French police have placed 24 activists under ‘house arrest’ ahead of the major UN climate warming COP21 talks starting near Paris next week.

The French interior ministry said Friday the government was trying to prevent the activists from demonstrating ahead of the COP21 conference, but their lawyers and Amnesty International accused the government of abusing the ‘state of emergency’ put into effect after the Paris attacks.

Three of those arrested are accused of belonging to the “radical opposition movement”, according to Agence France Presse.

“They are banned from leaving their home town in western France without special police permission, they must report to a local police station three times a day and remain at their homes between 8:00 pm and 6:00 am until December 12, the day after the talks are due to end.”

The interior ministry says the three individuals have caused “serious disturbances to public order” in the past.

Author and climate change activist, Naomi Klein, accused the French authorities of “a gross abuse of power that risks turning the summit into a farce”.

‘Climate summits are not photo opportunities to boost the popularity of politicians. Given the stakes of the climate crisis, they are by their nature highly contested. That is democracy, messy as it may be.’
Click Here: collingwood magpies 2019 training guernsey– Naomi Klein “Climate summits are not photo opportunities to boost the popularity of politicians. Given the stakes of the climate crisis, they are by their nature highly contested. That is democracy, messy as it may be. The French government, under cover of anti-terrorism laws, seems to be trying to avoid this, shamefully banning peaceful demonstrations and using emergency powers to pre-emptively detain key activists,” Klein told the Guardian.

The activists’ lawyer, Marie Dose, said the state of emergency was being “misused” in their cases. “This is an attack on the right to demonstrate,” she said.