In a ruling likely to fuel debate over national sovereignty and judicial overreach, the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) on Thursday found France guilty of racial profiling during police identity checks—the first such ruling against the country.
The case centred on Karim Touil, who was stopped three times in ten days by police in the eastern city of Besançon in 2011. The court said the French government had failed to provide “objective and reasonable justification” for the repeated checks and awarded Touil €3,000 in damages.
While the court rejected the claims of five other French plaintiffs, it presumed “discriminatory treatment” in Touil’s case—despite acknowledging the difficulties police face in assessing threats quickly and without clear instructions. It also concluded that the legal and administrative framework for identity checks in France did not reveal any “structural failure.”
The six men who brought the case to Strasbourg had already pursued it through French courts, citing unjustified stop-and-searches, verbal mistreatment, and disrespect. Their initial case was dismissed in 2013, though a Paris appeals court later ruled in favour of five. France’s highest court ultimately condemned the state in three instances. The ECtHR, however, upheld only Touil’s complaint.
The judgment comes just days after France’s rights ombudswoman reported an increase in identity checks between 2016 and 2024. Her office found that young men “perceived as Arab, black or from North Africa” were four times more likely to be stopped and twelve times more likely to be frisked than the general population.
Though hailed by activists, the ECtHR ruling is likely to intensify scrutiny of the court’s role in national policing matters, as well as its growing influence over how European states manage public order and security within their own borders.
