1 Flashcards
Article 1 of Declaration des droits de l’homme et du citoyen de 1789
les hommes naissent et demeurent libres en égaux en droits
men are born and remain free and equal in rights
Article 4 of the Declaration des droits de l’hommes et du citoyen de 1789
la liberté consiste à pouvoir faire tout ce qui ne nuit pas à autrui
liberty exists in the freedom to do anything which injures no one else
Article 10 of the Declaration des droits de l’hommes et du citoyen de 1789
nul ne doit être inquieté pour ses opinions
no one shall be disquieted on account of his opinions
What is the Code de l’indigénat
- The empire of law that presided over french colonial states
- listed offences that by definition could only be commited by Natives (Saada)
What types of punishment were the indigénes subject to? (individual)
- contraint par corps fixé - binding of limbs (Gregory Mann)
- commandant de cercle - any caucasian male could carry out punishment on a variety of offencds including disrespecting France and could do anything from fine them to immediately execute them (Victor and Vine)
What types of collective punishment were there?
- planting a wrong strand of cotton or hoeing a field incorrectly could lead to collective punishments for all men in a village, most commonly binding (Gregory Mann)
What were some indigenes made to do to enable their governor to sleep?
slap the water at night to quieten the frogs so Rocca Serra could sleep (Gregory Mann)
What did the Code de l’indigénat essentially do?
allowed the colonial state to practice a form of government grounded in difference and coercion while maintaining the republican rhetoric of assimilation and eventual inclusion (Gregory Mann)
What are FMAs?
Following the second world war all Algerian muslims (Français Musulmans d’Algérie) living in either France or Algeria were given full french citizenship with an accepted special status of ethno-religious difference while simultaneously being republican.
However this has the potential for abuse as was seen in 1961 with curfews for FMA only
What is the goal of the French Republic?
As written in their respective books- Roederer ‘L’esprit de la Révolution de 1789’ and Tocqueville ‘L’ancien régime et la révolution’ the french revolution and the eventual creation of the republic had the goal of putting an end to privelege and creating a body of citizens all equal under the same law, not to free all persons and land (liberty) (Jeremy Jennings)
Liberty, Equality and Fraternity…?
- first used in speeches in 1790 by Robespierre
- 1793 Parisians wrote on their homes “unity, indivisibility of the republic; liberty, equality or death”
- became a principle of the republic in the 1848 constitution
- features also in 1946 and 1958 constitutions
What did Robert Gildea say about equality?
“Principles of equality were founding myths of the Republic, they were powerful, persuasive and purposely written to be difficult to question, disguised to and intented to continue to disguise radical inequalities”
What did De Gaulle say about women?
When asked about a ministry of womens affairs he is reported to have said “why not an undersecretaryship of state for knitting” (Robert Gildea)
Gender inequality from Robert Gildea
- 55% of those in higher education in 1992 were women
- women were allowed to vote after emancipation 1944
- more women than men passed the ‘agrégation’ in 1982 but only *% of those recruited by unsiversities for staff were women
- had to have 3 times the education as their male counterpaers in order to become senior managers
Citizen or National..? (Brett)
- “they were French by virtue that Algeria was French”
- 24th February 1862 an Algiers court confirmed that under international law, that a native conquered country, the citizens acquire the nationality of the conquering force, making all those brought within French bounds eg. Algeria as French as if they were born in France, in other words a French citizen
How is it Algerians could be considered french nationals but not citizens?
- because of the way they surrendered, the massive diffrences betweenc the coloniding and the colonied
- nationality and citizen ship can exist seperately from each other
What did Governor General MacMahon say in his letter ?
- “déclarer que les Arabes sont Francais, puisque l’Algéries est territoire francaise” (Letter and Spillman)
- this along with other reccomendations led to the existension of the Senatus Committee
How was Senegal’s governance different to Algerias?
- the four communes (oldest settlements) were granted full french citizenship to whoever lived there
- but you could only get it if you were what was called “évolué” an evolved more frenchman-like person who already spoke french
- “originaires” who were seen as fullblooded africans were not granted these full citizenship rights until 1916
Case studies on racial discrimination in France
- Racial Profiling in the workplace
JF Amadieu 2004
sent CVs with variables on “Arab sounding names”
exact qualifications as a white French person and while the French person was interviewed they were not
30% caucasian applicant success, 5% Arab success
Case studies on racial discrimination in France
- Random Police stop and search
Zauberman, Renée and René Levy 2003
In France you have to carry your ID card on you at all times so if questioned you can prove your citizenship
after observing on several busy streets in Paris they found that police disproportionately stopped Black or Arab appearing people
Achieving Equality, the public vs private sphere
- in attempts to achieve equality france has removed the idea of difference from its public sphere
- creating the idea of a private and public individual
- french people do not dicuss ‘race’ as it is taboo and it is considered that all french people are the same and should only acknowledge their shared qualities such as citizenship in the republic
What is Laïcité?
Laïcité is a law passed in 1905 which creates legally binding secularism of the state
- french republic is neutral in matters of faith
- non religous schools “écoles publiques” where there is no religious study AT ALL
- state takes control of all catholic buildings
- allows for the creation of religious schools “écoles privées”
Écoles Privées
- have to follow the national curriculum
- state paid teachers
- must be inclusive of children from all faiths
- minimal fees eg 300-900 euros a year
contradictions of Laïcité
- presumes that france is historically neutral in religious terms when it is an historically catholic country
- school timetable and public holidays work around catholic holidays
- 95% of all privates schools are catholic
- 300 Jewish schools
- 3, THREE Muslim schools
- state pays for upkeep of catholic buildings
- Alsace/Moselle
Alsace/Moselle
- Alsace and Moselle are exempt from the laïcité laws
- secularism does not apply here
- all schools are state run and include catholic religous education
- completely defeats the point of a secular republican state
What does the French Republic mean by secularism?
- religion is justified in the private but not the public sector
- neutrality in state institutions
- also justifies the exclusion from the abstract concept of public/private space
Laws regarding religious insignia
- 2004, bans religious conspicious/ostentatious outward signs in schools (ostensiblement) - doesnt cause too many problems and is at the discretion of the headmaster but can result in a youth criminal record
- 2011 “nul ne peut, dans l’espace public, porter une tenue destinée a dissimuler son visage” what is known as the burka ban but its actually a niqab and it doesnt outright mention muslims or niqabs
religious paraphenalia
in 2016 mayors along the côte d’azur tried to get women wearing ‘burkinis’ fined but the conseil d’etats reviews it and cancels it punishing the mayors for overstepping their authority
