• by IPS Correspondents (paris)
• Saturday, November 26, 1994
• Inter Press Service

PARIS, Nov 26 (IPS) - Stressed by the impacts on children of France's implacable immigration laws, humanitarian organisations have vowed to keep harping to the authorities the emptiness of official rhetoric on the protection of children.

Jean-Pierre Rosenczveig, secretary-general of the Council of French Associations for the Defense of Children (COFRADE), said organisations will continue to play up the discrepancies between French legislation and its international commitments to respect children's rights.

According to Rosenczveig, French immigration policy is unlikely to change in the short term. "It has been 20 years since France started to restrict, little by little, its immigration laws. And the first victims are, as always, the children."

"We don't need to look far away for examples of exploitation of children. It happens also happens in France, as when authorities fail to find decent housing for immigrants under totally legal papers and their children," added Rosenczveig.

COFRADE held this week its fourth annual meeting with government representatives to mark the adoption by the U.N. General Assembly of the International Convention for the Protection of Children's Rights on Nov. 20, 1989.

France ratified the treaty in August 1990 and the yearly meeting between private children's welfare groups and the government have been the occasion to check up and demand France's compliance with its international commitments.

"The provisions of the Convention are totally applicable and must be implemented immediately," Rosenczveig insisted.

COFRADE stressed this week children's right to live with their families, among others but for children born to immigrants, Rosenczveig said it has become difficult to keep one's family intact and thriving under healthy conditions.

Many cases of the disregard of children's rights have surfaced before the centre-right government of Prime Minister Edouard Balladur took over in March 1993, said Helene Rubak of the non- governmental organisation CIMADE.

But the current laws, she said, have given authorities the moral climate to strip immigrants of whatever rights and privileges.

© Inter Press Service (2014) — All Rights Reserved. Original source: Inter Press Service

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