Child Soldiers Global Report 2001 - France

THE FRENCH REPUBLIC

Mainly covers the period June 1998 to April 2001 as well as including some earlier information.

• Population:
  – total: 58,886,000
  – under-18s: 13,421,000
• Government armed forces:
  – active: 294,430
  – gendarmerie: 94,950
  – reserves (operational;1999 figures due to reorganisation): 419,000
• Compulsory recruitment age: 18 (no conscription after end 2002)
• Voluntary recruitment age: 17 with consent
• Voting age (government elections): 18
• Child soldiers: indicated in government armed forces – several hundred per year
• CRC-OP-CAC: signed 6 September 2000; does not support "straight-18" position
• Other treaties ratified: CRC; GC/APII; ICC; ILO 138

• There are indications of under-18s in government armed force, some several hundred per year.⁷¹⁴ The PKK, a Kurdish opposition group from Turkey, is known to have recruited children in France.

CONTEXT

France has forces stationed overseas – over 20,000 men in 2000, including more than 6,000 in several African states with which it has defence agreements. France also provides sizeable contingents to UN peacekeeping operations, including Bosnia, Croatia, East Timor, Egypt, Georgia, Georgia, Iraq/Kuwait, Lebanon, the Middle East, Saudi Arabia, Sierra Leone, Western Sahara and Yugoslavia.

GOVERNMENT

National Recruitment Legislation and Practice

Since 1996 France has been implementing a transitional programme aimed at fully professionalising and reducing the size of its military forces. Under this programme selective conscription currently exists, however it is not included in the French Constitution and has begun to be phased out and replaced by an alternative volunteer-based system. Under Law No. 97-1019 (28 October 1997) amending the 1972 National Service Code, conscription will be fully suspended as of 1 January 2003.⁷¹⁵ However, according to Article L112-2 the government retains the right to reinstate conscription at any time.

The 1997 law promoting the new National Service scheme grants exemption from military service to all men born after 31 December 1978 and to all women born after 31 December 1982 (Art. L112-2). Instead these age groups attend a compulsory one-day "call-up for defence preparedness" or JAPD(Journeé d'Appel de préparation à la défense) (Article L112-1). The JAPD consists of a day of information and education intended to attract young people to a military career. All youths are required to register for the call-up after their 16th birthday (Article L 113-1) and attend the one-day defence-preparation before their 18th birthday (Article L 114-2). Obligatory registration enables government to restore conscription if necessary.⁷¹⁶ The new national service also involves compulsory education in the principles and organisation of defence in France as part of the curriculum in the first few years after primary school. Youths may ultimately volunteer to join the armed forces, the national gendarmerie, the reserves or the French Foreign Legion.

Compulsory recruitment in the armed forces: As compulsory military service is being suspended rather than abolished, National Service legislation specifies a minimum compulsory recruitment age of 18 (Article 88, Law No. 72-662 of 13 July 1972). During the transition period (1997-2002) all men born before 1 January 1979 remain obliged to perform 10 months of military service (Article L112-2). Men born in 1979 are exempt from the JAPD but may volunteer to attend. Men born between 1980 and 1982 are called to the JAPD between the time of their registration and their 19th birthday (Article L 112-4).

Voluntary enlistment in the armed forces and gendarmerie: According to Article L 121-1 the minimum age requirement for voluntary enlistment, both men and women, is 18. Service lasts 12 months and may be renewed every year for up to five years. Article L5 in Book II of the Code du Service National specifies that volunteers may enlist from 1 October of the year during which they turn 18, thus previously some recruits could be 17. However, under the 1997 law, Articles L.1-159 of Book II were suspended for all persons born after 31 December 1978. While Article L.5 remains applicable to all other persons until 1 January 2003, there are no longer any 17-year-olds born before 1 January 1979. Volunteers under the age of 18 may, however, still enlist if they obtain the consent of a legal guardian, as per Article 88 of Law No. 72-662 (13 July 1972).⁷¹⁷

Voluntary enlistment in the military reserves: The new military reserves (law of 22 October 1999) for the armies and national gendarmerie are comprised of youths between the ages of 18 and 30 who volunteer for a duration of one to five years.⁷¹⁸ Under the restructured military system, the new reserves have been reduced in number, fully trained and readily available for action, and are being more closely integrated into professional units. About 30% of reservists will be available at very short notice to supplement these units.

Voluntary enlistment in the French Foreign Legion: Volunteers between the age of 17 and 40 may enlist in the French Foreign Legion, however minors must obtain parental or guardian consent. After preliminary medical check-ups, the candidate is transferred to the selection centre for further medical, IQ and physical tests. If successful the candidate is asked to sign a five-year unconditional contract to serve wherever needed in the French Foreign Legion. Legionnaires receive four months basic military instruction at the 4th Foreign Regiment after which they are posted to a regiment.⁷¹⁹

Between 3 October 1998 and 31 March 2000 approximately 950,000 young men participated in the one day defence preparation call-up (JAPD), at 220 sites around the country. About 30 per cent indicated interest in voluntary service, military training or serving as a reserve.⁷²⁰ Registration for the JAPD became obligatory for young women after 1 January 1999. They participated in the JAPD for the first time on 8 April 2000, coinciding with a phase during which the number of females and the types of posts they may serve in the armed forces was being augmented. In 2000, nearly 26,000 women comprised 8.3% of the country's military.⁷²¹

Since the new national service scheme went into effect, volunteers (who may later choose to pursue a military career) still comprise a minority of members of France's armed forces. At the end of 1999 there were 9,757 volunteers serving in the armed forces. That number has risen to about 14,000 per year, with a projected number of 27,170 by the end of the transition phase (December 2002).⁷²²

