France's Anti-Racism Plan Lacks Systemic Solutions

The French government unveiled a national plan on July 6 to fight racism, antisemitism, and discrimination, spanning 2026 to 2029. The plan details 55 measures centering on education and training to improve understanding of racism’s history and address increasing hate crimes.

However, Human Rights Watch reports the plan overlooks opportunities to address systemic racism within French institutions. Despite President Macron’s May 2026 speech regarding reparations for slavery, the new plan doesn’t include reparatory justice measures or address discriminatory policing practices that erode trust in authorities.

The plan does commit to measuring discrimination and improving education about France’s history of slavery, but stops short of collecting disaggregated equality data due to constitutional concerns. France risks falling behind the European Union’s 2026-2030 Anti-Racism Strategy, which emphasizes data collection to combat structural racism.