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December 12, 2016

French Government Seeks to Extend State of Emergency
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France's Socialist government will ask Parliament to extend a state of
emergency granting officials sweeping powers of search, seizure and
detention. If approved, it would be the fifth such renewal of emergency
rule since terrorist attacks in November of 2015 that killed 130 people.
The French prime minister said the extension was needed at least through
presidential and general elections next spring.

Prime Minister Bernard Cazeneuve: "Each of us should bear in mind the
reality of the context that we're living in: a particularly high level
of terrorist threat."

France's emergency rule curtails freedom of assembly and includes
measures that permit police raids without a warrant. Human Rights Watch
has said the emergency powers undermine human rights and the rule of
law.


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