Dyears one January 25 decisionthe Committee on the Rights of the Child, composed of eighteen independent experts responsible for monitoring the implementation of the International Convention on the Rights of the Child (CIDE) by its States parties, concluded that France had not respected its commitments with regard to this convention which it nevertheless ratified in 1990.
Indeed, the Committee on the Rights of the Child, seized of the situation of an unaccompanied minor who arrived on French territory at the age of 16 and left on the street, noted that France had carried out a summary assessment about his age. Indeed, the young person had not been accompanied by a legal representative during the administrative procedure, nor by an interpreter in his mother tongue, that the appeals were not suspensive and that the civil status documents that he presented had been challenged without even carrying out a proper examination of the information they contained.
Moreover, France did not respect the committee’s injunction to place the child in a home for minors until he reached majority. Thus, the committee concluded that France had violated the guarantees attached to the best interests of the child and the right to identity, but also the rights to obtain special protection and assistance from the State in order to not to be subjected to inhuman and degrading treatment.
Appeals must be suspensive
These findings confirm the observations that our associations have been making for many years on the situation of unaccompanied minors, boys or girls. To ensure that such violations do not happen again, the committee is sending several requests to France.
On the one hand, the procedure for determining the age of unaccompanied foreign minors must be brought into line with the convention by guaranteeing: that the identity documents presented are taken into consideration and their authenticity recognized once they have been drawn up by the authorities of the country concerned or that they have confirmed their validity a posteriori; that a legal representative be appointed without delay to assist the minor from the sheltering phase and throughout the procedure.
On the other hand, France must adopt measures ensuring that any young person declaring himself a minor is considered as a child and benefits from the rights deriving from this status throughout this procedure. This implies that, in the event of dispute of his minority, the appeals open to him must be suspensive in order to guarantee his protection until the final decision of the judge.
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