Ludovic Trarieux
Encyclopedia
Ludovic Trarieux was a French
Republican
statesman
, prominent Dreyfusard, and pioneer of international human rights.
(Charente). He was called to the Bar of Bordeaux
in 1862 and practiced there until 1881. He was elected President of the Bar in 1877, at the age of thirty-seven and became a member of the local republican party
.
and became a member of the Opportunist Republicans
, where he was quickly noticed, making numerous interventions in debates. Nevertheless, his stay in power was short-lived. He approved the bill on the liberty of higher education, while supporting various amendments. He also voted for the invalidation of the election of Auguste Blanqui and against the plenary amnesty on cases concerning The Paris Commune. In the debate on the status of professional trade unions (that was finally voted in 1884), he intervened to seek guarantees.
Beaten in the new elections in 1881, he was called to the Parisian
bar
and pursued his political career there.
He was elected Senator of the Gironde
on January 5 1888, then re-elected in 1897, remaining in the post until his death. As a member of the Republican Left and soon President of the group of the Moderate Left (the most moderate in the High Assembly), at first he adopted some very conservative positions in cases on social laws (modification of article 1780 concerning service contracts, arbitration between employers and employees, the work of women and juveniles) and, in his report, rejected the bill of modification of the law on professional trade unions.
He distinguished himself, especially in 1893 and 1894, as the reporter on the voting of three of the four laws aimed at the repression of anarchist attacks (the famous "lois scélérates"). However, he fought energetically against an amendment that aimed to transfer infringements concerning the detention of explosives to the War Council, which had become more repressive, since it had refused to allow the removal of common law jurisdiction from these courts. In the same vein, on May 28 1897, he pushed for the voting of the law that put an end to secret investigations in the absence of a lawyer, and fought for the institution of a system of competing experts in criminal matters, comparable to the adversarial system
. In 1889, he was chosen by his peers of the Senate to become a member of the Commission of the Nine, in charge of the instruction of the lawsuit against General Boulanger.
had been convicted of treason, dishonourably discharged and, since January 18, had been waiting on Ile de Re
to be transported to Devil's Island
in French Guiana
.
However, since his conviction in 1894, Dreyfus and his family had not stopped protesting his innocence. His conviction had been pronounced in camera, with the help of false secret documents which had not been communicated to the defence. Very few people at this time were convinced of Dreyfus' innocence. The case was closed and the Dreyfus affair
had not yet begun.
While Minister of Justice, Trarieux obtained copies of Dreyfus' writing and discovered discrepancies between the convict's handwriting and that of the author of the document that had established his guilt. Besides, one of Dreyfus’ lawyers, M. Demange, had come to reveal to him that a secret document had been communicated to the War Council unknown to the defence. After his departure from the Chancery, (November 10 1895), Trarieux sacrificed his professional and his political career to becoming the untiring defender of the innocence of Captain Dreyfus. On December 7 1897, Trarieux was the only Senator to support Dreyfus' defender Auguste Scheurer-Kestner, and praise his civic courage.
When evidence pointed to Ferdinand Walsin Esterhazy
as the real guilty party, Esterhazy himself asked to be tried by a military court. Just before Esterhazy’s trial on January 8 1898, Trarieux published an open letter in "Le Temps
", addressed to the War Minister, Billot, to denounce "the parody of justice". Esterhazy was acquitted.
In the trial of Emile Zola
following his accusations against the army, Trarieux was an essential witness for the defence. He recounted evidence that he had collected, revealing what he had discovered concerning essential documents and explaining how he had become convinced that Esterhazy was guilty. As a former Minister of Justice, his support was much appreciated by Dreyfus' supporters.
Trarieux was a witness in Dreyfus's second trial in Rennes
, from August 7 to September 9 1899.
Though reducing the sentence, the War Council in Rennes convicted Dreyfus a second time. Trarieux remarked, "Our defeat is of the kind that does not discourage, but foster courages and give grandeur to certain situations". He then challenged the Senate to pardon Dreyfus, in the name of justice, though initially this was only granted on the nominal grounds of the convict's ill health. This was pronounced by President Emile Loubet
, in September 1899. A full amnesty followed in June 1900, granted by the Waldeck-Rousseau government, in order to calm the situation down.
On February 20 1898, a first meeting took place in his home, at 4 Logelbach Street. After several months of tireless activity, having united the support of a thousand people, Trarieux and his friends convened a general assembly, in the hall of the "Sociétés Savantes", in Paris.
It was there that, on June 4 1898, was finally formed the Ligue des droits de l'homme (LDH, "Human Rights
League"), of which Trarieux was proclaimed President and entrusted with the drawing up of its statutes. On July 4 1898, the first manifesto of the League of Human Rights proclaimed: "from this day, anyone whose liberty is threatened or whose rights are violated can be ensured of obtaining help and assistance from us".
