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DOI :10.26650/mecmua.2023.81.2.0010   IUP :10.26650/mecmua.2023.81.2.0010    Full Text (PDF)

Children Rights in France

Mehmet Rıfat Tınç

Since the second half of the 19th century, French law has recognized the child as a legal person who has rapidly attained autonomy due to social changes. Due to child’s limited legal capacity, the French legal order, as in many other legal systems, treats him or her as an object of law needing protection, rather than as a complete legal subject. Recent changes in the family concept, such as the advancement of fundamental rights; the legal status of extramarital partnerships; the possibility of same-sex marriages; and the expansion of children’s rights in international agreements, have influenced the development of French juvenile law; the evolution of the child as a legal person; and his progression from a legal object to a legal subject in contemporary law. Even if childhood remains a legal concept that needs to be protected, children’s ability to operate their own rights increases and they become nearly a legal subject. In some cases, they can even acquire a full legal personality just like an adult. However, despite all the progress made so far, the child’s legal status has not been fully realized, nor have the existing children’s rights been fully implemented.

Keywords: France, Children rights, Child law, Family law, Civil law, Family reunification, Adoption, Kafala, European Union, European Council, United Nations, Convention on the Rights of the Child
DOI :10.26650/mecmua.2023.81.2.0010   IUP :10.26650/mecmua.2023.81.2.0010    Full Text (PDF)

Fransa’da Çocuk Hakları

Mehmet Rıfat Tınç

Fransız hukukunda çocuk, XIX. yüzyıl (yy) ikinci yarısından bu yana, toplumsal değişimlerin de etkisiyle hızla gelişen ve özerkleşen bir hukuk kişisidir. Ancak çocuğun hukuki ehliyetsizliği kuralı nedeniyle, birçok sistemde olduğu gibi Fransız hukukunda da onu yetişkinlerin tersine tam olarak bir hukuk öznesi olmaktan çok, korumaya muhtaç bir hukuk nesnesi şeklinde ele almaktayız. Temel haklardaki ilerleme, evlilik dışı birlikteliklerin hukuki statü kazanması, eşcinsel evliliklerin mümkün hale gelmesi gibi birçok değişiklikle aile olgusunun yakın zamandaki evrimi ve çocuk haklarına dair uluslararası anlaşmaların artması, Fransız çocuk hukukunun gelişiminde ve çocuk hukuk kişisinin nesne olmaktan özne olmaya doğru geçmesinde etkili olmuşlarsa da, çağdaş hukukta çocuk halen korunması gereken bir nesne olduğundan hukuki ehliyeti kısıtlıdır. Fakat, kendi haklarını kendi başına işletme yetisi arttıkça çocuk da özne haline gelmekte, hatta bazı durumlarda aynı bir yetişkin gibi tam bir hukuk kişisi özelliği kazanabilmektedir. Yine de, bugüne kadar kaydedilmiş bütün gelişimlere rağmen birçok ülkede olduğu gibi Fransa’da da çocuğun ne hukuki statüsü tam olarak öznel bir yapıya kavuşmuştur ne de var olan hakları eksiksiz uygulanabilmektedir.

Keywords: Çocuk hakları, Fransız çocuk hukuku, Aile hukuku, Medeni hukuk, Aile birleşimi, Evlat edinme, Kafala, Avrupa Birliği, Avrupa Konseyi, Birleşmiş Milletler, Çocuk Hakları Sözleşmesi

