DNA tests approved by French Constitutional council

(Dieser Artikel ist auch in deutscher Sprache verfügbar)

In a decision published on 15 November 2007, the French Constitutional
council approved the introduction of DNA testing in the new immigration law
to prove family links for foreign candidates applying for a more than 3
months visa on family regrouping grounds. However, it has further restricted
their use, making two explicit reservations.

The first reservation makes this provision irrelevant when family links with
the mother can be proven by any other legal mean under the law of the
mother’s country. The second reservation forbids any systematic application
of DNA testing, since the Council reminds that all other means to prove
family links should be used first by French consulates.

With these and previous restrictions made by the French Senate,
this provision will indeed be hardly applicable in practice. However,
this decision from the Constitutional council is a breach of the
French laws on bioethics of 1994 and 2004, which explicitly stipulate
that the identification by genetic prints can be done only for
medical or scientific research purposes. And, for the first time,
this breach is made for administrative purposes.

French Constitutional council Decision 2007-557 DC (in French only,
15.11.2007)
http://www.conseil-constitutionnel.fr/decision/2007/2007557/index.htm

EDRI-gram: Update On Dna And Biometrics In French Immigration Law (24.10.07)
http://www.edri.org/edrigram/number4.20/dna-french-immigration-law

EDRI-gram: DNA Tests Proposed In France For Family Visa Applicants
(26.09.2007)
http://www.edri.org/edrigram/number5.18/dna-test-france-visa

(Contribution by Meryem Marzouki, EDRI member IRIS – France)