Overview
- The Cour d'appel de Paris confirmed the non-lieu on Monday, June 22, ending the possibility of reopening the long-running criminal investigation into chlordécone use in the French Antilles.
- Lawyers for victims called the ruling a setback and said they will consider appeals to the Court of Cassation and possible cases before European courts while activists staged protests in Paris and the Antilles.
- Judges cited long delays, evidentiary difficulties and prescription for acts committed decades ago as reasons for the non-lieu, while plaintiffs argue ongoing exposure to the persistent pesticide should suspend prescription.
- Parliament recently recognized the State's share of responsibility and ordered the government to deliver, within one year, a report proposing modalities for compensation, creating an administrative reparations track outside criminal law.
- Scientific and public‑health data show widespread, long‑lasting contamination: studies and agencies report that most adults in Guadeloupe and Martinique carry chlordécone, which persists in soil for centuries and is linked to cancer and reproductive and neurodevelopment harms.