WILPF/PeaceWomen themes covered:

General Women, Peace and Security: 2/17

Conflict Prevention: 2/17

Disarmament: 1/17

Displacement and Humanitarian Response: 0/17

Participation: 2/17

Peace Processes: 2/17

Peacekeeping: 4/17

Protection: 4/17

Reconstruction and Peacebuilding: 0/17

Sexual and Gender-Based Violence: 2/17

Implementation: 4/17

Justice, Rule of Law, SSR: 6/17

Human Rights: 5/17

S/PV.7938: "Since the seminal adoption of resolution 1325 (2000), this Council has placed the participation of women in crisis management and recovery at the centre of its concerns, with the full support of France."

N/A

WILPF/PeaceWomen themes covered:

General Women, Peace and Security: 0/5

Conflict Prevention: 1/5

Disarmament: 0/5

Displacement and Humanitarian Response: 0/5

Participation: 0/5

Peace Processes: 1/5

Peacekeeping: 1/5

Protection: 1/5

Reconstruction and Peacebuilding: 0/5

Sexual and Gender-Based Violence: 1/5

Implementation: 1/5

Justice, Rule of Law, SSR: 2/5

Human Rights: 2/5

S/PV.7857: "We advocate a crosscutting and integrated approach that combines security, humanitarian, political and development actions over time with a continuity of the prevention, maintenance and consolidation of peace."

WILPF/PeaceWomen themes covered:

General Women, Peace and Security: 0/1

Conflict Prevention: 1/1

Disarmament: 1/1

Displacement and Humanitarian Response: 1/1

Participation: 0/1

Peace Processes: 0/1

Peacekeeping: 0/1

Protection: 1/1

Reconstruction and Peacebuilding: 0/1

Sexual and Gender-Based Violence: 1/1

Implementation: 0/1

Justice, Rule of Law, SSR: 0/1

Human Rights: 1/1

S/PV.7951: "The second is the Kigali Principles, which provide guidance on conducting operations, training and cooperating with local communities on the ground. France supports them, and we should all do the same. "

N/A

Participation:

French parity law has undeniably enabled France to achieve decisive progress. The French Government has achieved parity, as has the Permanent Mission of France to the United Nations in New York. France has also undertaken a comprehensive effort and set specific goals to increase women’s participation in its armed forces. Appointments have risen significantly, and women’s representation has virtually doubled since 1998 to 15 per cent of overall troops today a priority.

Implementation:

France is implementing its second National Action Plan on Women, Peace and Security, which covers the period 2015-2018.

Justice, Rule of Law, Security Sector Reform:

France is taking action against impunity when crimes are committed against women, including to enable women’s access to justice.

Peacebuilding:

France continues to support humanitarian programmes aimed at assisting women affected by the consequences of the crises in Afghanistan, the Central African Republic, Lebanon, as a result of the Syrian crisis, and Nigeria. France's official development assistance already has fully incorporated the gender dimension, and the number of projects with a direct impact on the lives of women is rising as well.

Protection:

France is also undertaking numerous projects to protect women from human trafficking.

Arms Transfer Revenue in 2016: $2,226,000,000 

UN Women Government Total Contribution in 2016: $1,718,124

HDI (Human Development Index): France was ranked 24.

France is included in the "Very High Human Development" category.

N/A

N/A

France provided female peacekeepers to MINUJUSTH (0 women), MINURSO (0 women), MINUSCA (11 women), MINUSMA (1 woman), MONUSCO (1 woman), UNIFIL (59 women).

S/PV.8218: "First is training — before, during and after deployment, in the basic military operational areas as well as linguistically. Without interaction with local populations, peacekeepers will not be fully effective."

Key women's organisation's (Women's Lobby - French Coordination) efforts in regard to gender issues include the following:

- Number of conferences: 20+;

- Number of publications: 2 reports

- Social services provided: coordination, networking, and policy championing between national NGOs, international NGOs, and governments.

Types of social support provided:

Education: Yes

Anti-violence: Yes

Women's empowerment: Yes

Gender-related training: Yes

Political participation: Yes

Anti-human trafficking: Yes

Women's health: Yes

Lobbying and policymaking: No

Fundraising: No

In France, nonprofits working with professional staff are predominantly publicly funded. Up to 56 % of their income comes from public sources, more precisely from the national government, from departements, and from the numerous municipalities (36000) as well as from social security .

France is the fifth-largest donor country, spending US$11.1 billion on net official development assistance (ODA) in 2017 (in 2016 prices). This represents 0.43% of its gross national income (GNI), up from 0.38% in 2016. This is a 15% increase from 2016 levels. Geographically, France takes a differentiated approach to allocating its ODA. It provides grants mainly to 19 countries, almost all in sub-Saharan Africa, while relying on ODA loans in emerging economies, with a particular focus on the Sahel region.

In 2014, France spent 786 billion USD on total gender focused aid, 69 billion USD on gender focused aid to CSOs, 9% on aid to CSOs as a % of total gender focused aid, and 0.8% aid to women’s CSOs.

