The objective of Law No. 30709 is to prohibit pay discrimination between men and women who have the same type of job. The law requires companies to keep charts detailing job categories, operations, and applicable payment. It recognizes that an employer must guarantee dignified work and a nondiscriminatory work environment. It also specifies that employers must guarantee protection against sexual harassment.
Law 28983 aims to provide a general framework for enacting national policies and legislation that protects women’s right to equality and dignity, and prohibits discrimination in all spheres of life. The law provides that the executive branch shall adopt policies, plans and programs directed at preventing and eliminating violence against women. (Article 6c).
In the case of Bouton v. France, the applicant, a feminist activist who was a member of Femen, was convicted and given a one-month suspended prison sentence (i.e. with probation) for staging a topless protest in a church in December 2013, exposing her breasts with slogans daubed over them, as part of an international action against the Catholic Church’s position on abortion. She was also ordered to pay the parish representative 2,000 euros (EUR) in respect of non-pecuniary damages and to pay EUR 1,500 towards the other party’s costs.
In the ECHR Case Drelon v. France, European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) has ruled on the case of a blood donor in France who refused to answer questions about his sex life, resulting in his exclusion from donation on the grounds of a factor of ineligibility associated with homosexuality. The ECHR ruled that the collection and storage of personal data by the Établissement Français du Sang, based on speculation and lacking any proven factual basis, was a violation of the right to privacy under Article 8 of the European Convention on Human Rights.
ECHR, Case of A.P., Garçon and Nicot v. France, Strasbourg 6 April 2017, (Applications N° 79885/12, 52471/13 et 52596/13) (On French authorities' refusal to allow three transgender individuals to change the gender marker on their birth certificate without having undergone sterilization surgery).
In March 2021, a young transgender woman submitted a request for reimbursement for her bilateral mastoplasty, prescribed by her GP as part of her gender affirmation, which began in 2016. Although this procedure is listed in the French social security grid and should be reimbursed by the health insurance scheme, the medical officer of the Roubaix-Tourcoing primary health insurance fund issued an unfavorable opinion on 29 March 2021.
With the ruling for 19-22.793, the French Supreme Court reiterates that the family court has sovereign discretion to decide whether the conditions for issuing a protection order have been met. This decision reiterates that the characterisation of endangerment is decisive for justifying the issuance of a protection order. It should be noted that the law aimed at combating violence within the family has made the conditions for applying a protection order more flexible.
French Supreme Court (Cour de cassation), Civil Division 1, 18 March 2020, 18-15.368, published in the bulletin - Transcript of a birth certificate mentioning the mother and her wife.
In a ruling handed down on 28 September 2022, the French Council of State upheld the lawfulness of the circular entitled " Improving consideration of gender identity issues in schools ", which had been issued by the Minister for National Education to all national education staff with a view to improving consideration of transgender pupils' situation in schools, facilitating their support and protecting them.
In Appeal No. 18-17.042, the French Supreme Court confirms that Law no. 2015-994 of 17 August 2015 relating to social dialogue and employment, known as the Rebsamen Law, legally requires trade union organizations to comply with the principle of balanced representation of women and men when drawing up candidate lists for professional elections. This obligation does not constitute a disproportionate infringement of trade union freedom.
