jewish school in Toulouse. The perpetrator was killed by the police in the process of being apprehended.
LICRA reported a further case of damage to property against a kosher supermarket.
The Jewish Community Protection Service reported 96 incidents of physical violence, including a knife attack against a girl, three attacks involving spraying tear gas in the victims’ faces, an attack by a group causing serious injury to a man, and one attack by a group at school against one child resulting in serious injury; one case of robbery and physical assault resulting in serious injury against a Jewish man with significant disabilities; one case of blanks being shot out of a car at a rabbi and his congregation outside their synagogue; 172 cases of graffiti; 71 cases of vandalism; and two cases of arson.
The Association against Islamophobia in France (CCIF) reported two physical assaults, including one against two men, and a serious assault against a girl resulting in her hospitalization; one case of graffiti on the home of a Muslim family; two case of threats with a gun; a case where a Muslim family found a pig’s head in the stroller of their baby; and a case involving a woman’s burka being pulled and ripped.
The Observatory on Intolerance Against Christians reported one incident in which Christian icons in public places were vandalized; three arson attacks against church property, including one against a nativity scene and two against a church; 12 incidents of damage and/or vandalism to church property, including one incident against a bookstore owned by a church; three incidents of theft of church property; and four incidents of cemetery desecration.
SOS Homophobie reported 138 physical assaults, 12 sexual assaults and 255 incidents involving threat and/or blackmail.
The OIC Observatory reported eight cases of desecration of and vandalism to mosques, including two where a pig’s head was left outside a mosque and one case where a mosque was smeared with excrement; one arson attack against a mosque; and three cases of desecration of graves, including one incident where 30 tombstones were vandalized.
The Holy See reported four cases of grave desecration involving over 130 graves; and a case of church desecration.
ODIHR observes that France has not periodically reported the numbers of hate crimes recorded by police to ODIHR.