UN criticises France for stopping wearing headscarves in schools

France has violated an international human rights treaty when it prevented a woman from wearing her headscarf during the time when she attended school, a United Nations committee ruling said.

The UN Committee for Human Rights said that in this case France has violated the international Pact for Civil and Political Rights.

The decision comes after a complaint made in 2016 by a French national born in 1977, whose lawyer said she does not want the name published.

This woman had been attending an adult professional course in 2010 and had passed the interview and the receiving test.

However, the principal of Langevin Wallon High School, located in the outskirts of Paris, had refused to let him enter school because of a ban on wearing religious symbols in public educational institutions.

The UN committee said that the “ban that was made on her taking part in the course because of the veil constitutes a restriction on her religious freedom and is contrary to the” treaty.

This committee decision was adopted in March, but only on August 3rd was handed over to the complainer's attorney.

“This is an important decision showing that France has work to do in the sense of human rights and in the concrete case in respecting religious minorities, particularly the Muslim community”, the woman's lawyer, who was banned from attending the course because of his headscarf, told AFP.