France must fully include Kanaks in New Caledonia reforms: UN watchdog

Secretary General of the French Presidency Emmanuel Moulin walks with France’s President Emmanuel Macron as they attend a summit on New Caledonia at the Elysee Palace in Paris on July 2, 2025. (Reuters/File)

• New Caledonia lies between Australia and Fiji in the Pacific Ocean
• CERD voiced deep concern over allegations of excessive and disproportionate use of force

GENEVA: France’s reforms in New Caledonia must only go ahead with the effective participation of the Pacific territory’s indigenous Kanak people, a United Nations watchdog said Thursday.
The UN Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination (CERD) urged Paris to ensure that any changes concerning New Caledonia’s self-determination process should done with effective, transparent and good-faith consultations with Kanak representatives.
New Caledonia, an archipelago that is home to some 270,000 people, lies between Australia and Fiji in the Pacific Ocean. It is one of several French overseas territories that have limited autonomy.
Indigenous Melanesians known as Kanaks make up around 40 percent of the population, according to a 2019 census, followed by descendants of European settlers known as Caldoches and other newer residents.
In a bid to ease tensions, French officials and a delegation of New Caledonian pro-independence and anti-independence representatives in July last year reached an agreement to create a “State of New Caledonia” within the French Republic.
But under the agreement, which needs approval from the French parliament and New Caledonia residents, there will be no further referendums on independence.
CERD said political reforms affecting the Kanaks’ rights and interests had reportedly been initiated “without prior consultation or their effective participation... notably by excluding the Customary Senate of New Caledonia” and customary councils.
CERD voiced deep concern over allegations of excessive and disproportionate use of force, including lethal force, by law enforcement agencies during May 2024 protests linked to the reforms.
It also raised concerns over reports of the “non-consensual transfer of several Kanak human rights defenders linked to the independence movement to prisons in mainland France.”
The committee urged Paris to ensure that all alleged cases of excessive use of force since May 2024 are investigated promptly, independently and effectively, “that those responsible are prosecuted and punished where appropriate, and that victims receive full reparation.”
CERD, a committee of 18 independent experts, monitors adherence to the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination by its 182 states parties.
Under the convention, which came into force in 1969, countries must eliminate racial discrimination, eradicate practices of segregation and guarantee equality before the law without distinction as to race, color, descent or national or ethnic origin.