Demande directe (CEACR) - adoptée 2008, publiée 98ème session CIT (2009)

Convention (n° 182) sur les pires formes de travail des enfants, 1999 - France (Ratification: 2001)

Article 4, paragraph 3. Revision of the list of hazardous types of work. In its previous comments, the Committee noted the information provided by the Government in its report that the regulations on hazardous types of work prohibited for young workers under 18 years of age are to be revised in the near future. The Committee notes the Government’s indication that a revision of these texts is ongoing in the framework of the Directive on Protection of Young Workers No. 33/94/CEE of 22 June 1994. Act No. 2004-237 of 18 March 2004 empowered the Government to transform this directive into an order. The Committee draws the Government’s attention to Paragraph 3 of the Worst Forms of Child Labour Recommendation, 1999 (No. 190), which contains a list of the types of work to be taken into consideration when determining hazardous types of work and identifying where they exist. The Committee requests the Government to provide information on any progress achieved in reforming the regulations on hazardous types of work prohibited for young workers under 18 years of age. It also once again requests the Government to provide information on the consultations held in this respect with employers’ and workers’ organizations.

Article 5. Monitoring mechanisms. Combating hidden forms of child labour. In its previous comments, the Committee requested the Government to provide information on the coordinated measures adopted by the various services to combat hidden forms of child labour, including an indication of the number of young persons under 18 years of age engaged in this type of activity and the violations reported. The Committee notes in the Government’s report that the Interministerial Delegation to Combat Illegal Work (DILTI) realized an evaluation for the period 1998–2003, that highlights an increase in status falsifications, the use of internship agreements to conceal real employment or to introduce foreign youth, the resorting to abusive volunteer work or the false declaration of a salaried worker as a self-employed worker. A Global Plan to Combat Illegal Work (Global Plan), implemented as of 2004, concentrates its action in four sectors considered to be of priority: (a) live and recorded shows; (b) agriculture; (c) construction and public works; and (d) hotels, cafés and restaurants. The Global Plan focuses on three areas of intervention: (a) staff increases and training of the Labour Inspectorate to permit a growth of in-the-field controls and a permanent monitoring of the evolution of each sector; (b) the extension of cooperation between the control bodies and the public aid management organizations; (c) the suppression of such public aid (such as subsidies granted by the Regional Directions for Cultural Action and the National Cinematographic Centre) to offending enterprises.

Furthermore, the Committee notes that the first assessment on actions led in 2004 and 2005 underline the concrete results obtained thanks to the efficiency of large-scale controls. The number of social contribution recoveries has significantly increased: 42 per cent over three years. In the four priority sectors mentioned above, it reached 17.6 million euros in 2005 versus 7.2 million euros in 2003 for 59,259 inspected enterprises, of which 3,054, or 5.2 per cent, were fined, and for a total volume of 9,747 offences. The Committee requests the Government to continue providing information on the coordinated measures taken by the various services to combat hidden forms of child labour, including an indication of the number of young persons under 18 years of age engaged in this type of activity and the violations reported.

