U.N. condemns racism directed at French justice minister

UNITED NATIONS, Nov. 15 (UPI) -- The United Nations Human Rights Office condemned racist attacks against French Justice Minister Christiane Taubira, a spokesman said Friday.

The comments came after a French political candidate likened Taubira, a black woman born in Guyana, to a monkey on a documentary television program broadcast in October. A week ago, several demonstrators in the town of Angers waived bananas at her, and this week the French magazine Minute featured Taubira on its cover with the caption "Cunning as a monkey, Taubira gets the banana back," a U.N. statement said.

This utterly unacceptable abuse of a prominent politician on the basis of her color is a stark manifestation of the rising racism, xenophobia and intolerance aimed at members of ethnic and religious minorities, as well as migrants, in many European countries," said an unidentified spokesman for the U.N. Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights, Rupert Colville.