Goal 16 is about promoting peaceful and inclusive societies, providing access to justice for all and building effective, accountable and inclusive institutions at all levels. People everywhere should be free of fear from all forms of violence and feel safe as they go about their lives whatever their ethnicity, faith or sexual orientation.
SDG16 - Promote just, peaceful and inclusive societies
Where does France stand ?
Domestic challenges
Democratic societies have undergone significant change over the last few decades as a result of the growing importance of economic powers and the massive use of digital tools, which is altering the position of citizens in information and decision-making systems. The simultaneous change in the role of the State may have weakened people’s confidence in institutions, as shown by the rise in abstention rates in elections, the Bonnets Rouges protests, and the emergence of the Yellow Vests movement, etc.
In a difficult economic climate, the feeling of insecurity has also been exacerbated. The latest figures for crime and delinquency in France in 2022 were up compared to 2021: murders ( 8%); intentional assault and battery of people aged 15 or over ( 15%); the number of victims of domestic violence rose by 17% etc. Demands on legal institutions are growing, putting them under significant strain.
The challenges are therefore to strengthen public support, in particular trust in institutions, to facilitate access to justice and to combat insecurity and crime.
The growing terrorist threat in France also calls for enhanced measures to protect citizens. The armed forces’ mission is to prepare and ensure the defence of French territory, the population and the nation’s higher interests.
908,161 people received legal aid or assistance with legal representation in France in 2022 (Les chiffres clés de la justice, 2023).
France’s actions
Legislative and regulatory measures are designed to guarantee citizens’ rights of access to justice. The Priority Question of Constitutionality (QPC) allows any litigant to ask the Constitutional Council to check whether a legislative provision infringes the rights and freedoms guaranteed by the French Constitution.
However, the effective application of rights requires concrete resources to go beyond apparent rights.
The involvement of armed forces in certain crises or conflicts is intended to help stabilise the situation and reduce all forms of violence, in compliance with international law. The advisory role that French military personnel can play with the military authorities of countries in crisis helps to promote the rule of law. Finally, under certain conditions, the French armed forces may be involved in the fight against militarised terrorism and participate directly or indirectly in the fight against illegal trafficking and organised crime (arms, drugs, trafficking of human beings).
The armed forces actively contribute to the “trust in institutions” indicator of this SDG. In this way, they contribute to the civic education of citizens by making them aware of the challenges of defence and the roles of regal institutions, of which the armed forces are a part. The defence education programme develops the spirit of defence and is aimed at 6.5 million pupils from Year 10 to Year 13, providing teachers with educational resources.
In France, a Rights Defender has been set up, an independent institution whose mission is to defend people whose rights are not respected and to ensure equal access to rights for all.
Access to justice and the law is also based on the generalisation of one-stop reception services for litigants, a national legal aid scheme (covering legal costs), and a network of legal access centres or offices. These general legal access points are complemented by support for the creation of specialised legal access points (for young people, senior citizens, women who are victims of violence, migrants, residents of disadvantaged urban neighbourhoods etc.), therefore contributing to the targets of various SDGs.
By encouraging alternative dispute resolution methods (conciliation, mediation etc.) and creating group actions (in the environmental field, among others), the law of 18 November 2016 on the Modernisation of Justice for the 21st Century has also facilitated access to justice and the law. The law of 9 December 2016 on Transparency, the Fight Against Corruption and the Modernisation of Economic Life, made it possible in particular to strengthen the protection of “whistleblowers”, by creating a legal status.
Gender equality is not only a fundamental right, but also a real accelerator of sustainable development. French institutions are combating violence against women and children, and the Juvenile Criminal Justice Code was adopted in February 2021. In particular, it introduces a two-stage criminal procedure that speeds up and makes it easier to take criminal and educational action in respect of minors.
Finally, with a view to making institutions increasingly efficient and providing better access to the law and justice, all civil, criminal and administrative procedures in France are now paperless.
In the fight against terrorism, the Ministry of the Interior, the Ministry of the Armed Forces, and the emergency services among others, have had to create prevention, warning and intervention systems, in a coordinated manner. On French territory and in response to a persistent terrorist threat, the law of 30 October 2017 Strengthening Internal Security and the Fight Against Terrorism put an end to the state of emergency, which had previously been introduced. It aims to incorporate measures existing under this exceptional regime into ordinary law. As part of the drive to modernise the justice system, the launch of the "Ma sécurité" (My security) app in 2022 makes it possible to report a situation that appears to threaten a loved one in connection with violent radicalisation.
Internationally
At the instigation of the United Nations, France has adopted a number of legislative provisions to step up the fight against corruption and organised crime, including the creation of specialised inter-regional courts in 2004, the Agency for the Management and Recovery of Seized and Confiscated Assets in 2010, and the National Financial Prosecutor’s Office in 2013.
The State has also worked to improve the coordination of actions and strengthen international cooperation, for example in the fight against terrorism and migrant trafficking, or in the fight against corruption and organised crime.
The Central Office for Coordinating Environmental and Public Health Crime (OCLAESP) has worked to ensure that the fight against environmental crime is one of the European Union’s security priorities.
In terms of reducing illegal cash flows, the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) gave a very positive assessment of the French system in relation to combating money laundering and terrorist financing. The conviction rate in terrorist financing prosecutions is 93%.*
France also contributes its expertise to a number of international cooperation fora in the field of arms and explosives trafficking, for example through the work of the Central Office for Combating Organised Crime. This is particularly the case in the Western Balkans, which are a source of the black market in arms in Europe. France provides training for internal security services (Serbia), strengthens criminal intelligence (Bosnia and Herzegovina) and has created a coordinator position for actions to combat arms trafficking.
Finally, in order to increase the transparency in its public action, the Open Government Partnership (OGP) movement, a partnership involving 78 countries including France, is mobilising dozens of public institutions, administrations and regional authorities. A number of initiatives have been launched to promote transparency, openness, efficiency and responsibility. The Third National Action Plan (2021-2023) has confirmed France’s commitment to citizen participation and transparency in public action.
As part of the State’s action at sea, the coastguard function organises the coordination and pooling of resources of all the administrations working at sea and on the coast. These missions take the form of surveillance, control and intervention activities, based on the complementary skills of the agents of these administrations and on land, nautical and air resources and information systems. The state departments in question, and the French Navy in particular, maintain an ongoing dialogue designed to facilitate the exchange of information and the development of thematic inter-regional networks. They do so with a view to ensuring that uses of the sea can be reconciled at all times and to preserving public order, to prohibiting as far as possible illegal trafficking by sea - intervention on the high seas on primary flows (pure narcotics in large quantities) multiplies the effects and increases the damage caused to criminal organisations -, to ensuring more qualitative control of fisheries and to ensuring effective protection of biodiversity. The resources allocated to environmental policing have been strengthened, with the integration of the French Navy’s semaphores into the coastal surveillance system. Finally, the fight against illegal fishing is being stepped up in EU waters, overseas and in the Gulf of Guinea, in cooperation with neighbouring states.