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Wow! The Council of Europe Commissioner for Human Rights, Dunja Mijatović, released a memo asking the French authorities to "show more respect for human rights" at the Yellow Vest Protests. #GiletsJaunes #YellowVests. I've read through it, and I've written a thread for you. 
The memo (full version here: rm.coe.int/commdh-2019-8-…) is quite interesting. It concedes that part of the French authorities' difficulty comes from the Yellow Vests being extremely decentralized. This fact is by design. Some style themselves "spokesman" but none are "leaders."
Apparently 12,122 rubber bullets, 1428 tear gas grenades and 4,942 sting grenades were fired by Acte 12. We are now coming up on Acte 16 (each Acte being one weekend).
The report says there have been:
-38 upper limb wounds including 5 lost hands.
-52 lower limb wounds
-3 genital wounds
-189 head wounds including 20 people losing an eye.
Many were rubber bullet headshots, despite policy being to fire at torso.
#YellowVest #GiletsJaunes
-38 upper limb wounds including 5 lost hands.
-52 lower limb wounds
-3 genital wounds
-189 head wounds including 20 people losing an eye.
Many were rubber bullet headshots, despite policy being to fire at torso.
#YellowVest #GiletsJaunes
The memo's conclusion implies that France may be violating "the right not to be subject to violence or treatment in breach of Article 3 of the European Convention on Human Rights."
(Final Tweet) One of its final conclusions may be the most important, what the Yellow Vests have been at all along: France can't simply respond to this movement with police violence. The "big debate" is one step, but alleviating the protests requires change, not an iron first.