On August 20th 1898, after the humiliating arrest of Dreyfus supporter Colonel Georges Picquart
, found "guilty – of having denounced the Henry forgery
", on the orders of Jacques Cavaignac
, the War Minister, Trarieux wrote another open letter to Cavaignac, and distributed 400 000 copies of it all over France. Cavaignac had to resign on September 5 1898 and nearly one year day for day after the constitution of the League of Human Rights, on June 3 1899, the Supreme Court quashed the Dreyfus judgment of 1894 and referred the case to the War Council in Rennes.
He continued to develop the Ligue des droits de l'homme (LDH, "Human Rights
League"), that soon had several tens of thousands of members.
He died on March 13 1904 in his Parisian apartment at 4 Rue de Logelbach.
, "The Ludovic-Trarieux International Human Rights Prize" is awarded each year to a lawyer, regardless of nationality or Bar, who, by his work, has demonstrated through his work or experiences, the defence of human rights, of defence rights, the supremacy of law, the struggle against racism and intolerance in any form. The prize-winner is chosen after consulting humanitarian associations and NGOs.
The Prize, also called "The international tribute from Lawyers to a Lawyer" , is presented in partnership by the Human Rights Institute of The Bar of Bordeaux, the Human Rights Institute of the Bar of Paris, the Human Rights Institute of The Bar of Brussels, l'Unione forense per la tutela dei diritti dell'uomo (Roma) and the European Bar Human Rights Institute (IDHAE) whose members are the biggest European law societies fighting for human rights such as Union Internationale des Avocats (UIA), Rechtsanwaltskammer Berlin, Ordre français des Avocats du barreau de Bruxelles, barreau de Luxembourg or Polish National Council of the Bar (Warsaw).
The first Ludovic Trarieux Prize was awarded on March 29 1985 to Nelson Mandela
, then in jail. It was officially handed over to his daughter, Zenani Mandela Dlamini, on April 27 1985.
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...
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...
statesman
Statesman
A statesman is usually a politician or other notable public figure who has had a long and respected career in politics or government at the national and international level. As a term of respect, it is usually left to supporters or commentators to use the term...
, prominent Dreyfusard, and pioneer of international human rights.
Early life
Ludovic Trarieux was born on November 30 1840, in AubeterreAubeterre
Aubeterre is a commune in the Aube department in northern-central France.-Population:...
(Charente). He was called to the Bar of Bordeaux
Bordeaux
Bordeaux is a port city on the Garonne River in the Gironde department in southwestern France.The Bordeaux-Arcachon-Libourne metropolitan area, has a population of 1,010,000 and constitutes the sixth-largest urban area in France. It is the capital of the Aquitaine region, as well as the prefecture...
in 1862 and practiced there until 1881. He was elected President of the Bar in 1877, at the age of thirty-seven and became a member of the local republican party
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...
.
Political life
On April 6 1879, he was elected to the Chamber of DeputiesChamber of Deputies
Chamber of deputies is the name given to a legislative body such as the lower house of a bicameral legislature, or can refer to a unicameral legislature.-Description:...
and became a member of the Opportunist Republicans
Opportunist Republicans
The Opportunist Republicans , also known as the Moderates , were a faction of French Republicans who believed, after the proclamation of the Third Republic in 1870, that the regime could only be consolidated by successive phases...
, where he was quickly noticed, making numerous interventions in debates. Nevertheless, his stay in power was short-lived. He approved the bill on the liberty of higher education, while supporting various amendments. He also voted for the invalidation of the election of Auguste Blanqui and against the plenary amnesty on cases concerning The Paris Commune. In the debate on the status of professional trade unions (that was finally voted in 1884), he intervened to seek guarantees.
Beaten in the new elections in 1881, he was called to the Parisian
Paris
Paris is the capital and largest city in France, situated on the river Seine, in northern France, at the heart of the Île-de-France region...
bar
Bar association
A bar association is a professional body of lawyers. Some bar associations are responsible for the regulation of the legal profession in their jurisdiction; others are professional organizations dedicated to serving their members; in many cases, they are both...
and pursued his political career there.
He was elected Senator of the Gironde
Gironde
For the Revolutionary party, see Girondists.Gironde is a common name for the Gironde estuary, where the mouths of the Garonne and Dordogne rivers merge, and for a department in the Aquitaine region situated in southwest France.-History:...
on January 5 1888, then re-elected in 1897, remaining in the post until his death. As a member of the Republican Left and soon President of the group of the Moderate Left (the most moderate in the High Assembly), at first he adopted some very conservative positions in cases on social laws (modification of article 1780 concerning service contracts, arbitration between employers and employees, the work of women and juveniles) and, in his report, rejected the bill of modification of the law on professional trade unions.
