Europe and Central Asia Summary of Amnesty International’s Concerns in the Region, January-June 2007 Extradition and death penalty On 20 March France signed an extradition agreement with China. France’s then Minister of Justice, Pascal Clément, stated that extradition requests for people accused of political or military crimes in China “could” be rejected, and that those wanted for other crimes punishable by the death penalty would be extradited under “sufficient guarantee” that they would not be executed. However, it was reported that the agreement contained no measure to prevent a detainee from being extradited under guarantee and subsequently executed under new charges. AI had called on the French government on 4 January not to sign the treaty, due to the grave violations of human rights that continue to take place in China, including the use of the death penalty, the abusive use of administrative detention and the practice of arbitrary detention, torture and cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment and punishment. Before it can come into force, the agreement will need to be ratified by the French parliament. Discrimination On 31 January the Representative Council of Black Associations in France (Conseil representatif des associations noires de France, CRAN) published the results of a survey it had conducted, which it described as a “census of ‘Black France’”. The researchers conducting the survey telephoned over 13,000 individuals across France and French overseas territories and departments and asked those individuals – 581 in total – who identified themselves as “black” or “of mixed race, with black parents or grandparents” a number of questions about their experience of discrimination in France. According to the survey’s findings, 56% of those interviewed reported having been the victim of discrimination in their everyday lives, whilst 37% of those interviewed claimed that discrimination had worsened in the previous year. Amnesty International 45 On 27 January the National Commission on Data Processing and Freedom (Commission nationale de l’informatique et des libertés, CNIL), based on its own findings and those published in a survey by Eurobaromètre, proposed conducting similar surveys to that of CRAN, in order to establish accurate data on ethnic minority populations in France. However, the president of the High Commission for Equality and against Discrimination (Haute Autorité de Lutte contre les Discriminations et pour l’Egalité, HALDE) and the National Crime Observatory (Observatoire national de la délinquance, OND) opposed the proposal. Official policy in France has traditionally rejected all such surveys based on ethnicity as contrary to principles of equality. The National Consultative Committee on Human Rights (Commission nationale consultative des droits de l’homme, CNCDH) revealed its annual survey results at the end of March. The Committee found that 29% of those surveyed in 2006 considered themselves “racist”. This represents an increase from 25% in 2004 but a significant overall decrease from 40% in 1990. According to the same report, the 885 violent racist incidents of which the Committee was made aware in 2006 constituted a 10% decrease from 2005. Despite the overall decrease, the Committee noted a 35% increase in violent anti-Semitic attacks against individuals. Statistics from HALDE cited 4,000 complaints of discrimination of all types presented to them in 2006 and 1,700 cases in the first three months of 2007. The majority of cases (35%) related to ethnic or racial discrimination, followed by discrimination against people with disabilities (18%). A rabbi from Nord-Pas-de-Calais reported being subjected to anti-Semitic insults and violently assaulted by a man at the Gare du Nord train station in Paris on 19 April, suffering injuries to his eye as a result. The victim filed a complaint with the police but the suspect escaped from the scene. On the same day, 52 graves in the Muslim section of the military cemetery of Notre Dame de AI Index: EUR 01/010/2007