French Government to Make Anti-Racism, Anti-Islamophobia Training Mandatory for All Government Employees

Bear in mind that in France, 56% of employees work for the government. And the government has a major influence or an actual stake in many of the major private sector companies too. So clauses mandating "anti-racism" training for their employees may well turn up in government contracts with private companies. Note they take about "the struggle against racism" then immediately cite a supposed increase in "islamophobic" acts, so we can be fairly sure that "islamophobia" will be included in their definition of "racism".

The governemnt wants to train all of its officials for the struggle against racism and antisemitism with an obligatory module in their initial training, according to the conclusions of an inter-ministerial committee held on Tuesday in Matignon.

After an increase in antisemitic (+58%) and islamophobic (+28%) acts in 2012, according to figures validated by the Ministry of Interior, the Prime Minister Jean-Marc Ayrault had called a meeting of several ministers to re-launch the struggle against racism.

The conclusions of the meeting contain numerous recommendations with an emphasis on prevention, but few new commitments, according to a document sent to the AFP.

It also wants to increase school visits to "places of memory", organise sensitivity campaigns on the use of the internet, add to the charter of France Télévision the obligation to support the struggle against the formation of prejudices, etc.

Source: AFP