France has been criticised for the “alarming” death toll in New Caledonia during recent protests and its “cold shower” approach to decolonisation by experts of the UN Human Rights Committee.
The UN committee met last week in Geneva for France’s five-yearly human rights review with a focus on its Pacific territory, after peaceful protests over electoral changes turned violent leaving 13 people dead since May.
French delegates at the hearing defended the country’s actions and rejected the jurisdiction of the UN decolonisation process, saying the country “no longer has any international obligations.”
A delayed fact-finding mission of Pacific Islands Forum leaders arrived in New Caledonia on the weekend to assess the situation on behalf of the region’s peak regional inter-governmental body.
Almost 7,000 security personnel with armored vehicles have been deployed from France to New Caledonia to quell further unrest.
“The means used and the intensity of their response and the gravity of the violence reported, as well as the amount of dead and wounded, are particularly alarming,” said committee member Jose Santo Pais, assistant prosecutor general of the Portuguese Constitutional Court.
“There have been numerous allegations regarding an excessive use of force and that would have led to numerous deaths among the Kanak people and law enforcement,” the committee’s vice chair said.
Violence erupted after months of protests over a unilateral attempt by President Emmanuel Macron to “unfreeze” the territory’s electoral roll. Indigenous Kanaks feared the move would dilute their voting power and any chance of success at another independence referendum.
Eleven Kanaks and two French police have died. The committee heard 169 people were injured and 2658 arrested in the past five months.
New Caledonia’s economy is in ruins with hundreds of businesses destroyed, tens-of-thousands left jobless and the local government seeking 4 billion euros (US$4.33 billion) in recovery funds from France.
France’s reputation has been left battered as an out-of-touch colonial power since the deadly violence erupted.
Santos Pais questioned France’s commitment to the UN Declaration on Indigenous People and the “sufficient dialogue” required under the Noumea Accord, a peace agreement signed in 1998 to politically empower Kanak people, that enabled the decolonisation process.
“It would seem that current violence in the territory is linked to the lack of progress in decolonisation,” said Santos Pais.
Last week, the new French prime minister announced controversial electoral changes that sparked the protests had been abandoned. Local elections, due to be held this year, will now take place at the end of 2025.
On Sunday, Tonga’s prime minister Hu’akavameiliku Siaosi Sovaleni led a Pacific “observational” mission to New Caledonia of fellow leaders from Cook Islands, Fiji and Solomon Islands Minister for Foreign Affairs, together known as the Troika-Plus.
The PIF leaders’ three-day visit to the capital Noumea will see them meet with local political parties, youth and community groups, private sector and public service providers.
“Our thoughts have always been with the people of New Caledonia since the unrest earlier this year, and we continue to offer our support,” Sovaleni said in a statement on Friday.
The UN committee is a treaty body composed of 18 experts that regularly reviews compliance by 173 member states with their human rights obligations and is separate from the Human Rights Council, a political body composed of states.
Serbian committee member Tijana Surlan asked France for an update on investigations into injuries and fatalities “related to alleged excessive use of force” in New Caledonia. She asked if police firearms use would be reviewed “to strike a better balance with the principles of absolute necessity and strict proportionality.”
France’s delegation responded saying it was “committed to renewing dialogue” in New Caledonia and to striking a balance between the right to demonstrate and protecting people and property with the “principle of proportionality.”
Alleged intimidation by French authorities of at least five journalists covering the unrest in New Caledonia was highlighted by committee member Kobauyah Tchamdja Kapatcha from Togo. France responded saying it guarantees freedom of the press.
The French delegation led by Ambassador for Human Rights Isabelle Rome added it “no longer administers a non-self-governing territory.”
France “no longer has any international obligations in this regard linked to its membership in the United Nations,” she told the committee last Thursday.
New Caledonia voted by modest majorities to remain part of France in referendums held in 2018 and 2020 under a UN-mandated decolonisation process. Three referendums were part of the Noumea Accord to increase Kanaks’ political power following deadly violence in the 1980s.
A contentious final referendum in 2021 was overwhelmingly in favour of continuing with the status quo. Supporters of independence rejected its legitimacy due to a very low turnout – it was boycotted by Kanak political parties – and because it was held during a serious phase of the COVID-19 pandemic, which restricted campaigning.
“France, through the referendum of September (2021), has therefore completed the process of decolonisation of its former colonies,” ambassador Rome said. She added that New Caledonia was one of the most advanced examples of the French government recognizing indigenous rights, with a shared governance framework.
Another of its Pacific territories – French Polynesia – was re-inscribed on the UN decolonisation list in 2013 but France refuses to recognise its jurisdiction.
After a decade, France began attending General Assembly Decolonisation Committee meetings in 2023 to “promote dialogue” and that it was not a “change in (policy) direction”, Rome said.
“There is no process between the French state and the Polynesian territory that reserves a role for the United Nations,” she added.
Santos Pais responded saying, “what a cold shower.”
“The General Assembly will certainly have a completely different view from the one that was presented to us,” he said.
Earlier this month pro-independence French Polynesian President Moetai Brotherson told the UN Decolonisation Committee’s annual meeting in New York that “after a decade of silence” France must be “guided” to participate in “dialogue.”
The Human Rights Committee is due to meet again next month to adopt its findings on France.
