Matignon Agreements refers to agreements signed in the Hotel Matignon

Hôtel Matignon

The Hôtel Matignon is the official residence of the Prime Minister of France. It is located in the VIIe arrondissement of Paris, France.The address of Hotel Matignon is 57 rue de Varenne, Paris, France.-History:...

 by Jean-Marie Tjibaou

Jean-Marie Tjibaou

Jean-Marie Tjibaou was a leader of the Kanak independence movement and a politician in New Caledonia. The son of a tribal chief, Tjibaou was ordained a priest but abandoned his religious vocation for a life in political activism...

 and Jacques Lafleur

Jacques Lafleur

Jacques Lafleur was a French politician born in Nouméa, New Caledonia.Lafleur was a onetime leader of one of the two anti-independence parties in New Caledonia, the RPCR . He was a signatory to the Matignon Accords in 1988 and the Nouméa Accord in 1998...

 on June 26, 1988, between loyalists, who wanted to keep New Caledonia

New Caledonia

New Caledonia is a special collectivity of France located in the southwest Pacific Ocean, east of Australia and about from Metropolitan France. The archipelago, part of the Melanesia subregion, includes the main island of Grande Terre, the Loyalty Islands, the Belep archipelago, the Isle of...

 as a part of the French Fifth Republic

French Fifth Republic

The Fifth Republic is the fifth and current republican constitution of France, introduced on 4 October 1958. The Fifth Republic emerged from the collapse of the French Fourth Republic, replacing the prior parliamentary government with a semi-presidential system...

, and separatists, who did not. The agreements were arranged under the aegis of the Government of France

Government of France

The government of the French Republic is a semi-presidential system determined by the French Constitution of the fifth Republic. The nation declares itself to be an "indivisible, secular, democratic, and social Republic"...

 as a result of discussions and compromises arranged by Christian Blanc

Christian Blanc

Christian Blanc is a French politician.He was a member of the Saint-Simon Foundation think-tank. Blanc was elected to the National Assembly to represent the third district of Yvelines on 15 December 2002, replacing Anne-Marie Idrac, who had stood down to on nomination to become president of the RATP...

, the negoiator for Michel Rocard

Michel Rocard

Michel Rocard is a French politician, member of the Socialist Party . He served as Prime Minister under François Mitterrand from 1988 to 1991, during which he created the Revenu minimum d'insertion , a social minimum welfare program for indigents, and led the Matignon Accords regarding the status...

's government.

Description

The accords set up a ten-year period of development. Institutional and economical provisions were made for the Kanak community. The New Caledonians agreed not to raise the independence issue during this period.

The agreements provided amnesty for those involved in the Ouvéa cave hostage taking

Ouvéa cave hostage taking

The Ouvéa cave hostage taking was an event occurring from April 22, 1988 to May 5, 1988 in which members of the separatist group the National Union for Independence-Kanak and Socialist National Liberation Front took 27 including a French gendarme and a judge hostage in the island of Ouvéa, New...

 incident of 1988, and interdicted all proceedings in regard to the deaths of four gendarmes and 19 members of the independentist Kanaks.

The Matignon accords were accepted by French voters in a referendum held on November 6, 1988. The following question was posed: "Do you agree to allow New Caledonian residents to vote for self-determination in 1998?". A majority voters – 80% – voted for New Caledonian residents to determine whether or not to institute self-determination. The voter participation in the referendum was 37%, with 12% of the ballots blank or void.

On May 5, 1998, the Nouméa Accord

Nouméa Accord

The Nouméa Accord of 1998 promises to grant political power to New Caledonia and its original population, the Kanaks, until the territory decides whether to remain within the French Republic or become an independent state in a referendum to be held between 2014 and 2019...

 was signed, under the aegis of Lionel Jospin

Lionel Jospin

Lionel Jospin is a French politician, who served as Prime Minister of France from 1997 to 2002.Jospin was the Socialist Party candidate for President of France in the elections of 1995 and 2002. He was narrowly defeated in the final runoff election by Jacques Chirac in 1995...

. It scheduled the transfer of sovereignty for 2018. The territory will be fully independent, except the fields of defence, security, the judiciary

Judiciary

The judiciary is the system of courts that interprets and applies the law in the name of the state. The judiciary also provides a mechanism for the resolution of disputes...

, and finance

Finance

"Finance" is often defined simply as the management of money or “funds” management Modern finance, however, is a family of business activity that includes the origination, marketing, and management of cash and money surrogates through a variety of capital accounts, instruments, and markets created...

, which will be competencies of France. The Nouméa Accord had 72% support.