Article 6. Programmes of action to eliminate the worst forms of child labour. In its previous comments, the Committee requested the Government to provide information on the measures adopted to combat the following worst forms of child labour: prostitution, domestic work, work in illicit workshops, begging and slave labour. The Committee notes in the Government’s report that child protection, which is currently divided between the State and the departments (départements), was the object of an important reform in the framework of the Child Protection Reformation Act of 5 March 2007 (Child Protection Reformation Act). The State organizes judicial protection, whereas the departments are charged with ensuring social action benefiting children and families, termed “administrative protection”. The Child Protection Reformation Act established the primacy of administrative protection over judicial protection. In the framework of administrative protection, material, educational and psychological support is offered to minors confronted with social difficulties likely to severely compromise their, as well as their family’s, equilibrium. This support can take the shape of placing the child in an institution, a foster home or a structure of another type. The department is also in charge of isolated foreign minors via the Isolated Foreign Minors Welcome Cell. With regard to judicial protection, the Parental Authority Act of 4 March 2002 makes provision for minors who prostitute themselves, even if just occasionally, to be reputed in danger and therefore to come under the protection of youth judges under the educational assistance procedure, which permits the prostituted minors to benefit from the child protection judicial procedure in a systematic manner and to guarantee their educational, material and moral care under the supervision of the judicial authority. The Committee further notes the creation in 2000 of the Children’s Defender. This independent authority deals with individual cases and she can be directly seized by any minor under 18 years of age or by a legal representative as well as by associations defending children’s rights. The Children’s Defender can also receive individual requests regarding cases that could not be resolved by the existing law and through the existing structures. She may propose legislative remedies to provide solutions to collective failures that impede the implementation of children’s rights. A section of her annual report is dedicated to child prostitution. The Committee requests the Government to supply more information on the activities of the Children’s Defender in respect of the worst forms of child labour such as prostitution. The Committee also requests the Government to provide a copy of the Children’s Defender’s annual report in its next report.

Article 7, paragraph 2. Effective and time-bound measures. Clauses (a) and (b). Preventing the engagement of children in the worst forms of child labour and assistance for the removal of children from the worst forms of child labour. 
1. Children of Chinese origin on the national territory. In its previous comments, the Committee encouraged the Government to take measures to ensure that Chinese children present in France have access to free basic education. The Committee noted the information provided by the Government in its report that it has implemented action programmes, which are principally intended to ensure that children are enrolled in school, to bring to an end the worst forms of child labour.

The Committee notes in the Government’s report that foreign children are necessarily enrolled in an “ordinary class” corresponding to their level at elementary and secondary school, whenever the command of the language is not fundamental (e.g. music, visual arts, etc.). They are enrolled in an “initiation class” (or a “reception class” in the case of secondary school) to follow a daily education of French. Both in the ordinary classes, as in the initiation classes, assistance is provided to the students, if they so require. With regard to illegal (immigrant) children, a flyer dated 13 June 2008 authorizes the prefects to “re-examine” the situation of families without papers, of which one child is sent to school, if these families refuse the re-entry assistance offers, on six conditions:

(1)   habitual residence in France of at least one parent;

(2)   real schooling of one of their children;

(3)   birth of a child in France or habitual residence in France of a child since the age of 13;

(4)   no links between the child and the country of citizenship;

(5)   real contribution of one parent to the care and education of the child since birth, as per section 371-2 of the Civil Code; and

(6)   real will for the family to integrate (e.g. schooling of their children, command of the French language, educational follow-up of the children, the seriousness of their studies and the absence of disturbances to the public order).

The Committee requests the Government to provide information on the measures adopted to ensure that foreign children present in France have access to free basic education, including the enrolment rates of these children.

2. System of protection and assistance. In its previous comments, the Committee noted that section 42 of the Act of 18 March 2003 on internal security provides that any person who is a victim of prostitution shall benefit from a system of protection and assistance, provided and coordinated by the administration in collaboration with the various social services. It also noted that section 43 of the Act of 18 March 2003 supplements section L.345-l of the Code of Social Action and Families by providing that places in social integration and shelter centres shall be open to victims of trafficking in human beings under conditions which instil a sense of security. The Committee requested the Government to provide information on the protection and assistance measures adopted for persons under 18 years of age who are victims of prostitution and for child victims of trafficking who are in social integration and shelter centres. Noting once again that the Government has not provided any information on this subject, the Committee requests it once again to provide information on the protection and assistance measures adopted benefiting young persons under 18 years of age who are victims of prostitution or trafficking and on the measures taken for the rehabilitation and social integration of children removed from these worst forms of child labour.

