Child Soldiers Global Report 2008 - France

Population: 60.5 million (13.3 million under 18)
Government Armed Forces: 254,900
Compulsary Recruitment Age: 18 (conscription suspended since January 2003)
Voluntary Recruitment Age: 17
Voting Age: 18
Optional Protocol: ratified 5 February 2003
Other Treaties: GC AP I, GC AP II, CRC, ILO 138, ILO 182, ICC

While in its 2006 report to the UN Committee on the Rights of the Child France stated there were no under-18s in the Foreign Legion, revised 2005 legislation still fixed the minimum age of recruitment to it at 17, with consent from their "legal representative".

Government:

National recruitment legislation and practice

Conscription was suspended from 1 January 2003 under the National Service Reform Act, Act No. 97-1019 of 28 October 1997, which amended the 1972 National Service Code. The law allowed the government to reinstate conscription at any time (Article L112-2)¹ and the legislation providing for national service was not repealed.²

Law No. 2205-207 of 24 March 2005 on the General Status of Servicemen, which revised the body of provisions contained in previous laws, entered into force on 1 July 2005.³ Article 20(4) of this new legislation stated that no one could become part of the armed forces if not "at least 17 years of age or 16 years of age in order to receive general or vocational training as a volunteer in the armed forces or as a pupil in a military school".⁴

Foreign Legion recruits had to be aged between 17 and 40.⁵ Selected candidates signed a five-year unconditional contract to serve anywhere in the world. They were trained for four months at the Fourth Foreign Regiment in Castelnaudary before being posted.⁶ Under-18s had to have the consent of their "legal representatives" to enlist. However, Article 83 of the Law No. 2205-207 offered no legal guarantee regarding the verification of age: "the military authorities designated by the Ministry of Defence can, in the absence of the necessary supporting documents, accept the enlistment [of a candidate]".

On consideration of France's Initial Report on the Optional Protocol, the UN Committee on the Rights of the Child recommended that the recruitment and involvement of children in hostilities be explicitly criminalized in legislation and that extraterritorial jurisdiction be established for these crimes when they are committed by or against a person who is a citizen of or has other links with France. The Committee encouraged the government to raise the minimum age of recruitment into the armed forces and Foreign Legion to 18. The Committee further recommended that the government "provide by law for a special status, different from that of the military, for 16 to below 18 years old children enrolled in military schools and for those in the Foreign Legion".⁷

Military training and schools

Military schools in France included four for the army (Prytanée nationale militaire, Lycée Militaire de Saint-Cyr, Lycée Militaire d'Aix-en-Provence and Lycée Militaire d'Autun) and one for the navy (Lycée Naval de Brest). Students were admitted to the air force school, the Ecole d'Enseignement Technique de l'Armée de l'Air de Saintes, from the age of 16. There was also a Polytechnic School (Ecole Polytechnique). Under Law No. 70-631 of July 1970, as amended by Law 94-577 of July 1994, candidates for the Polytechnic School had to be 17 to sit admission examinations and could enter the school during the year in which they turned 18.⁸

Developments:

France dedicated part of its development aid to children in armed conflicts, financing directly or indirectly through multilateral funds child demobilization and reintegration programs, particularly in Africa. From 2002 it increased its co-operation with UNICEF, the UN refugee agency (UNHCR) and non-governmental organizations working in this area. In 2006 France increased its contribution to UNICEF by 30 per cent. This money supported UNICEF's Innocenti Research Centre, which studied, among other things, questions relating to the reintegration of children who have been released from armed groups. The money also supported a long-term program for West Africa and the Great Lakes.⁹

Following an extensive review of the Cape Town Principles and Best Practices, led by UNICEF in 2006, in February 2007 the French government and UNICEF jointly sponsored a ministerial-level meeting in Paris. At the meeting France and 58 other states endorsed the Paris Commitments to protect children from unlawful recruitment or use by armed forces or armed groups and the Paris Principles and guidelines on children associated with armed forces or armed groups. The documents reaffirmed international standards and operational principles for protecting and assisting child soldiers.

France had chaired the UN Security Council working group on children and armed conflict, established under the provisions of Security Council Resolution 1612 (2005), since its creation in July 2005.

1 Initial report of France to the UN Committee on the Rights of the Child on implementation of the Optional Protocol, UN Doc. CRC/C/OPAC/FRA/1, 6 November 2006.

2 Loi no 97-1019 du 28 octobre 1997 portant réforme du service national.

3 "National implementation of international humanitarian law – biannual update on national legislation and case law – January – June 2005", International Review of the Red Cross, Vol. 87 (859) (September 2005), www.icrc.org.

4 Loi no. 2005-270 du 24 mars 2005 portant statut général des militaires, NOR: DEFX0400144L.

5 Act of 21 March 2005, Art. 83, Ch. II.

6 Portail Web Légion, www.legion-etrangere.com.

7 Committee on the Rights of the Child, Consideration of initial report submitted by France on the Optional Protocol, Concluding observations, UN Doc. CRC/C/OPAC/FRA/CO/1, 5 October 2007, unedited version.

8 Ministère de la Défense, www.defense.gouv.fr.

9 Information provided in meetings with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.