EXTENDED ABSTRACT


What must be a child legal statute in contemporary law? Should this limited legal personality apprehended as an “object” that naturally needs protection be considered a legal “subject” within the capacity to realize fully its legal existence? Answers given to this question in contemporary French law reveal that the minors’ legal personality is placed somewhere between these two edges: protection as an object of law and acceptance as a total legal subject. Historically, French law treated the child as a “familial object” from the middle ages to the 19th century. Following the industrial revolution, the emergence of a proletarian class and the rights of juveniles in society and civil law continue to expand, thanks to the profound conceptual and social changes in French Family Law. In addition, the rapid development of international law in the 20th century accelerated this movement and granted teenagers additional rights under public law. Children are protected by several international legal warranties, including those provided by the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, the Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms, the European Social Charter, the Convention on the Protection of Children against Sexual Exploitation and Sexual Abuse (Lanzarote Convention), the European Convention on the Exercise of Children’s Rights, and most importantly, the Convention on the Rights of the Child. In addition, France’s membership in the European Union has given rise to directly invocable legal rights, such as the rights to free movement, to be heard, and to family reunification. Thanks to an effective judicial review in administrative, civil, and constitutional law as well as to a strong judicial dialogue between European and French jurisdictions established since the beginning, the objectivation of children’s legal statute has reached an important degree in its implementation today. However, this notable evolution remains limited, and the legal statute of minors in French law is still mostly characterized by the lack of directly invocable personal rights today. The child is largely apprehended by legal order as a matter of protection rather than a complete legal person fully capable of deploying his or her own rights. Submitted to parental authority, tutors, or other types of guardianship; children’s rights do not totally belong to them, their use is conditional, and their effects are restrained mostly by age limits. Even if this specific treatment of children’s legal personality is not discriminating and morally legitim, the permanent evolution of society, impressive progress of technologies, and undeniable acceleration of young people’s maturity (e.g., in the ecological field) necessitates a modification of contemporary legal thinking regarding children’s rights. Moreover, particularly in France, several deficiencies of domestic law exist, such as the lack of political rights for children; restrictions on their access to the labor market; limitations on their contractual rights, judicial and processual rights; their direct proceedings before a tribunal; and their right to be heard and to consent. Furthermore, the official statistics show the defects in the protection against sexual abuse. In addition, the national law has deficiencies in filiation rules discriminating against children of different types of parents and in the field of family violence, as illustrated by the European Court of Human Rights and the Social Rights Committee’s condemnations of France. Lastly, foreign children residing in France may be deprived of their social rights due to administrative irregularities in the status of their parents under French law, or they may be detained in inhumane conditions. The French immigration laws do not provide sufficient protection for unaccompanied minors. In conclusion, even if the child’s legal statute is still changing and children rights’ content and effectiveness are progressively growing in French domestic law thanks to internal evolution and international guarantees, the French legislator still has a long way to go to improve both the protection of these rights and the modification of handling child legal personality by national law. Children must be increasingly considered as a legal subject of law equal to an adult in terms of their fundamental rights.


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APA

Tınç, M.R. (2023). Children Rights in France. Istanbul Law Review, 81(2), 589-620. https://doi.org/10.26650/mecmua.2023.81.2.0010


AMA

Tınç M R. Children Rights in France. Istanbul Law Review. 2023;81(2):589-620. https://doi.org/10.26650/mecmua.2023.81.2.0010


ABNT

Tınç, M.R. Children Rights in France. Istanbul Law Review, [Publisher Location], v. 81, n. 2, p. 589-620, 2023.


Chicago: Author-Date Style

Tınç, Mehmet Rıfat,. 2023. “Children Rights in France.” Istanbul Law Review 81, no. 2: 589-620. https://doi.org/10.26650/mecmua.2023.81.2.0010


Chicago: Humanities Style

Tınç, Mehmet Rıfat,. “Children Rights in France.” Istanbul Law Review 81, no. 2 (May. 2024): 589-620. https://doi.org/10.26650/mecmua.2023.81.2.0010


Harvard: Australian Style

Tınç, MR 2023, 'Children Rights in France', Istanbul Law Review, vol. 81, no. 2, pp. 589-620, viewed 12 May. 2024, https://doi.org/10.26650/mecmua.2023.81.2.0010


Harvard: Author-Date Style

Tınç, M.R. (2023) ‘Children Rights in France’, Istanbul Law Review, 81(2), pp. 589-620. https://doi.org/10.26650/mecmua.2023.81.2.0010 (12 May. 2024).


MLA

Tınç, Mehmet Rıfat,. “Children Rights in France.” Istanbul Law Review, vol. 81, no. 2, 2023, pp. 589-620. [Database Container], https://doi.org/10.26650/mecmua.2023.81.2.0010


Vancouver

Tınç MR. Children Rights in France. Istanbul Law Review [Internet]. 12 May. 2024 [cited 12 May. 2024];81(2):589-620. Available from: https://doi.org/10.26650/mecmua.2023.81.2.0010 doi: 10.26650/mecmua.2023.81.2.0010


ISNAD

Tınç, MehmetRıfat. “Children Rights in France”. Istanbul Law Review 81/2 (May. 2024): 589-620. https://doi.org/10.26650/mecmua.2023.81.2.0010



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Submitted15.07.2022
Accepted22.09.2023
Published Online17.10.2023

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