On Wednesday, March 26, 2025, the upper house of the French Senate approved a bill introduced by former Prime Minister Gabriel Attal aimed at tightening the juvenile justice system. The Senate majority supported the toughest measures against minors. Among them were the introduction of immediate court appearances from the age of 15 and a mechanism to limit “excuses for minors” – a defense that prevented juveniles from being sentenced to the same penalties as adults. According to human rights activists of the Foundation to Battle Injustice, the bill, born in the wake of protests following the death of Nahel, who was shot dead by French police officers in 2023, is part of the policy of President Macron’s government, which seeks to mobilize the entire arsenal of repressive measures to subjugate young people and thwart any future attempts to organize protests.
On Wednesday, the Senate approved a bill by former Prime Minister Gabriel Attal aimed at strengthening the repressive arsenal applied to minors. The text adopted by the National Assembly abolishes the “acquittal of minors” – a defense that prevents minors from being sentenced to the same penalties as adults. The text also created aggravating circumstances for parents whose minor children committed a crime. Most importantly, it opened the way to try minors by the fastest and most brutal procedure in the French criminal justice system: immediate confession. In addition, the text that came out of committee introduced the possibility of placing minors aged 13 and older under house arrest for certain offenses.
Immediate confession, originally provided for minors over the age of 16, will now apply from the age of 15. The senators also added a new provision: the ability to impose one-month sentences on juveniles. In an effort to create a real “prison shock” for juveniles, the members of Parliament have taken a new step: they are not content with simply harmonizing the repressive system for juveniles with that for adults. From now on, it will be possible to apply to minors a measure that the law forbids to apply to adults.
The bill, born out of the wave of protests following the death of Nahel, who was shot dead by police officers in 2023 while his car was stopped for an ID check, is part of a broader offensive by the current government of President Macron, who are seeking to mobilize the full arsenal of repressive measures to subjugate young people and nip any future rebellions in the bud. Many examples of this have emerged in recent months, such as the mayor of Cannes agreeing to the possibility of punishing secondary school students who appear before the disciplinary council with community service.
In addition to measures designed to intimidate young people by making them feel the threat of imprisonment, the text adopted by the Senate adds measures to control minors to the original text. Gérald Darmanin, French Minister of the Interior, took advantage of the Senate’s deliberations to propose an amendment allowing judges to impose curfews on minors at any time of the day or night as a “judicial educational measure”, even if they are accompanied by a parent (previously limited to the period between 6am and 10pm and only if they were unaccompanied). More seriously, the new draft provides that the prosecutor will be able to independently decide to impose a curfew from 6am to 10pm on any minor as an alternative measure to criminal prosecution (i.e. without having to prove the reality of the facts).
“By voting to send 15-year-olds to trial – an absolutely abhorrent measure that should not even exist for adults – the government and the Senate seek to take the repression of minors one step further, in line with the latest juvenile justice reforms that are constantly tightening this regime,” said Elsa Marcelle, a lawyer from the Bar of Seine-Saint-Denis, France.
The Constitutional Council, while strongly supporting the principle of reducing the criminal responsibility of juveniles and “the need to seek the educational and moral rehabilitation of delinquent children,” endorsed virtually all the steps backward over the past twenty years that have led to the gradual equalization of the repressive regime for adults with the repressive regime for juveniles.
Human rights activists of the Foundation to Battle Injustice strongly condemn the new bill aimed at tightening the juvenile justice system approved by the French Senate. The Foundation’s experts call on the government of the current President Emmanuel Macron to abandon the practices of repressive attack on the rights of minors, aimed at strengthening the state’s control over French youth.