authorities did not have the capacity to register all of the minors, and some were allegedly turned away on the grounds of presumed age without undergoing a thorough assessment. On 2 November the UN Committee on the Rights of the Child raised concerns over minors in Calais who were left without adequate shelter, food and medical services during the eviction operation. As of mid-November, about 330 minors had been transferred to the UK. Due to the lack of reception capacity and resources to register asylum applications in the Paris region, more than 3,800 asylumseekers lived in degrading conditions and slept rough for months in the 19th district of Paris until the authorities transferred them to reception centres on 3 November. On 29 November, authorities rejected the asylum application of a man from the wartorn region of South Kordofan and forcibly returned him to Sudan despite the risk of being persecuted. On 20 November, authorities released another Sudanese man from Darfur who was at risk of being forcibly returned. The government pledged to accept 6,000 refugees under the EU-Turkey migration control deal and to resettle 3,000 refugees from Lebanon. On 9 December the Council of State, the highest administrative court, rejected the decree signed by the Prime Minister in September 2015 that authorized the extradition of Moukhtar Abliazov, a Kazakh citizen, to Russia for financial offences as the extradition request had been motivated by political reasons. FREEDOM OF ASSEMBLY Frequent demonstrations took place between March and September to protest against the government-backed proposal to reform the Labour Code, which was adopted in July. A minority of demonstrators engaged in violent acts and clashed with police. Since the fourth renewal of the state of emergency in July, the authorities were expressly permitted to ban public demonstrations by claiming that they were Amnesty International Report 2016/17 unable to ensure public order. Dozens of demonstrations were banned and hundreds of individuals were subjected to administrative measures, restricting their freedom of movement and preventing them from attending demonstrations. On several occasions, police used excessive force against protesters, including by using tear gas grenades, charging at them violently and using rubber bullets and sting ball grenades that left hundreds injured. DISCRIMINATION Roma people continued to be forcibly evicted from informal settlements without being genuinely consulted or offered alternative housing. According to civil society organizations, 4,615 individuals were forcibly evicted in the first six months of the year. On 13 July, the UN Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights called on the authorities to provide adequate notice and information as well as rehousing options to all those affected by an eviction. In October, Parliament adopted a law on legal gender recognition for transgender people. The law established a procedure which allows transgender people to seek legal recognition of their gender without fulfilling any medical requirements. However, it still imposes on transgender people some requirements including a name change or a physical appearance in line with gender identity. Several mayors adopted measures to restrict the wearing of beachwear deemed incompatible with hygiene and with the principles of secularism and maintenance of public order. In particular, authorities sought to ban the wearing of full-covering beachwear also known as the “burkini”. On 26 August, the Council of State suspended the measure in Villeneuve-Loubet in southern France, deeming it not necessary to ensure public order. CORPORATE ACCOUNTABILITY On 29 November the National Assembly adopted a bill imposing a duty on certain large French companies to implement a 161