He distinguished himself, especially in 1893 and 1894, as the reporter on the voting of three of the four laws aimed at the repression of anarchist attacks (the famous "lois scélérates"). However, he fought energetically against an amendment that aimed to transfer infringements concerning the detention of explosives to the War Council, which had become more repressive, since it had refused to allow the removal of common law jurisdiction from these courts. In the same vein, on May 28 1897, he pushed for the voting of the law that put an end to secret investigations in the absence of a lawyer, and fought for the institution of a system of competing experts in criminal matters, comparable to the adversarial system
Adversarial system
The adversarial system is a legal system where two advocates represent their parties' positions before an impartial person or group of people, usually a jury or judge, who attempt to determine the truth of the case...
. In 1889, he was chosen by his peers of the Senate to become a member of the Commission of the Nine, in charge of the instruction of the lawsuit against General Boulanger.
The Dreyfus affair
On January 26 1885, he became Minister of Justice. He adopted a law that allowed more extensive opportunities of appeal in criminal cases, better compensation for injury suffered by victims of miscarriages of justice, and came up against a "legal event" that had just rocked France: one cold day, twenty-one days earlier, Captain Alfred DreyfusAlfred 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...
had been convicted of treason, dishonourably discharged and, since January 18, had been waiting on Ile de Re
Île de Ré
Île de Ré is an island off the west coast of France near La Rochelle, on the northern side of the Pertuis d'Antioche strait....
to be transported to Devil's Island
Devil's Island
Devil's Island is the smallest and northernmost island of the three Îles du Salut located about 6 nautical miles off the coast of French Guiana . It has an area of 14 ha . It was a small part of the notorious French penal colony in French Guiana until 1952...
in French Guiana
French Guiana
French 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...
.
However, since his conviction in 1894, Dreyfus and his family had not stopped protesting his innocence. His conviction had been pronounced in camera, with the help of false secret documents which had not been communicated to the defence. Very few people at this time were convinced of Dreyfus' innocence. The case was closed and 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...
had not yet begun.
While Minister of Justice, Trarieux obtained copies of Dreyfus' writing and discovered discrepancies between the convict's handwriting and that of the author of the document that had established his guilt. Besides, one of Dreyfus’ lawyers, M. Demange, had come to reveal to him that a secret document had been communicated to the War Council unknown to the defence. After his departure from the Chancery, (November 10 1895), Trarieux sacrificed his professional and his political career to becoming the untiring defender of the innocence of Captain Dreyfus. On December 7 1897, Trarieux was the only Senator to support Dreyfus' defender Auguste Scheurer-Kestner, and praise his civic courage.
When evidence pointed to Ferdinand Walsin Esterhazy
Ferdinand Walsin Esterhazy
Charles Marie Ferdinand Walsin Esterhazy was a commissioned officer in the French armed forces during the second half of the 19th century who has gained notoriety as a spy for the German Empire and the actual perpetrator of the act of treason for which Captain Alfred Dreyfus was wrongfully accused...
as the real guilty party, Esterhazy himself asked to be tried by a military court. Just before Esterhazy’s trial on January 8 1898, Trarieux published an open letter in "Le Temps
Le Temps
Founded in 1998, Le Temps is a Swiss newspaper edited in French. Le Temps consists of a daily newspaper , several supplements , thematic special editions, a performing website and digital applications.Le Temps is the...
", addressed to the War Minister, Billot, to denounce "the parody of justice". Esterhazy was acquitted.
In the trial of Emile Zola
Émile Zola
Émile François Zola was a French writer, the most important exemplar of the literary school of naturalism and an important contributor to the development of theatrical naturalism...
following his accusations against the army, Trarieux was an essential witness for the defence. He recounted evidence that he had collected, revealing what he had discovered concerning essential documents and explaining how he had become convinced that Esterhazy was guilty. As a former Minister of Justice, his support was much appreciated by Dreyfus' supporters.
Trarieux was a witness in Dreyfus's second trial in Rennes
Rennes
Rennes is a city in the east of Brittany in northwestern France. Rennes is the capital of the region of Brittany, as well as the Ille-et-Vilaine department.-History:...
, from August 7 to September 9 1899.
