countries - France

The information contained on this page was compiled in April 2009 by our country team.

Contact:
Jean-François Ravaud
Campus 7, rue Guy Moquet
94801 Villejuif
INSERM (Institut National de la Santé et de la Recherche Médicale)
Cermes (Centre de Recherche Médecine, Sciences, Santé et Société)
Email: ravaud@vjf.cnrs.fr

Catherine Barral
CTNERHI (Centre technique national d'études et de recherche que les handicaps et les inadaptations)
236 bis, rue de Tolbiac
75013 Paris
Email : c.barral@ctnerhi.com.fr

The full text can be downloaded here.

The key national bodies with responsibility for disability law and policy implementation include:

Ministère du Travail, des Relations sociales, de la Famille, de la Solidarité et de la Ville. (Ministry of labour, social relations, family, solidarity and city)

France has signed the United Nations Convention but not the Optional Protocol.

Important national laws, policies and strategies concerning disabled people include:

Loi n°2005-102 « pour l'égalité des droits et des chances, la participation et la citoyenneté des personnes handicapées » du 11 février 2005. (Law for equal rights and opportunities, participation and citizenship of disabled persons / Feb.11, 2005)

Key features of the national system include (including adapted items from the MISSOC database December 2008):

Disability benefits

A range of welfare payments are funded through contributions from taxes and from employees and employers.

Data on population indicate that:

In 1999, (Enquête HID, INSEE, 1998-2000 / National disability survey), 39% of the general population (22.47 million people) of all ages, in households, declared having a difficulty in their daily life due to an impairment whether physical (53.8% including motor, sensory and visceral), learning difficulties or a mental health condition (7.7%), both physical and learning disability (10.2%) or indefinite (28.2%); 46.2% male and 53.8% female.

The main French academic network is IFRH: Institut Fédératif de Recherche sur le Handicap (Federative Research Institute on Disability). A multidisciplinary network of 26 research teams divided into 3 axes: Public Health and Social Sciences; Clinical Research and Rehabilitation sciences; Sensory-motor functions, Technology and Compensation Systems.

The national organisation representing disabled people at the European level (European Disability Forum) is:

CFHE: Conseil français des personnes handicapées pour les questions européennes (French Council of disabled persons for European matters).

Other significant national organisations of disabled people include:

Useful sources of more detailed information about the situation of disabled people, and the policies and support available, include:

Handicap en chiffres, C.Brouard et al., Paris, CTNERHI, Fév. 2004.

Code du handicap 2009 (Logement, emploi, santé, éducation, compensation, accessibilité, ressources), eds. Schweitzer L. & de Broca A., Paris, Dalloz, 2008.

Guide Néret. Droits des personnes handicapées, CTNERHI, Groupe Liaison SA, 2007.

ROUSSEL  P., Les restrictions de participation à la vie sociale des adultes de 20 à 59 ans : une exploitation de l'enquête HID  (Social life participation restrictions of adults aged 20 to 59: data analysis of INSEE Disability - Impairment - Dependency survey 1999), Paris, CTNERHI, 2004