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3 unusual facts about French law on colonialism


French law on colonialism

In a tribune Liberty for history, 19 historians (including Elisabeth Badinter, Alain Decaux and Marc Ferro) demanded the repeal of all "historic laws": not only the February 23, 2005 Act, but also the 1990 Gayssot Act against "racism, xenophobia and historical revisionism", the Taubira Act on the recognition of slavery as a "crime against humanity" and the law recognizing the Armenian genocide.

As the historian Benjamin Stora pointed out, colonialism has a major "memory" stake in influencing the way various communities and the nation itself represent themselves.

The law, particularly the aforementioned paragraph and articles 1 and 13, created a public uproar and opposition from the whole of the left-wing, and article 4, paragraph 2 was repealed by president Jacques Chirac (UMP) at the beginning of 2006, after accusations of historical revisionism from various teachers and historians, including Pierre Vidal-Naquet, Claude Liauzu, Olivier LeCour Grandmaison and Benjamin Stora.



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