Luxembourg Times, 5 November 2025
The United Nations has criticised planned legislation by Luxembourg to criminalise so-called ‘aggressive begging’ and to give police further powers to remove people blocking public roads and buildings.
The report, jointly penned by Balakrishnan Rajagopal, the special rapporteur on housing, and Olivier De Schutter, the special rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights, condemned the two pieces of legislation as “part of a growing set of repressive measures adopted at the local and national levels in recent years”.
“We wish to express our deep concern that bills 8418 and 8426 may violate several international human rights standards,” the report stated.
The report, which was sent to the government in July, firstly examined the government’s proposed bill to amend legislation around begging. The draft law seeks to remove the offence of ‘simple begging’ from the existing penal code and replace it with ‘aggressive begging’. Those found guilty could face fines of between €251 and €3,000, or prison time ranging from 15 days up to two years.