PARIS: The French cabinet backed reform proposals on Wednesday that could see the state of emergency called after last month’s Paris attacks enshrined in the constitution, prompting criticism from rights groups.

Special policing powers used under the state of emergency -- such as house arrests and the right to raid houses without clearance by a judge -- are currently based on an ordinary law which can be challenged at the constitutional court.

In the wake of the attacks that left 130 dead, President Francois Hollande called for the emergency powers to be protected from litigation by placing them in the constitution.

“The threat has never been higher,” Prime Minister Manuel Valls told reporters following a meeting of ministers.

“We must face up to a war, a war against terrorism, against jihadism, against radical Islam,” he said.

The constitutional reforms must now be passed by a three-fifths majority in the upper and lower houses of parliament, where debates will start on Feb 3.

Mr Valls said latest figures showed more than 1,000 people had left France to join militants in Syria and Iraq, of whom an estimated 148 had died and 250 returned.

“Radicalised individuals from numerous countries join Daesh (the Arab acronym for the militant Islamic State group). There are many French speakers and we know that fighters group themselves according to language, to train and prepare terrorist actions on our soil,” he said.

After going back and forth on the issue, the government decided to include the power to strip French citizenship from people convicted of terrorist offences, if they have another nationality.

There are an estimated 3.5 million French people with a second nationality in the country.

Justice Minister Christiane Taubira had voiced doubts over the citizenship clause and wrongly stated it would be dropped, but was overruled by President Hollande.

“Everyone has a right to their doubts, their queries, their questions,” Mr Valls said when asked about the minister’s position.

There has been criticism from civil rights groups over the violence of police raids, cases of mistaken identity and people losing their jobs because they were placed under house arrest.

Amnesty International said the constitutional reforms were “deeply worrying” and added to an “already extensive and sometimes disproportionate arsenal” of measures.

“The government cannot undermine the rule of law and violate the very human rights it is trying to protect: freedom of expression, freedom of movement and non-discrimination,” the group’s Europe director Gauri van Gulik said.

More than 3,000 raids have taken place since the Nov 13 attacks, leading to 360 house arrests and 51 people jailed.

An environmental activist challenged the right to conduct house arrests and a court ruled on Tuesday that they were allowed under state of emergency rules

Published in Dawn, December 24th, 2015