As a secondary school pupil in 1994, I took part in protests against a reform that would have allowed French employers to pay young people below the minimum wage. Our campaign was successful, but if we had had to face the terrifying police response unleashed on student protesters in France over recent weeks, I would have stayed at home.

A 14-year-old boy, Eden, suffered a fractured jaw and had teeth knocked out after a police teargas grenade struck him in the face. Sixteen-year-old Maël lost the sight in one eye allegedly after being struck by a shot from an LBD, a form of rubber-bullet launcher. Evan, 15, had his hand blown off in an explosion involving a police stun grenade. And in Dunkirk, a police SUV is alleged to have driven repeatedly at groups of secondary school pupils, as an officer could be heard saying: “Come closer, we’ll smash their fucking faces in.” Accounts from children left terrified by brutal treatment in police custody describe traumatic experiences with severe psychological and physical consequences.

France, the self-styled home of human rights, is now attracting the kind of international legal scrutiny you would expect if this were an authoritarian regime gone mad. The human rights organisation Ligue des droits de l’Homme has condemned the alarming “brutalisation of young people”, and the threat to their freedom of expression.

A UN special rapporteur has called on the French authorities to respect the physical safety of protesters. The UN human rights office says it is following incidents surrounding the protests in France “with concern”. Amnesty International has called for the suspension of rubber-bullet launchers at school protests, condemned the disproportionate use of force and reminded the authorities of their duty to protect children. The Swedish climate activist Greta Thunberg, whose activism increasingly encompasses........

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