Cedric Herrou, a French olive farmer and migration advocate who had been convicted of aiding illegal migrants who had crossed over the Italy-France border, has been cleared of any wrong doing by the French Constitutional Court due to the principle of fraternity. This was the first ruling in which it was found that fraternity is a constitutional principle.
Last year, Herrou had been convicted for assisting migrants who had illegally entered the country and was fined €3,000. Herrou later lodged an appeal against amendments made to French immigration and asylum legislation, one of which would see prison sentences of up to five years and maximum fines of €30,000 issued to those found guilty of abetting ‘‘illegal entry, circulation and sojourn.’’
Another amendment allowed people to provide aid to individual immigrants or relatives for humanitarian reasons if ‘‘the relevant act has given rise to no direct or indirect material reward.’’ Herrou and his legal team attested that such an amendment was imprecise and vague, and still left activists exposed to prosecution, as in his own case.
However, France’s most superior court, the Constitutional Court, found that due to the principle of fraternity that is enshrined in the French constitution, helping migrants who have entered the country illegally is not a criminal offence. The Court stated that ‘‘the concept of fraternity confers the freedom to help others, for humanitarian purposes, without consideration for the legality of their stay on national territory.’’
In light of the official national motto of the French Republic, ‘liberty, equality, fraternity’, the Court ruled that by criminalising the assistance of migrants once they have entered the country, including those who are undocumented, French law had failed to uphold the principle of fraternity, nor had it achieved a balance between this constitutional principle and the preservation of public order.
While the Court ruled that immunity from prosecution should be extended to ‘‘all assistance provided with a humanitarian aim’’ and recommended that the French parliament adapt the law to facilitate and reflect the principle of fraternity, it concluded that those who assist migrants in the act of illegally crossing the border into the country in any circumstance should remain liable for prosecution.
Nonetheless, the Court’s ruling resulted in the overturning of Herrou’s conviction and the reversing of his fine.
Click here for the decision in French.