Though reducing the sentence, the War Council in Rennes convicted Dreyfus a second time. Trarieux remarked, "Our defeat is of the kind that does not discourage, but foster courages and give grandeur to certain situations". He then challenged the Senate to pardon Dreyfus, in the name of justice, though initially this was only granted on the nominal grounds of the convict's ill health. This was pronounced by President Emile Loubet
Émile Loubet
Émile François Loubet was a French politician and the 8th President of France.-Early life:He was born the son of a peasant proprietor and mayor of Marsanne . Admitted to the Parisian bar in 1862, he took his doctorate in law the next year...
, in September 1899. A full amnesty followed in June 1900, granted by the Waldeck-Rousseau government, in order to calm the situation down.
League of Human Rights
Between two hearings of the Zola case, on 17th or 18 February, at the tenth or eleventh hearing, Trarieux thought about creating the Ligue des droits de l'homme (LDH, "Human Rights League")On February 20 1898, a first meeting took place in his home, at 4 Logelbach Street. After several months of tireless activity, having united the support of a thousand people, Trarieux and his friends convened a general assembly, in the hall of the "Sociétés Savantes", in Paris.
It was there that, on June 4 1898, was finally formed the Ligue des droits de l'homme (LDH, "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...
League"), of which Trarieux was proclaimed President and entrusted with the drawing up of its statutes. On July 4 1898, the first manifesto of the League of Human Rights proclaimed: "from this day, anyone whose liberty is threatened or whose rights are violated can be ensured of obtaining help and assistance from us".
On August 20th 1898, after the humiliating arrest of Dreyfus supporter Colonel Georges Picquart
Georges Picquart
Marie Georges Picquart , was a French army officer and Minister of War. He is best known for his role in the Dreyfus Affair.-Early career:...
, found "guilty – of having denounced the Henry forgery
Hubert-Joseph Henry
Hubert-Joseph Henry , French Lieutenant-Colonel in 1897 involved in the Dreyfus affair. Arrested for having forged evidence against Alfred Dreyfus, he was found dead in his prison cell...
", on the orders of Jacques Cavaignac
Jacques Marie Eugène Godefroy Cavaignac
Jacques Marie Eugène Godefroy Cavaignac , known as Godefroy Cavaignac, French politician, was born in Paris. He was the son of Louis Eugène Cavaignac...
, the War Minister, Trarieux wrote another open letter to Cavaignac, and distributed 400 000 copies of it all over France. Cavaignac had to resign on September 5 1898 and nearly one year day for day after the constitution of the League of Human Rights, on June 3 1899, the Supreme Court quashed the Dreyfus judgment of 1894 and referred the case to the War Council in Rennes.
He continued to develop the Ligue des droits de l'homme (LDH, "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...
League"), that soon had several tens of thousands of members.
Final years
Exhausted by his efforts and by ill health, in 1903, he was forced to hand over the presidency of the League of Human Rights to his friend, Francis de Pressensé. Until his death, he dedicated his last efforts to Dreyfus' rehabilitation, (which he did not live to see, since it took place on July 12 1906) and to the defence of human rights.He died on March 13 1904 in his Parisian apartment at 4 Rue de Logelbach.
The "Ludovic-Trarieux International Human Rights Prize"
Created in 1984, in Bordeaux by the French lawyer Bertrand FavreauBertrand Favreau
Bertrand Favreau is a French lawyer born in Bordeaux in 1947.He is the founding president and the Charmain of The Ludovic-Trarieux International Human Rights Prize....
, "The Ludovic-Trarieux International Human Rights Prize" is awarded each year to a lawyer, regardless of nationality or Bar, who, by his work, has demonstrated through his work or experiences, the defence of human rights, of defence rights, the supremacy of law, the struggle against racism and intolerance in any form. The prize-winner is chosen after consulting humanitarian associations and NGOs.
The Prize, also called "The international tribute from Lawyers to a Lawyer" , is presented in partnership by the Human Rights Institute of The Bar of Bordeaux, the Human Rights Institute of the Bar of Paris, the Human Rights Institute of The Bar of Brussels, l'Unione forense per la tutela dei diritti dell'uomo (Roma) and the European Bar Human Rights Institute (IDHAE) whose members are the biggest European law societies fighting for human rights such as Union Internationale des Avocats (UIA), Rechtsanwaltskammer Berlin, Ordre français des Avocats du barreau de Bruxelles, barreau de Luxembourg or Polish National Council of the Bar (Warsaw).
The first Ludovic Trarieux Prize was awarded on March 29 1985 to Nelson Mandela
Nelson Mandela
Nelson Rolihlahla Mandela served as President of South Africa from 1994 to 1999, and was the first South African president to be elected in a fully representative democratic election. Before his presidency, Mandela was an anti-apartheid activist, and the leader of Umkhonto we Sizwe, the armed wing...
, then in jail. It was officially handed over to his daughter, Zenani Mandela Dlamini, on April 27 1985.