BAKU, Azerbaijan, October 8. The Baku Initiative Group (BIG) has expressed serious concern over the ongoing nationwide mobilisation of high-school students and young people in France, as well as reports of injuries, mass apprehensions and the use of potentially harmful crowd-control weapons against protesters.
The movement began in Créteil and later spread across France. It initially focused on concerns related to the right to quality education, including teacher and staff shortages, deteriorating school infrastructure, overloaded schedules and dissatisfaction with aspects of the higher-education admissions system.
According to BIG, these concerns have since evolved into a nationwide youth mobilisation involving high-school and university students, teachers, parents and trade unions.
The group said the scale of the developments warrants particular attention. By October 8, France’s interior minister had reported more than 6,600 apprehensions, as well as injuries to 215 students and 89 education personnel.
BIG expressed particular concern over cases involving minors who suffered serious injuries. It cited the case of a 15-year-old student in Lens who reportedly lost a hand following the explosion of a stun grenade used during the protests.
The Baku Initiative Group stressed that the right to education, freedom of expression and peaceful assembly, as well as the protection of children and young people from unnecessary or disproportionate use of force, are universal principles that should be respected without selectivity or double standards.
The organization also emphasized that access to quality education is an essential pillar of genuine decolonization, as it can help societies overcome structural inequalities, preserve their identity and build resilient and self-reliant institutions.
BIG called on French authorities to ensure that policing of demonstrations strictly complies with the principles of necessity, proportionality and accountability. It also urged authorities to protect the rights of minors and young people to peaceful expression and assembly, investigate cases involving serious injuries effectively and engage in meaningful dialogue with students, teachers and their representative organizations.
The organization further stated that France frequently presents the protection of human rights, democratic freedoms and human dignity as fundamental principles of its domestic and international policy.
BIG argued that the consistent application of these principles should begin within France itself, stressing that human rights should not be defended selectively and that young people expressing their grievances should be treated as rights-holders rather than as a security problem.
The Baku Initiative Group said it would continue to closely monitor developments and called for dialogue, restraint and full respect for fundamental rights.
