27/03/2023 (Agence Europe) – In a statement issued on Thursday 23 March, Dunja Mijatović, the Council of Europe’s Commissioner for Human Rights, expressed alarm at the “excessive use of force” against pension reform protesters in France. Sporadic acts of violence of some protesters or other reprehensible acts committed by other persons during a protest cannot justify excessive use of force by agents of the state, says the Commissioner, who had already expressed her concern in 2019, during the Yellow Vests crisis also in France. At the time, she had issued a “Memorandum” on policing and freedom of assembly. “The violence must stop. This is an essential condition for the effective exercise of freedom of expression and assembly, as well as for trust between the population and the police”, she insists. Link to the statement (in French): https://aeur.eu/f/629 (VL)