French national identity card

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The French national identity card (Carte nationale d’identité sécurisée or CNIS) is an official non-compulsory identity document consisting of a laminated plastic card bearing a photograph, name and address.

Identity cards, valid for a period of 10 years, are issued by the local préfecture, sous-préfecture or mairie and are free of charge. A fingerprint of the holder is taken, which is stored in paper files and which can only be accessed by a judge in closely defined circumstances. A central database duplicates the information on the card, but strict laws limit access to the information and prevent it being linked to other databases or records.

The cards may be used to verify identity and nationality and may also be used for travel within the European Union and certain other countries instead of a passport. The cards are widely used for other purposes - for example when opening a bank account, or when making a payment by cheque.

1 History
2 The future
- 2.1 Official consultation
- 2.2 Legislative progress
3 See also
4 External links
- 4.1 In English
- 4.2 In French

[edit] History

Following defeat in the Battle of France, national identity cards were first issued as the carte d'identité de Français the under the law of October 27, 1940, and were compulsory for everyone over the age of 16. A central record was also instituted. From 1942 French Jews had the word "Jew" added to their card in red, which helped the Vichy authorities identify 76,000 for deportation as part of the Holocaust.

Under the decree of October 27 1955 a revised non-compulsory card, the carte nationale d'identité (CNI) was introduced, and the central records abandoned. With the introduction of lamination in 1988 it was renamed the carte nationale d’identité sécurisée (CNIS) (secure national identity card). In 1995 the cards were made machine-readable. It became free in 1998.

[edit] The future

Following a study launched by French Minister of the Interior Daniel Vaillant in 2001, plans have been proposed to introduce a new identity card, the INES (carte d'identité nationale électronique sécurisée) or 'secure electronic national identity card', to be implemented from around 2007. Similar to a credit card, it is likely that this will contain biometric fingerprint and photograph data on a chip (also recorded on a central database). The scheme has many similarities to the British national identity card and National Identity Register created by the Identity Card Act of 30 March 2006.

The official agency in charge of data use monitoring, the 'national commission for computing and liberties' (Commission nationale de l'informatique et des libertés or CNIL) has no official position since the project hasn't been officially submitted yet. CNIL was itself created (in 1978) to guard against the infringement of liberty that might result from the use of information technology, as a result of the public outcry over other plans in the 1970s to issue a 'national identity number' to each citizen, linked to the records of all Government agencies (which would have been similar to the existing numbers in many other European countries: Finland, Sweden, Belgium, Italy, Spain, Estonia, etc.).

[edit] Official consultation

The largely Government-funded Internet Rights Forum (Forum des droits sur l’Internet) or FDI, was asked by Interior Minister Dominique de Villepin to conduct a public debate on the Internet and throughout the French Regions. The FDI focused on the critics.

The FDI reported to Villepin's successor, Nicolas Sarkozy, on June 16, 2005, stating that 74% were in favour of the cards, 75% in favour of a fingerprint database, and 63% in favour of compulsion, which show that the critics emanate mainly from an active minority. They did, however, make a number of recommendations to change aspects of the proposals.

In response to the Government's debate, a group of active, yet non representative, French bodies initiated a report and petition against the plans. Founded by the Human Rights League (Ligue des droits de l'Homme), Magistrates' Union (Syndicat de la Magistrature), French Lawyers' Union (Syndicat des Avocats de France), the 'Imagine a United Internet Association' (association Imaginons un Réseau Internet Solidaire), the Group for Rights and Liberties in the face of the Computerisation of Society (intercollectif Droits Et Libertés face à l’Informatisation de la Société) and the French Democratic Lawyers Association (Association française des juristes démocrates), the group submitted an alternative report and petition. This states that:

The claims that the scheme would reduce fraud were unsubstantiated;
The argument that the cards would help the fight against terrorism was not appropriate;
There were important risks concerning the protection of a person's private life and their data, especially due to the existence and of the proposed central database and its possible uses.
The introduction of the INES scheme, even if it incorporated the revisions suggested by the FDI, would shatter the social pact between the citizen and the state, and that the proposals should be abandoned.

Over 1000 organisations and individuals backed the report's conclusions. By then end of January 2006 this had risen to over 68 groups and organisations, and over 6,000 individuals (to be compared with the million French people demonstrating in the streets when they oppose a project, like the 2006 CPE law).

The Senate named a commission. Its 2005 report pointed the need to fight the existing fraud by a new identity card system which should also protect freedom and privacy.

[edit] Legislative progress

Although draft legislation was published in 2005, as at the of 2005 the Government had not set a date for discussion of the proposals in Parliament. As a result, it is unclear if the scheme will go ahead or when it would commence.

A new project, taking into account the criticism and suggestions made in 2005, is under study.