PDF - http://www.errc.org/db/01/A5/m000001A5.pdf
"ERRC Country Report: Always
France is known as a country of human rights. 'Freedom, Equality and Brotherhood' - these declarations remain at the heart of the French Republic. Despite these commitments, hundreds of thousands of Gypsies and Travellers in France are denied the very basic right of equal treatment and experience regular denial and interference with almost all fundamental civil, political, social, economic and cultural rights. They have long been subjected to laws, policies and practices aimed at their control, repression, exclusion and assimilation, that affect almost all aspects of their daily life. Recently, a number of new laws have severely constricted possibilities for the expression of key elements of Gypsy and Traveller identity, while simultaneously providing racist local officials with legal justification for repressive and draconian measures aimed at ? and succeeding in achieving ? the exclusion of Gypsies and Travellers from nearly all elements of French public life and services. "