Pre-deployment training/operational briefings as part of UN Peacekeeping Operations (PKO) and EU ESDP missions or any SSR intervention, for civilian (especially police) and military units. Training programmes must be specifically tailored to each mission, take account of the exact nature of its mandate, and be based on operational scenarios. Training provided by the Ecoles Nationales à Vocation régionale (ENVR, national schools with regional scope), training centres providing high-quality technical and operational training for security and defence force personnel of the host country and neighbouring countries. Awareness raising relating to the role of women within the security forces will be included in the management training course. Provide forces with a political, strategic and operational context and an interpretation of their mandate with regard to the inclusion of a gender equality perspective in the operational rules of engagement and intervention. Increase the training of staff deployed by France to external operations in the fields of women’s rights, gender equality and the fight against gender violence.

France launched their second revised National Action Plan (NAP) in 2015. The updated NAP takes into account the numerous initiatives created toward the Women, Peace and Security agenda. The updated NAP contains an additional pillar, "fighting impunity" and expanded their pillar " Developing political and diplomatic action" to "Promoting the “Women, Peace and Security” agenda regionally and internationally".

The revised second NAP supersedes the country's previous commitments in this area. The French National Action Plan relies on 5 pillars:

Pillar 1: Participation of women in managing conflict and post-conflict situations;

Pillar 2: Protecting women against violence and protecting women’s rights during conflict and postconflict periods;

Pillar 3: Fighting impunity;

Pillar 4: Prevention by raising awareness of the issues linked to the fight against gender violence, women’s rights and gender rights

Pillar 5: Promoting the “Women, Peace and Security” agenda regionally and internationally Pillars 1 to 4 have been designed with ambitions in terms of Domestic policy; Bilateral activities and Cooperation programmes; Multilateral activities.

NAP Monitoring and Evaluation:

During the commitment phase of second revised NAP (2015-2018), the implementation of the NAP will be assessed through half-yearly meetings of a steering committee (composed of relevant ministries and administrations). The French National Consultative Commission on Human Rights (CNCDH) and the French High Council for Gender Equality (HCE) will attend one steering committee meeting per year. HCE and CNCDH will also contribute to mid-term and final evaluations of the NAP implementation. The final report will be presented to the relevant Parliamentary committees. It has also been decided that throughout the commitment phase of the NAP, best practices would be exchanged with other EU members.

NAP Development: Civil society was consulted during the draughting phases of the NAP, which largely came out of the May 2010 meeting of the CEDAW/CEDEF Committee in Paris with many international institutions, including the International Committee of the Red Cross, human rights organisations, and unspecified NGOs.

NAP Implementation: Civil society has an ongoing specified role in the implementation Steering Committee. This includes women’s organisations and the National Consultative Commission on Human Rights, an independent body with a pluralistic civil society membership, charged with advising government on human rights issues.

NAP Budget: The second revised NAP does not include an allocated budget but points out the many financial contributions they made during the period of the previous

NAP in Women, Peace and Security related programmes NAP Monitoring and Evaluation: Specific monitoring and evaluation parties were not mentioned in the NAP.

Military Expenditure in 2016: $55.73 Billion 

The NAP does not include an allocated or an estimated budget.

Lower: 39%; Upper: 29.3%

Ratio (0 = Inequality, 1 = Equality): 1.13 52.9%

Municipal police (2015): 16%

National police (2014): 27.3%

National gendarmerie (2014): 18%

Police in total (2016): 27%

Women in army: 15.3%,

Women in Gendarmerie: 17.5% (2016)

Today women make up around 15% of all service personnel in the combined branches of the French military. They are 11% of the Army forces, 13% for the Navy, 21% of the Air Force and 50% of the Medical Corps.

This is the highest proportion of female personnel in Europe.

Professional judges sitting in First instance Courts: Women:

Women: 3142,86 Men: 1818,68

Professional judges sitting in Second instance Courts:

Women: 908,22 Men: 786,68

Professional judges sitting in Supreme Courts:

Women: 153 Men: 223 Lawyers in France (2017): 55.4%

Unemployment rate (percentage of female/male labour force):

Female: 9.9% Male: 10.2%

Estimated earned income (PPP US$):

Female: 35,324 Male: 47,820

Legislators, senior officials, and managers (%):

Female: 32.9, Male: 67.1 Ratio (0 = Inequality, 1 = Equality): 0.49

Professional and technical workers (%):

Female: 50.5 , Male: 49.5 Ratio (0 = Inequality, 1 = Equality): 1.02

The enrolment difference between males and females is provided below (The theoretical maximum value is 100%. Increasing trends are considered a reflection of improving coverage at the specified level of education):

Literacy rate (%): Female: 99 Male: 99 Ratio (0 = Inequality, 1 = Equality): 1

Enrolment in primary education Ratio (0 = Inequality, 1 = Equality): 1

Enrolment in secondary education Ratio (0 = Inequality, 1 = Equality): 1.01

Enrolment in tertiary education Ratio (0 = Inequality, 1 = Equality): 1.23

On 25 November, President Macron gave a speech to detail his government’s equality policy, organised in three priorities: an educational and cultural push for equality, better help for victims of violence, and reinforcement of the country’s “repressive arsenal”. The plan committed €420m for 2018 to be spent towards equality and said that “funds dedicated to fighting violence against women have already been increased by 13 per cent”.

