Human Rights League (France)
Encyclopedia
The Human Rights League (in French
Ligue des droits de l'homme [et du citoyen] or LDH) of France
, is a Human Rights
NGO founded on 4 June 1898 by the republican
Ludovic Trarieux
to defend captain Alfred Dreyfus
, a Jew wrongly convicted for treason
- this would be known as the Dreyfus Affair
. The LDH is a member of the International Federation of Human Rights Leagues (FIDH).
members in it and its support of the Moscow Trials
to the point of expelling its leader who opposed them.
Dissolved by the anticommunist regime of Vichy
during World War II
, it was clandestinely reconstituted in 1943 by a central committee including Pierre Cot
, René Cassin
and Félix Gouin
. The LDH was refounded after the Liberation. Paul Langevin
, who had recently joined the French Communist Party
(PCF), became its president. Opposed to the Algerian War and the massive use of torture by the French Army, the LDH called for demonstrations against the 1961 Alger putsch.
on the "positive role of colonisation
", which has been accused of being part of a revisionist
discourse. President Jacques Chirac
finally had the law, which had been voted by his UMP
majority, repealed start of 2006. The LDH also took position in favor of the recognition of foreigners' right to vote in local elections end of December 2005. Besides, it took part in prison
ners' movement organized since 1970 by the GIP (Groupe d'information sur les prisons, Group of Information on Prisons), founded by Michel Foucault
and Daniel Deferre. The LDH also supports Italian former activist Cesare Battisti
and American Ira Einhorn
. The LDH has also opposed itself to Nicolas Sarkozy
's policies, which it deems "repressive". In its 2003 report, it declared that "since the Algerian War we had never seen such a strong rollback of human rights in France".
The LDH has filed a complaint end of 2005 concerning a CIA flight
which landed in Le Bourget airport
in the frame of the so-called "war on terror
" (see March 2006 in Europe
).
End of 2004, the LDH counted 7,487 members, organized into 309 local sections and 57 federation
s. In 1932, it could boast 170,000 members.
French language
French is a Romance language spoken as a first language in France, the Romandy region in Switzerland, Wallonia and Brussels in Belgium, Monaco, the regions of Quebec and Acadia in Canada, and by various communities elsewhere. Second-language speakers of French are distributed throughout many parts...
Ligue des droits de l'homme [et du citoyen] or LDH) of France
France
The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...
, is a Human Rights
Human rights
Human rights are "commonly understood as inalienable fundamental rights to which a person is inherently entitled simply because she or he is a human being." Human rights are thus conceived as universal and egalitarian . These rights may exist as natural rights or as legal rights, in both national...
NGO founded on 4 June 1898 by the republican
Republicanism
Republicanism is the ideology of governing a nation as a republic, where the head of state is appointed by means other than heredity, often elections. The exact meaning of republicanism varies depending on the cultural and historical context...
Ludovic Trarieux
Ludovic Trarieux
Ludovic Trarieux was a French Republican statesman, prominent Dreyfusard, and pioneer of international human rights.-Early life:...
to defend captain Alfred Dreyfus
Alfred Dreyfus
Alfred Dreyfus was a French artillery officer of Jewish background whose trial and conviction in 1894 on charges of treason became one of the most tense political dramas in modern French and European history...
, a Jew wrongly convicted for treason
Treason
In law, treason is the crime that covers some of the more extreme acts against one's sovereign or nation. Historically, treason also covered the murder of specific social superiors, such as the murder of a husband by his wife. Treason against the king was known as high treason and treason against a...
- this would be known as the Dreyfus Affair
Dreyfus Affair
The Dreyfus affair was a political scandal that divided France in the 1890s and the early 1900s. It involved the conviction for treason in November 1894 of Captain Alfred Dreyfus, a young French artillery officer of Alsatian Jewish descent...
. The LDH is a member of the International Federation of Human Rights Leagues (FIDH).
History
There is evidence that it was a communist front group because of the number of French Communist PartyFrench Communist Party
The French Communist Party is a political party in France which advocates the principles of communism.Although its electoral support has declined in recent decades, the PCF retains a large membership, behind only that of the Union for a Popular Movement , and considerable influence in French...
members in it and its support of the Moscow Trials
Moscow Trials
The Moscow Trials were a series of show trials conducted in the Soviet Union and orchestrated by Joseph Stalin during the Great Purge of the 1930s. The victims included most of the surviving Old Bolsheviks, as well as the leadership of the Soviet secret police...
to the point of expelling its leader who opposed them.
