Geneva (CMC) – The United Nations human rights office has condemned the recent racist attacks in France against French Guyanese-born Minister of Justice Christiane Taubira.
The UN Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OCHCR) said that the racist attacks were “unacceptable”, warning that they were another sign of rising discrimination in many European nations.
“This utterly unacceptable abuse of a prominent politician, on the basis of her colour, is a stark manifestation of the rising racism, xenophobia and intolerance aimed at members of ethnic and religious minorities, as well as migrants, in many European countries,” OCHCR spokesman Rupert Colville told reporters.
Colville noted that last month, a candidate for the National Front party likened Taubira to a monkey in a television documentary that was broadcast on October 17.
A week later, several demonstrators in the town of Angers, including children, who were protesting against gay marriage, waved banana peels at Taubira and shouted “Monkey, eat your banana!”
This week, OCHCR said the French magazine Minute published a cover showing Taubira with the headline “Cunning as a monkey, Taubira gets the banana back.”
“The underlying racist intent of this play on words could not be more clear, despite the magazine’s protestations that they were just using two common French expressions, the second of which is used colloquially to describe someone who is very happy,” Colville said.
“We welcome the prompt and unequivocal condemnation of the racist attack on Ms Taubira by the Government and many other politicians and commentators in France,” he added.
