Coordination at national level

• Author: Latraverse, Sophie
• Pages: 116-118

116

9 COORDINATION AT NATIONAL LEVEL

The National Action Plan against Racism 2018-2022,384 in accordance with public policy

since 2012, has mad e combating racism a nd anti semitism a priority. It is being

implemented with the support of an inter-ministerial delegate against racism and

antisemitism (délégué interministériel à la lutte contre le racisme, l'antisémitisme et la

haine anti-LGBT, DILCRAH) reporting to the Prime Minister and the Minister of the Interior,

to initiate, coordinat e and evaluat e Government action.385 Frédéric Potier was nominated

to the post on 3 May 2017.

The DILCRA H is responsible for coordinating all public action against racism and

antisemitism, as well as combating discrimination. The mandate of the delegation has been

extended to include anti-LGBTI hate crime. Since 2015 , its action has focused on

combating hate-crime, racism on the internet and anti semitism.

In 2017, the post of Secretary of State for Disabled People, reporting to the Prime Minister,

was created to mainstream all policies relating to disability, which had been designated as

a priority of the mandate of the French President. The current Secretary of State is Sophie

Cluzel.

Finally, most public policies to tackle discrimination on the ground of origin, social situation

and the promotion of equality have been refocused within urban affairs policy (Politique de

la ville), which is supervised by the Ministry of Territorial Cohesion (Ministère de la cohesion

des territoires). It is managed by the National Agency for Territorial Cohesion, presided

over by Caroline Cay eux.386 It is man dated with territorial policy, targeting the

underprivileged areas of the country.

The Secretary of State in charge of equality between women and men and anti -

discrimination has mainly focused on equality between women and men, but has also

undertaken two initiatives: a massive test study on discrimination in employment and an

anti-discrimination brigade (Brigade anti-discrimination).387 The Government has

postponed reporting the action of the anti-discrimination brigade, which does not seem to

have been implemented.

The testing operation on discrimination in employment was launch ed with massive

publicity. However, the Government reneged on its undertaking to publicly divulge its

findings, because of the negative results of important brands in the French economy. The

research team decided to publish anonymised results in reaction to the Government’s

failure to do so.388

The research team carried out 8 572 tests, i.e. 17 643 job applications, in reply to an offer

or spontaneously, addressed to 103 important corporations (registered on the stock

market) in 6 different geographical areas in France, testing the impact of North African

384 France (2018), National action plan against racism and antisemitism (Plan national d’action contre le

racisme et l’anti-sémitisme), available at: https://www.dilcrah.fr/le-plan-national-de-lutte-contre-le-

racisme-et-lantisemitisme/.

385 Decree No. 2012-221 of 16 February 2012 creating a delegate against racism and antisemitism (Décret No.

2012-221 du 16 février 2012 instituant un délégué interministériel à la lutte contre le racisme et

l'antisémitisme), available at:

https://www.legifrance.gouv.fr/affichTexte.do?cidTexte=JORFTEXT000025372209&categorieLien=id.

386 National Agency for Territorial Cohesion (Agence nationale de cohésion des territoires), available at:

https://cget.gouv.fr/actualites/l-agence-nationale-de-la-cohesion-des-territoires.

387 State secretariat in charge of equality between women and men and anti-discrimination (2019), press

release, 15 April 2019, available at: https://www.gouvernement.fr/brigade-anti-discriminations-un-outil-au-

service-de-l-egalite.

388 Challe, L., Chareyon, S., L’Horty, Y., Petit, P. (2020) ‘Discrimination dans le recrutement des grandes

entreprises : une approche multicanal’, available at: https://hal.archives-ouvertes.fr/hal-

02441144/document; on 7 February 2020, the Minister of Employment announced that the ministry is

awaiting the results of a second study to take action: https://www.cohesion-territoires.gouv.fr/lutte-contre-

les-discriminations-mise-en-ligne-des-resultats-du-1er-testing-sur-lemploi-et.