If you think you have been discriminated against, you have the right to complain to different state institutions. You must choose the relevant state institution, applicable to your situation.
There are several state institutions in France that may take action in cases of discrimination. You can generally choose the relevant state institution depending on the field in which you have experienced discrimination.
Important In most cases, such institutions are entitled to issue a decision and/or impose a fine. If you are seeking compensation, you could consider bringing a claim before a court.
Defender of Rights
The Defender of Rights (Défenseur des droits) is a state institution responsible for safeguarding your human rights in France. The Defender of Rights is an independent administrative authority (autorité administrative indépendante). This authority and its deputies enjoy immunities for opinions they express or actions they perform in their duties. This guarantees their total independence from the government, parliament, and courts. Read more information about the Defender of Rights.
Sectoral institutions
Your complaint can be resolved by a relevant sector-specific institution if you have been discriminated against in the following areas:
If you believe your employer has discriminated against you, you can submit a complaint to the State Labour Inspectorate. You can also complain to the State Labour Inspectorate if you believe that you have been discriminated against in the selection procedure. The Labour Inspectorate is responsible for ensuring that labour law is properly applied. Read more about the State Labour Inspectorate and about how to complain to the State Labour Inspectorate.
You can appeal a decision of the State Labour Inspectorate further to the State Labour Inspectorate itself and subsequently, to the Administrative Court.This complaint may take the form of an informal appeal (recours gracieux), a hierarchical appeal (recours hiérarchique) or contentious appeal (recours contentieux). Read more about informal and hierarchical appeals or contentious appeals. If you believe you have been discriminated against, as a state official or a candidate for a position as a civil servant, you can refer the matter to the Defender of Rights, submit a complaint to a higher institution and subsequently, to the Criminal Court or the Administrative Court.
Read more about discriminations against state official.
No one may be discriminated against in access to healthcare. Health professionals must listen to, examine, advise and treat all persons with the same conscience regardless of their origin, morals, family situation, etc. It is a breach of the prohibition of discrimination to prevent or discourage a person from accessing healthcare measures on any of the grounds of discrimination provided for by law.
If you believe that you have been discriminated against in access to medical care or have received insufficient quality medical care on discriminatory grounds, you may submit a complaint to different authorities.
If the healthcare professional responsible for the discrimination is a member of a professional council (doctors, dentists, midwives, nurses, masseurs, chiropodists, pharmacists), your complaint will open a conciliation procedure. You can fill in the complaint form by postal way to:
- the director of the local health insurance body to which you are attached
- the president of the local body of the professional council to which the healthcare professional belongs.
Based on your complaint, a conciliation procedure will be conducted between you, the health care professional and the professional council to find an explanation for the discrimination or a solution. If this procedure fails, or if the health professional has already been sanctioned for a discriminatory refusal of access to healthcare, your complaint will be sent to a specialized court called the disciplinary chamber of first instance. This chamber is responsible for punishing any breaches of professional ethics by doctors, dental surgeons or midwives at the regional level.
If the healthcare professional who caused the discrimination is not a member of a professional council, the conciliation procedure does not apply. To report the discriminatory refusal of health care, you should contact your health insurance fund's ombudsman through your Ameli account.
Read more about complaints against discriminatory refusals of health care.
If you believe that an education institution has discriminated against you, there are several options open to you. Firstly, you can talk about it to people at school (teachers, nurse, head of school etc.) and report the incident to the education institution.. You can also lodge a hierarchical appeal (“recours hiérarchique”) with the academic authority (“recteur d’académie”), and if the dispute has not been settled, you can appeal to the Ministry of Education. You can also always report the incident to the Defender of Rights (“Défenseur des droits”).
You can also complain to the administrative court that is competent for the academic authority concerned if you wish to challenge a decision taken by the administration (for example, a decision by which the mayor refuses a child’s application to enrol in a school based on discriminatory grounds).
You can contact a mediator of the National Education if you consider that a discriminatory decision has been taken against you, after making an initial approach to the school. Any pupil, parent and teacher can refer the matter to the National education mediator. More information on how to contact the mediator.
If the Mediator considers your complaint to be justified, they will seek a solution to the dispute by approaching the authority responsible for the discrimination. If the Mediator is not satisfied with their response, they may make recommendations and publish them, in particular in the annual report submitted to the ministers of the national education, higher education and research. In all cases, a response will be sent to you.
Finally, a new tool is being developed for education staff: StopDiscri. Available in several academies, including Rennes and Corsica, it can be used to report acts of discrimination against education staff.
If your complaint concerns discrimination in access to goods and services by a private company, you can take it to the General Directorate for Consumer Affairs, Competition and Fraud control (DGCCRF). You can file this complaint using the service https://signal.conso.gouv.fr/ or by phone (+33 8 09 54 05 50). As a consumer, you can report to the DGCCRF a problem of non-compliance with consumer law that you saw in a shop, on a website or in a company.
If a breach of consumer protection rules has been identified, the DGCCRF can force professionals and companies to respect their obligations, cease any unlawful act or remove any prohibited clause. The DGCCRF can also impose financial sanctions on professionals who do not respect the law, however it cannot oblige the company to compensate you. If you wish to claim compensation, you should file a complaint to a civil court.
Read more information about DGCCRF.
If your complaint concerns discrimination in access to goods and services by a public authority, you should first submit a complaint to this public authority responsible for the discrimination, or you can appeal directly to the Administrative Court.
Don’t forget that you may also contact the Defender of Rights in this area.