Dissolved by the anticommunist regime of Vichy
Vichy France
Vichy France, Vichy Regime, or Vichy Government, are common terms used to describe the government of France that collaborated with the Axis powers from July 1940 to August 1944. This government succeeded the Third Republic and preceded the Provisional Government of the French Republic...
during World War II
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
, it was clandestinely reconstituted in 1943 by a central committee including Pierre Cot
Pierre Cot
.Pierre Cot , French politician, was a leading figure in the Popular Front government of the 1930s...
, René Cassin
René Cassin
René Samuel Cassin was a French jurist, law professor and judge. A soldier in World War I, he later went on to form the Union Fédérale, a leftist, pacifist Veterans organisation...
and Félix Gouin
Félix Gouin
Félix Gouin was a French Socialist politician, member of the French Section of the Workers' International .-Personal life:Félix Gouin was born in Peypin, Bouches-du-Rhône, the son of school teachers...
. The LDH was refounded after the Liberation. Paul Langevin
Paul Langevin
Paul Langevin was a prominent French physicist who developed Langevin dynamics and the Langevin equation. He was one of the founders of the Comité de vigilance des intellectuels antifascistes, an antifascist organization created in the wake of the 6 February 1934 far right riots...
, who had recently joined the French Communist Party
French Communist Party
The French Communist Party is a political party in France which advocates the principles of communism.Although its electoral support has declined in recent decades, the PCF retains a large membership, behind only that of the Union for a Popular Movement , and considerable influence in French...
(PCF), became its president. Opposed to the Algerian War and the massive use of torture by the French Army, the LDH called for demonstrations against the 1961 Alger putsch.
Today
The LDH has opposed itself to the 23 February 2005 lawFrench law on colonialism
The February 23, 2005, French law on colonialism was an act passed by the Union for a Popular Movement conservative majority, which imposed on high-school teachers to teach the "positive values" of colonialism to their students...
on the "positive role of colonisation
Colonisation
Colonization occurs whenever any one or more species populate an area. The term, which is derived from the Latin colere, "to inhabit, cultivate, frequent, practice, tend, guard, respect", originally related to humans. However, 19th century biogeographers dominated the term to describe the...
", which has been accused of being part of a revisionist
Historical revisionism (negationism)
Historical revisionism is either the legitimate scholastic re-examination of existing knowledge about a historical event, or the illegitimate distortion of the historical record such that certain events appear in a more or less favourable light. For the former, i.e. the academic pursuit, see...
discourse. President Jacques Chirac
Jacques Chirac
Jacques René Chirac is a French politician who served as President of France from 1995 to 2007. He previously served as Prime Minister of France from 1974 to 1976 and from 1986 to 1988 , and as Mayor of Paris from 1977 to 1995.After completing his studies of the DEA's degree at the...
finally had the law, which had been voted by his UMP
Union for a Popular Movement
The Union for a Popular Movement is a centre-right political party in France, and one of the two major contemporary political parties in the country along with the center-left Socialist Party...
majority, repealed start of 2006. The LDH also took position in favor of the recognition of foreigners' right to vote in local elections end of December 2005. Besides, it took part in prison
Prison
A prison is a place in which people are physically confined and, usually, deprived of a range of personal freedoms. Imprisonment or incarceration is a legal penalty that may be imposed by the state for the commission of a crime...
ners' movement organized since 1970 by the GIP (Groupe d'information sur les prisons, Group of Information on Prisons), founded by Michel Foucault
Michel Foucault
Michel Foucault , born Paul-Michel Foucault , was a French philosopher, social theorist and historian of ideas...
and Daniel Deferre. The LDH also supports Italian former activist Cesare Battisti
Cesare Battisti (activist)
Cesare Battisti is a former member of the Armed Proletarians for Communism, a far-left militant group which committed acts of terrorism in Italy during the period known as "anni di piombo"...
and American Ira Einhorn
Ira Einhorn
Ira Samuel Einhorn, known as "the Unicorn Killer" , is a convicted murderer who savagely beat his ex-girlfriend, Holly Maddux, to death and then stored her body in a locker in his apartment for more than a year before it was discovered by the police...
. The LDH has also opposed itself to Nicolas Sarkozy
Nicolas Sarkozy
Nicolas Sarkozy is the 23rd and current President of the French Republic and ex officio Co-Prince of Andorra. He assumed the office on 16 May 2007 after defeating the Socialist Party candidate Ségolène Royal 10 days earlier....
's policies, which it deems "repressive". In its 2003 report, it declared that "since the Algerian War we had never seen such a strong rollback of human rights in France".