However, skeptics have argued that only 15 per cent of this figure – around €65m – will really go towards preventing domestic abuse. Additionally, some pointed out that the €420m figure was already included in the 2018 budget before the #metoo (#balancetonporc in French) wave, such that there is actually no specific funding towards preventing domestic abuse.

For a considerable number of identified victims who are non-EU nationals (mainly from Albania, Brazil, China, Nigeria, and Vietnam), traffickers usually provide victims counterfeit documents in order to conceal their real identity and to enable entry to the EU, either with fraudulently obtained visas or as asylum seekers. In some cases, victims are placed in refugee shelters following their asylum application, from where they suddenly disappear and are transferred to other member states by their traffickers. In Western Europe, the member states most targeted as destinations for victims of sexual exploitation are Austria, Belgium, France, Germany, Greece, Italy, the Netherlands, Spain and the United Kingdom. Another difficulty is determining the women's real ages. If they are under 18, they are allowed special legal protection and the penalties for the networks that exploit them are higher. Women are told by their traffickers to say they are over 18, the age of adulthood under French law.

The Government of France fully meets the minimum standards for the elimination of trafficking. The government continued to demonstrate serious and sustained efforts during the reporting period. The government demonstrated serious and sustained efforts by increasing international assistance and capacity building to prevent trafficking and adopting a new law requiring large companies to create plans to prevent labor exploitation by sub-contractors. Two bodies investigated trafficking crimes: the Ministry of Interior’s Central Office for Combating Human Trafficking (OCRTEH), consisting of approximately 25 investigators, was responsible for cases of sexual exploitation and the Central Office for Combatting Illegal Labor (OCLTI), consisting of 40 investigators, was responsible for labor exploitation. OCRTEH continued training programs for police, civil servants, NGOs, and the hospitality sector. The government adopted a national anti-trafficking action plan for 2014-2016, which outlines prosecution, protection, and prevention activities and a fund to protect and assist trafficking victims.

N/A. 

Veterans services and benefits are the same for male and female military personnel. However, issues remain in unequal access and utilisation of services for males and females.

The National Federation of Solidarity for Women’s (FNSF) is a network of organizations that provide guidance and shelter for women victims of abuse with an anonymous and free-of-charge hotline.

In France there is one national women’s helpline, it is free of charge and offers multi-lingual support, however, it does not operate 24/7. Due to the decentralized nature of the services of women’s centres and shelters there is no data available on them. Based on the information available, France does not meet the standards of the IC on the provision of a national women’s helpline and it is unclear when it comes to meeting standards of provision for women’s shelters.

The government’s national action plan to counter trafficking expired in May 2017; however, its 2017-2019 national action plan for mobilization against all violence against women included measures to counter trafficking, most notably the creation of multidisciplinary regional commissions to counter prostitution, pandering, and trafficking. Eleven departments had developed commissions by the end of the reporting period. The government has a formal procedure for identifying victims and an NGOrun referral mechanism. The Ministry of Social Affairs, the Ministry of Health, and the City of Paris provided funding for the Ac-Se system, an NGO-managed network of 50 NGO-run shelters assisting adult victims of sex and labor trafficking. Ac-Se assisted 82 trafficking victims in 2016, compared with 92 in 2015, by providing them with shelter, legal, medical, and psychological services. Seventy-nine were victims of sex trafficking, two of labor trafficking, and one was forced to commit a petty crime. Seventy-three percent of those victims were Nigerian. The government repatriated eight victims to 173 multiple countries. The government increased Ac-Se’s budget from €170,000 to €220,000 ($179,140 to $231,820) for 2017. Local governments provided French language classes to victims, and some victims could qualify for subsidized housing and job training programs

In 2017, only 27% of applications were approved out of a 100,412 total. In the aftermath of the eviction of the informal settlement near Calais, known as “The Jungle”, in November 2016, authorities put in place punitive measures against the hundreds of migrants and refugees who had subsequently returned to Calais. They enhanced police stop-and-search operations, which raised concerns over ethnic profiling. In March, municipal authorities prohibited humanitarian organizations from distributing meals to migrants and asylum-seekers in the town. After the displacement of the Calais camp and destruction of 344 slums, people have been directed to Reception and Orientation Centres (CAO). As of January 2018, hundreds of migrants were still living in makeshit camps in Calais area. NGOs denounce the deterioration of the living conditions in the camp after the arrival of Emmanuel Macron in power in 2017. In July 2017, the Council of State ruled that state deficiencies in Calais exposed migrants to degrading treatment and enjoined the State to set up several arrangements for access to drinking water and sanitary facilities. Reception capacity is still insufficient, despite the creation of 25,000 additional accommodation places in 2017, bringing the total number to more than 80,000. Many asylum seekers still live on the streets, especially in Paris. New forms of accommodation have been developed, such as the reception and accommodation programme for asylum seekers (PRAHDA).