Child Recruitment

According to the Permanent Mission of France in Geneva, in 1997 there were 456 recruits under 18, or 2% of annual recruits.⁷²³ In 2000, between two and three per cent of all male recruits were between the ages of 16 and 19, and a slightly higher proportion of females were in that age grouping.⁷²⁴

Military Training and Military Schools

There are a number of military schools in France – four for the Army (Prytanée militaire de La Flèche, Saint-Cyr-l'Ecole, Aix-en-Provence and Autun), one for the Air Force (L'école d'enseignement technique de l'armée de l'air de SAINTES – EETAA) and one for the Navy (Lycée naval de Brest) with a total of 4,100 students. A school was also established for children from families whose head had disappeared during the course of duty in the air force (military or civil), which in 1982 became a military school L'Ecole des pupilles de l'air, in Grenoble-Montbonnot.⁷²⁵ These military schools are under the control of the army although teachers are provided through the national education system.⁷²⁶ According to the Permanent Mission of France to the UN in Geneva, only the Air Force technical education school of Saintes accepts pupils at the age of 16 or under. This school provides 24 months of studies and access to the Air Force technical school of Rochefort. After the two-year period students are obliged to sign a 5-year contract with the Air Force.⁷²⁷

There is also a Polytechnic School (Ecole Polytechnique). Under Law No. 70-631 of July 1970, as amended by Law 94-577 of July 1994, candidates must be 17 to sit admission exams. Students may enter the school during the year they turn 18. According to Article 4 of the Law, these students are in a "situation of activity in the army".⁷²⁸

Traditional initiation rituals at some military schools which have resulted in injuries have received serious attention in recent years.⁷²⁹ As a result a three-month study was launched into the future of the different military academies.⁷³⁰ The Army Chief of Staff subsequently announced a series of measures to end the excesses, improve supervision and lighten discipline.⁷³¹ France supported the inclusion of a minimum age limit of 16 for entry into military schools during negotiations on the Optional Protocol.⁷³²

CHILD RECRUITMENT BY ARMED GROUPS FROM OTHER COUNTRIES

• Kurdish Workers Party (PKK)

France hosts a large Kurdish community which has been the target of child recruitment by the PKK. In 1999 French police estimated the number of active PKK members in France at 300. Kurdish families have been known to support the PKK by giving up their own children, who are often indoctrinated by the PKK through 'cultural associations'. The oldest children receive paramilitary training, and some have reportedly been sent to fight on the front line after a final training period at the Iranian border.⁷³³

DEVELOPMENTS

International Standards

France signed the CRC-OP-CAC on 8 September 2000 but does not support a "straight-18" position. France was one of the few European countries to support a clear prohibition on the use of children as soldiers in the ILO Convention on the Worst Forms of Child Labour.

714 Report of the Working Group on a draft Optional Protocol, UN Doc. E/CN.4/1998/102, op. cit. para. 73; Statement by the representative of France to the European Conference on the Use of Children as Soldiers, Berlin, 18-20/10/99.

715 Ministry of Defense, "Le text de la loi", at: http://www.legifrance.gouv.fr/html/frame_jo.html.

716 Carmona, R., "Nouvelles structures des etudes de defense. Le Ministre de la Defense devant le CSFM", Defense Nationale, 3/98, p. 173.

717 Text at: http://www.legifrance.gouv.fr/textes/html/fic197207130662.htm.

718 Ministere de la Defence, France. Dossier, "La premiere participation des filles a la JAPD", 8/4/00 at www.defense.gouv.fr.

719 French Embassy in Washington, http://www.info-France- usa.org/amercica/embassy/legion/enlist.htm.

720 Ministry of Defence, Le dossier: Le bilan apres 17 mois de JAPD, at www.defense.gouv.fr.

721 "La premiere participation des filles a la JAPD", op. cit.

722 Ministere de la Defence, France. Dossier, "La premiere participation des filles a la JAPD", 8 April 2000. http://www.defense.gouv.fr/actualites/dossier/d47/index.html.

723 Information provided by the Permanent Mission of France to the UN in Geneva 3/9/99.

724 Ministry of Defense, France, Dossier "Les femmes militaires: carrieres et conditions de vie. at www.defense.gouv.fr as at 3/4/01.

725 see www.defense.gouv.fr.

726 Isnard, J., "Alain Richard lance une reflexion sur l'evolution des lycees militaires", Le Monde, 27/2/99, p. 30.

727 Permanent Mission of France, 3/9/99, op. cit.

728 See http://www.polytechnique.fr.

729 In one case a student of the Military Academy of La Fleche was seriously injured. A report to the Minister of Defence on 15/2/99 denounced the "weakness of the supervision" of the students and the strength of the traditions. See "Les nouveaux exploits integristes du Prytanee militaire", Le Canard enchaine, 24/2/99.

730 Teillard, T., "Une enquete ministerielle sur les Lycees militaires. Remous au Prytanee de La Fleche", Ouest France, 25/2/99. See also Isnard, J", op. cit.

731 Guisnel, J., "Lycees militaires: mesures d'assouplissement", Le Point, 30/4/99.

732 "Rectificatif de la Fiche d'information concernant la France", Information provided by the representative of France to the Conference on the Use of Children as Soldiers in Europe, Berlin, 18-20 October 1999.

733 32 Leclerc, J. M., "La diaspora kurde sous la loi du racket", Valeurs Actuelles, 27/2/99.