The LDH has filed a complaint end of 2005 concerning a CIA flight
Extraordinary rendition
Extraordinary rendition is the abduction and illegal transfer of a person from one nation to another. "Torture by proxy" is used by some critics to describe situations in which the United States and the United Kingdom have transferred suspected terrorists to other countries in order to torture the...
which landed in Le Bourget airport
Le Bourget Airport
Paris – Le Bourget Airport is an airport located in Le Bourget, Bonneuil-en-France, and Dugny, north-northeast of Paris, France. It is now used only for general aviation as well as air shows...
in the frame of the so-called "war on terror
War on Terror
The War on Terror is a term commonly applied to an international military campaign led by the United States and the United Kingdom with the support of other North Atlantic Treaty Organisation as well as non-NATO countries...
" (see March 2006 in Europe
March 2006 in Europe
March 2006 : ← - January - February - March - April - May - June - July - August - September - October - November - December - →March 2006 : ← - January - February - March - April - May - June - July - August - September - October - November - December - →March 2006 : ← - January - February - March...
).
End of 2004, the LDH counted 7,487 members, organized into 309 local sections and 57 federation
Federation
A federation , also known as a federal state, is a type of sovereign state characterized by a union of partially self-governing states or regions united by a central government...
s. In 1932, it could boast 170,000 members.
Cultural references
- In his 1970 autobiographical book PapillonPapillon (autobiography)Papillon is a memoir by convicted felon and fugitive Henri Charrière, first published in France in 1969. It became an instant bestseller. It was translated into English from the original French by June P. Wilson and Walter B. Michaels for a 1970 edition, and by author Patrick O'Brian...
, Henri Charriere angrily laments the lack of interest shown in the treatment of prisoners sent to the penal colonies of French GuianaFrench GuianaFrench Guiana is an overseas region of France, consisting of a single overseas department located on the northern Atlantic coast of South America. It has borders with two nations, Brazil to the east and south, and Suriname to the west...
, citing LDH in particular,
"I trampled the organisation of the Ligue des Droits de l'Homme et du Citoyen that never spoke out and said, 'stop killing people as surely as if they were guillotined: abolish the mass sadism among the employees of the prison service.' I trampled the fact that not a single organisation or association ever questioned the top men of this system to find out how and why eighty per cent of the people who were sent away every two years vanished".
List of presidents
- Ludovic TrarieuxLudovic TrarieuxLudovic Trarieux was a French Republican statesman, prominent Dreyfusard, and pioneer of international human rights.-Early life:...
(1898–1903) - Francis de Pressensé (1903–1914)
- Ferdinand BuissonFerdinand BuissonFerdinand Édouard Buisson was a French academic, educational bureaucrat, pacifist and Socialist politician...
(1914–1926, Nobel peace prizeNobel Peace PrizeThe Nobel Peace Prize is one of the five Nobel Prizes bequeathed by the Swedish industrialist and inventor Alfred Nobel.-Background:According to Nobel's will, the Peace Prize shall be awarded to the person who...
in 1927, along with the German Ludwig QuiddeLudwig QuiddeLudwig Quidde was a German pacifist who is mainly remembered today for his acerbic criticism of German Emperor Wilhelm II. Quidde's long career spanned four different eras of German history: that of Bismarck ; the Hohenzollern Empire under Wilhelm II ; the Weimar Republic ; and, finally, Nazi...
) - Victor BaschVictor BaschBasch Viktor Vilém, or Victor-Guillaume Basch was a French politician and professor of germanistics and philosophy at the Sorbonne descending vom Hungary...
(1926–1944) - Paul LangevinPaul LangevinPaul Langevin was a prominent French physicist who developed Langevin dynamics and the Langevin equation. He was one of the founders of the Comité de vigilance des intellectuels antifascistes, an antifascist organization created in the wake of the 6 February 1934 far right riots...
(1944–1946) - Sicard de Plauzoles (1946–1953)
- Emile Kahn (1953–1958)
- Daniel MayerDaniel MayerDaniel William Mayer was a member of the French Section of the Workers' International , a socialist party in France, president of the Ligue des droits de l'homme from 1958 to 1975. He founded the Comité d'Action Socialiste in 1941 and was a member of the Brutus Network, a Resistant Socialist group...
(1958–1975) - Henri Noguères (1975–1984)
- Yves Jouffa (1984–1991)
- Madeleine RebériouxMadeleine RebériouxMadeleine Rebérioux was a French historian whose specialty was the French Third Republic. She is also a historian of the Labour movement. From 1991 to 1995 she was President of the Ligue des droits de l'homme and had been a signatory to the Manifesto of the 121. She was an officer of the Légion...
(1991–1995) - Henri Leclerc (1995–2000)
- Michel Tubiana (2000–2005)
- Jean-Pierre Dubois (2005-)