Paris, 31 March 2025. While the European Committee of Social Rights (ECSR) deemed the collective complaint submitted by FIDH, LDH, and Kimbé Rèd F.W.I. inadmissible, its decision reads : "The [European Social] Charter cannot be regarded as de facto applicable to Martinique and Guadeloupe. This results in a situation in which French citizens in these territories are afforded significantly lower levels of social rights protection in terms of European human rights law than their counterparts in metropolitan areas." In doing so, the Committee clearly acknowledges discrimination between French territories while choosing not to challenge it.
"The lack of access to drinking water and chlordecone pollution represent a daily suffering and a huge wound for all French Caribbean people. By declaring this complaint inadmissible, the ECSR deprives the populations of Guadeloupe and Martinique of the possibility to seek justice, reparations, and compensation regarding two major issues that have been stagnant for decades in France. This decision legitimizes the fact that, in 2025, people are not born equal in human rights in French ’Overseas’ territories", declares Sabrina Cajoly, founder and director of the Antillean association Kimbé Rèd F.W.I.
The decision of the ECSR indeed means that the European Social Charter will still not apply to the so-called "Overseas" territories as long as the signatory states have not made an "express declaration" for its extension to those territories. An exception that the French National Consultative Commission on Human Rights (CNCDH) refers to as "colonial clauses" and considers contrary to the Constitution.
"Since the Committee has decided to give France full latitude, it mustr apply the Charter to all its nationals. France cannot continue to claim sovereignty on ’overseas’ territories, while denying the colonial reality and continuing to treat its inhabitants as second-class citizens. People suffer not only from this discrimination but also from the health consequences of chlordecone poisoning of water and land, which has been acknowledged by successive French governments", declares Nathalie Tehio, President of the Ligue des droits de l’Homme (LDH).
"As a human rights activist who was strongly opposed to apartheid, racism and discrimination, and remains so opposed, this recent court decision unfortunately, reaffirms those very concepts. In the current global context in which human rights are being eroded and are in decline worldwide, the European Committee of Social Rights has failed to use case law as a tool for progress and for the protection of dignity. This case had provided the Committee with an opportunity to challenge and break with the continuing coloniality which is evident in the relationship between France and its ’overseas’ territories. The Committee instead, made a choice to protect this status quo, at the request of the government of France. This decision flies in the face of the foundation of international human rights law, which is premised on the universality, inalienability, indivisibility and interdependence of human rights", declares Alice Mogwe, FIDH President.
France must immediately extend the European Social Charter to its so-called "Overseas" territories.
In its observations on the admissibility of the complaint, the French government simply stated that "(...)France has not to date made the declaration provided for in Article L§2 of the Charter enabling the application of the Charter to its non-metropolitan territories", thereby acknowledging discrimination against a part of its citizens. However, the lack of access to drinking water and the damage caused by decades of deliberate chlordecone contamination affect more than half a million people in its so-called "Overseas" territories.
The three signatory organisations therefore call on the French government to immediately extend the European Social Charter to its so-called "Overseas Territories". This declaration is all the more eagerly awaited as the authorities have already publicly acknowledged on several occasions that it was lacking.
Furthermore, the organisations are calling on France to take immediate concrete measures, such as distributing water tanks, water bottles, canceling bills, and setting up real-time information services for the population in the event of prolonged water cuts and contamination. These measures could help alleviate the suffering of the people while awaiting public policies that properly address the underlying issues.
Beyond the French "Overseas" territories, a favorable decision from the Committee would have allowed for bypassing this unacceptable limitation and opened the way to the justiciability of rights protected by the Charter across all European "Overseas Territories". It is now up to the member states that continue to treat their populations differently based on their place of residence to move beyond this provision by immediately declaring the applicability of the Charter to their entire territory.