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Updates on France

31 Dec 2005

France ratified on 9 June 2000, becoming the 12th State Party.

The draft law on implementation to the Rome Statute was expected to be debated within the Ministries of Defence and Foreign Affairs before the summer of 2003, and should be submitted to the Parliament for scrutiny in the fall of 2005.

The draft implementation law was submitted by the Ministry of Justice to the members of the Commission Nationale Consultative des droits de l‚homme (CNCDH) for an opinion. The Commission released its opinion on 15 May 2003 and identified the following shortcomings:
1. Article 27 of the Rome Statute - on the irrelevance of official capacities - still needs to be incorporated into French national legislation;
2. War crimes are not subject to the same legal regime
as genocide and crimes against humanity, being therefore subject to status of limitations;
3. The principle of victim's equal access to justice is not fully retained, whereby the Public Prosecutor would be the only person entitled to initiate a proceeding if the crime is committed abroad; and
4. The scope of universal jurisdiction has been limited with regard to non-States Parties.

During a press conference on 11 March 2003, the French Minister of Justice Dominique Perben announced that a draft law on the substantive adaptation of the Rome Statute has been prepared. The draft introduces into the French legislation the definition of war crimes (which is subject to a prescription of 20 or 30 years) and extends the notion of crimes against humanity. The draft was submitted by the Ministry of Justice to the members of the National Consultative Commission on Human Rights for an opinion on 31 March 2003.

A working group will be created within this Commission in order to prepare some comments on the draft. The International Federation for Human Rights (FIDH) and the French Coalition for the ICC will be participating in the working group. Senator Robert Badinter has also prepared a draft relating to the definition of war crimes. All proposals will be discussed and possibly harmonized. The final draft should then be debated within the Ministries of Defence and Foreign Affairs before the summer and finally submitted to the Parliament for discussion in fall 2003.

The French Parliament adopted the Bill on Cooperation in February 2002. This law, introduced by Senator Robert Badinter, addresses only procedural issues and allows France to cooperate with the Court with regard to arrest, transfer, prison sentences and reparation orders. The draft law on cooperation was then sent to the Senate for discussion. Adoption of the law is expected to occur in the second half of 2002.

Other important issues needed to addressed, including the incorporation of the definition of war crimes into the French Penal Code and the adoption of the Code of Military Justice.

A debate on draft implementing legislation was launched in September 2001 involving experts from the relevant Ministries, government and civil society.

At the time of ratification, France made a reservation on Article 124 of the Rome Statute, which excludes prosecutions of French citizens for war crimes from the ICC’s juridiction for seven years.

France was expected to recognize the principle of universal jurisdiction for all crimes in the Rome Statute, since the implementing legislation for the Statutes of the ad hoc tribunals contain universal jurisdiction clauses.