Since the loved ones have brought their case before the committee in 2019, the French government has repatriated these children. The other 38 child victims, some of whom are only 5 years, are still detained in closed camps in the war zone.
Le Monde with AFP
A UN Committee, which examined requests for 49 French children, felt that France had violated the rights of French children held in Syria omitting from repatriating them.
Martin Pradel, who presented some queries, explained to the France-Presse agency:
“This is the first time that an instance of so high level also says that France has failed to its obligations with respect to these children who are not accused of anything, and who because of their age , have not committed any kind of offense. “
According to the Committee on the Rights of the Child, “the refusal of France to repatriate French children held in Syrian camps in conditions putting their lives in danger for years violates their right to life, as well as their Right not to undergo inhuman and degrading treatment “.
This Committee is composed of 18 independent experts responsible for monitoring the implementation of the Convention on the Rights of the Child by its States Parties. He was responsible for examining three requests filed by a group of French nationals including grandchildren, nieces and nephews are currently held in the camps of Roj, Ain Issa and Hol, who are under the control of Kurdish forces.
“Risk of indoctrination”
The three cases concern 49 French children, whose parents would have collaborated with the Islamic State group. Some were born in Syria, while others traveled with their French parents at a very young age.
The fact that France has not repatriated the children, according to the Committee, “undeniably violated the protection of their best interests since it resulted in prolonged and indefinite detention in the camps, in conditions threatening their survival and their physical integrity, (…) and where there is a risk of indoctrination “.
What is important, “said Marie dose, lawyer of the applicants, is that the committee” says France may not be responsible for their detention, but their holding in detention “.
Since the loved ones have brought their case before the committee in 2019, the French government has repatriated these children. The other 38 child victims, some of whom are only 5 years old, are still detained in closed camps in the war zone.
The UN Committee estimates that “France has the responsibility and the power to protect French children in the Syrian camps against imminent risk for their lives by taking steps to repatriate them”. It also considers that the prolonged detention of children victims under conditions putting their lives in danger equals “inhuman and degrading treatment”.
France urged to take urgent measures
Experts also concluded that France had not demonstrated “that it had duly taken into account the best interests of child victims when assessing requests for repatriation of their relatives”.
The Committee urges France to take urgent measures to repatriate the remaining 38 child victims, with their mothers “to preserve the family environment”. In the meantime, he asks the French authorities “to take additional measures to mitigate the risks for the life, survival and development of child victims during their stay in the north-east of Syria”.
In these camps, “children live in inhuman sanitary conditions, lack basic necessities, including water, food and health care, and face an imminent risk of death,” said Ann Skelton, member of the UN Committee. “At least 62 children would be dead in the camps because of these conditions since the beginning of the year 2021. The situation is extremely urgent,” she said.