Committee against Torture demands accountability for Adama Traoré, victims of police violence in France

On 16 and 17 April 2025, the periodic review of France by the United Nations Committee against Torture took place. ISHR supported the participation of Assa Traoré and Comité Vérité pour Adama.

Assa Traoré is a woman human rights defender and founder of ‘La Vérité pour Adama’. She has been campaigning for years for truth and justice for her brother, Adama Traoré – a Black French man killed in police custody in 2016. She has faced judicial harassment for advocating for a transparent investigation to establish the responsibility of the gendarmes for the death of her brother and for them to be brought to justice.

ISHR and Comité Adama aimed to draw the Committee’s attention to the issue of police violence, focusing on the case of Adama Traoré and the outcome of the investigation and the proceedings related to it. 

Demanding accountability 

On 19 July 2016, Adama Traoré, a Black French man, died as a result of an arrest at the hands of the gendarmes. The French judiciary’s dismissal of the case despite the recognised causal link between the actions of the three gendarmes involved and Adama’s death, is a denial of justice. The three officers were ultimately exonerated of any criminal responsibility on the grounds that the force they used on Adama Traoré met the criteria of strict necessity and proportionality imposed by French law.

ISHR and Comité Adama alerted the Committee that Adama’s death fits within a broader context of excessive use of force against people of African descent and systemic racist practices in France, emphasising how the French State is failing to meet its obligations to ensure the right to non-discrimination and the right to life.

ISHR and Comité Adama urged the Committee to raise the case of Adama Traoré during the interactive dialogue with France and ask France to provide information to the Committee on the measures it has taken to conclude the investigation into the case of Adama’s death during his arrest, so that those responsible are brought to justice and appropriately punished.

ISHR and Comité Adama urged the Committee to make recommendations to France to:

• put an end to the use of restraint techniques such as belly tackling during police operations
• guarantee access to justice for victims and families of victims of police violence
• respect its obligations under the Convention against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment, particularly with regard to the provisions of articles 2, 11, 12 and 14
• put an end to impunity for police violence and ensure prompt and impartial investigations into the death or injury of any person at the hands of the police.

Committee against Torture concerned about the outcome of Adama Traoré’s case

During the dialogue with France, the Committee said that it had received some worrying information about the excessive use of force by the police which had led to certain deaths, and that these concerns had been previously raised by the Human Rights Committee and the Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination (CERD); both of which have raised concern about the excessive use of force during road checks, arrests and in the context of protests and that persons of African descent, of Arab origin, Indigenous Peoples and migrants are particularly affected by the excessive use of force by the police.

The Committee also raised concerns about impunity for excessive use of force by law enforcement, and raised the death of Adama Traoré, a young man of African descent who died in 2016 following arrest, and nobody had been held responsible.

Impact of intervention by ‘La Vérité pour Adama’ and ISHR

In its concluding observations, the Committee stated that it ‘remains deeply concerned about the numerous allegations of excessive use of force and ill-treatment, including physical and verbal abuse, by law enforcement officials, particularly during traffic stops, arrests, forced evacuations and demonstrations. It finds it troubling that these cases, according to reports, disproportionately affect members of certain minority groups, in particular people of African descent, people of Arab origin or of the Muslim faith, Indigenous Peoples and non-citizens. It is particularly troubled by the number of deaths resulting from the use of firearms by law enforcement officers during traffic stops. It is also troubled by reports of the dismissal of a large number of cases, administrative penalties that are neither severe nor commensurate with the seriousness of the conduct and the failure of the courts to punish police officers and gendarmes, as illustrated by the cases involving the deaths of Adama Traoré, Luis Bico and Nahel Merzouk, for which no one has been held to account.’

The Committee recommended to France to:

29. (a) Reconsider and, if necessary, amend the legal framework for the use of force by law enforcement officers with a view ensuring that it is compatible with the Basic Principles on the Use of Force and Firearms by Law Enforcement Officials, the United Nations Human Rights Guidance on Less-Lethal Weapons in Law Enforcement and the Model Protocol for Law Enforcement Officials to Promote and Protect Human Rights in the Context of Peaceful Protests;

29. (b) Ensure that all law enforcement officers receive adequate, specific training on the use of force and firearms in a way that is compliant with the above‑mentioned international standards and that they attend regular refresher courses;

29. (c) Ensure that all allegations of excessive use of force and ill-treatment are investigated promptly, thoroughly and impartially by an independent body, that there is no institutional or hierarchical link between the investigators and the alleged perpetrators, that the perpetrators are prosecuted and, if found guilty, punished and that the victims or their families obtain redress;

29.  (d) Reconsider whether law enforcement agencies should be authorized to use less-lethal weapons, in particular stun grenades and projectile launchers, to control crowds during demonstrations;

29. (e) Do the necessary to ensure that all law enforcement officers may be easily identified when on duty, including by ensuring that their individual identification numbers are visible and worn consistently;

29.  (f) Provide complete and disaggregated statistical data on complaints or reports of violence and excessive use of force, on disciplinary or judicial investigations involving either the police or the gendarmerie, prosecutions, convictions and sanctions and on decisions to dismiss cases;

29.  (g) Ensure that allegations of racial profiling by law enforcement agencies are systematically and thoroughly investigated, that perpetrators, if found guilty, are appropriately punished and that victims receive adequate reparation;

29.   (h) Put in place an effective means of facilitating judicial oversight and tracing of law enforcement identity checks with a view to identifying instances of racial profiling.

Under its follow-up procedure, the Committee included its recommendation on excessive use of force by the police and the gendarmerie 29 (f) and accordingly requested France to provide, by 2 May 2026, information on the action it has taken in follow-up to the Committee’s recommendations.