2024 New Caledonia unrest

In May 2024, protests and riots broke out in New Caledonia, a sui generis collectivity of overseas France in the Pacific Ocean.^[15] The violent protests have led to at least 13 deaths, the declaration of a state of emergency on 16 May, deployment of the French army,^[16] and the block of the social network TikTok.^[17][18]

Violence broke out following a controversial voting reform aiming to change existing conditions which prevent up to one-fifth of the population from voting in provincial elections.^[19] Following the Nouméa Accord, the electorate for local elections was restricted to pre-1998 residents of the islands and their descendants who have maintained continuous residence on the territory for at least 10 years. The system, which excludes migrants from European and Polynesian parts of France, including their adult children, had been judged acceptable in 2005 as part of a decolonisation process by the European Court of Human Rights given that it was a provisional measure.^[20] Voters in all three referenda were in favour of remaining part of France, though the 2021 referendum, conducted in the middle of the COVID-19 Pandemic, was boycotted by most independence supporters.^[21] For the French government, the referenda fulfilled the Nouméa Accord process, but independence advocates, who rejected the legitimacy of the boycotted 2021 referendum, considered the process defined by the Nouméa Accord to be still ongoing.

The French government is seeking to undo a 2007 Constitutional amendment, which allows the denial of voting rights in local elections to people even though they have resided in the territory for over 10 years. This reform would allow roughly 60% of those currently prevented from voting to join the electorate^[22] and has been decried by independence advocates as a dilution of the indigenous Melanesian Kanak people's political voice.^[23] President Emmanuel Macron visited the island on 22 May^[24] and asked local actors to reach a comprehensive agreement within a month, mentioning the possibility of a referendum concerning Paris' desired changes in voter eligibility rules.^[25]

The state of emergency ended on 28 May.^[26] Due to the 9 June dissolution of the National Assembly, Macron announced the de facto suspension of the Constitutional reform while it was impossible to convene the two houses of the French legislature.^[27]