On October 23, 2018, the UN Human Rights Committee, the body of independent experts that monitors implementation of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR), issued decisions regarding Sonia Yaker and Miriana Hebbadj, finding that France violated the human rights of two women by fining them for wearing the niqab. The two decisions were decided concurrently as they posed the same question regarding whether the French 2010 law prohibiting “any article of clothing intended to conceal the face” in public spaces, with the effect of banning the niqab, violated the ICCPR. As noted in the press release, the Committee “found that the general criminal ban on the wearing of the niqab in public introduced by the French law disproportionately harmed the petitioners’ right to manifest their religious beliefs, and that France had not adequately explained why it was necessary to prohibit this clothing.” The Committee noted that prohibiting face coverings in certain circumstances for identification was acceptable, but that the full ban was too sweeping and did not allow for a reasonable balance between public interests and individual rights. This is the first time the Committee has considered cases concerning the full Islamic veil.