In a decision made public on 22 January, the UN Committee against Torture ruled that France had violated the Convention against Torture by refusing to repatriate women and children held in camps in Syria.

Recalling that France has an "obligation" to protect these children and women, the Committee considered that even if the French State "is not at the origin of the violations suffered" by the women and children in the camps, "it remains under an obligation" to protect them "against serious human rights violations by taking all necessary and possible measures".

Reacting to this announcement, Marie Dosé, a lawyer for the families of women and children held in camps in north-eastern Syria, said that "the United Nations Committee against Torture confirms that our country has chosen to abandon children and their mothers in a war zone, fully aware of the suffering they are enduring and the violence to which they are exposed".

It is worth noting that France has already been condemned in 2022 by the Committee on the Rights of the Child and then by the European Court of Human Rights for its lack of action in the return of women and minors.