Clause (d). Identification of children at special risk. 1. Child victims of Internet pornography. In its previous comments, the Committee noted that the report of the joint information mission of the National Assembly on the various modern forms of slavery (page 124) indicated that “in so far as combating networks for the trafficking of human beings and in the field of sexual Internet crime and child pornography in particular, traditional methods of police investigation are no longer adequate. Indeed these new, fluctuating and underground forms of criminality require new and more effective policing methods which must facilitate the establishment of proof of such crimes, a task which is particularly delicate at the present time”. The Committee requested the Government to indicate whether it envisaged taking measures to ensure the effective implementation and enforcement of the national provisions protecting young persons under 18 years of age from trafficking, sexual Internet criminality and child pornography. The Committee notes in the Government’s report that it has announced that Internet service providers will need to prohibit access to illegal child pornography web sites inventoried on a blacklist established by the Ministry of the Interior. Furthermore, a new rating for parental control software, regularly updated and displayed in stores, is expected as is a standard of quality, termed “label famille”, for this software. According to figures from the State Secretariat for the Family 36 per cent of children aged 11 to 17 have already been confronted with shocking and traumatizing images. Finally, the Committee notes that the Committee on the Rights of the Child (CRC), in its concluding observations (CRC/C/OPSC/FRA/CO/1 of 15 October 2007, page 4, paragraphs 16 and 17), expressed regret with regard to “the lack of [a] systematic and comprehensive strategy to target the problem of child pornography”. The Committee requests the Government to continue providing information on the measures taken to assist child victims of sexual Internet criminality and child pornography. It also requests the Government to supply information on any new systematic and global strategy to combat the problem of child pornography. Furthermore, noting the absence of information in the Government’s report, the Committee requests it to provide information regarding the new and more effective policing methods to fight sexual Internet criminality and child pornography. Also noting the absence of information on this point, the Committee requests the Government to indicate if it envisages taking measures to ensure the effective implementation and the respect of national provisions protecting children under 18 years of age from trafficking, sexual Internet criminality and child pornography.

2. Isolated foreign minors. The Committee notes the Government’s statement that the Children’s Defender presented, in June 2008, 25 recommendations regarding the care for isolated foreign minors, who are considered, by virtue of the Act of 5 March 2007, to be under the auspices of Child Protection. Every year, some 4,000 of these minors, the majority originating from Africa, Eastern Europe and Asia, arrive without parents and frequently also without identification. The propositions of the Children’s Defender are categorized into five main priorities:

(1)   a better respect for the right to information for minors arriving by air, in particular a better welcome in waiting zones (also known as “transit facilities”); for those arriving by land, organization of care within emergency provisions and development of an adapted administrative (similar to social assistance for children) and judicial care systems;

(2)   assistance, representation and advice to isolated foreign minors by permitting them to systematically and rapidly benefit from ad hoc administrators’ assistance, provision for which is made in the Parental Authority Act of 4 March 2002;

(3)   validation of the state of being a minor (as they often have no identification);

(4)   quality of rights between isolated foreign minors and others of the same age, in particular with regard to access to education and professional training;

(5)   in accordance with recommendations from the Council of Europe, the elaboration of a personalized life project with the young person and all the associative and institutional actors, especially permitting the young persons to benefit from a temporary residence permit whenever he or she has undertaken school education or qualifying professional training.

Finally, the Committee notes that the CRC is “deeply concerned at the situation facing unaccompanied children placed in the waiting zones of French airports and that the decision of placement cannot be challenged, that the legal requirement of the appointment of an ad hoc administrator is not systematically applied and that there is no psychological assistance available for children who are particularly vulnerable to exploitation. The Committee is also concerned that children are often returned, without a proper assessment of the conditions, to countries where they face risk of exploitation” (page 6, paragraph 24). The Committee requests the Government to provide information on the application of the recommendation made by the Children’s Defender as well as on any other measures taken to protect isolated foreign minors from the worst forms of child labour.

Article 8. International cooperation. Noting the absence of information in the Government’s report, the Committee encourages it to continue its international collaboration efforts in prohibiting and eliminating the worst forms of child labour. It also once again requests the Government to provide information on the cooperation measures established with the countries of origin of children in waiting zones who are obliged to return to their countries, particularly to facilitate their return to their families.