Mémorielle law

A mémorielle law is a law declaring, even imposing, the official point of view of a State on historical events. To the extreme, such a law can prohibit the expression from other points of view.

One can quote, for example, prohibition with the sale of Mein Kampf is in force in several countries, of which Germany, where it is in addition interdict to market or diffuse Nazi objects. The laws or resolutions voted in many Parliaments to recognize the existence of the Armenian genocide also belong to the category of the mémorielles laws.

In Israel, the Law of the memory of the martyrs and the heroes in 1953 was concretized in the erection of the memorial of the Shoah, Yad Vashem.

Let us note that the memorial laws the United States of America do not have on the other hand anything to see with the mémorielles laws as conceived in France. It is acted in fact of laws of general interest to which the legislator joined the name of a victim. Brooke Blanchard Law of New Hampshire, which stipulates that a minor driver which causes an accident by negligence must be judged like an adult, carries thus the name of the young victim of a minor roadhog in an alcoholic state of intoxication.

Belgium

The law of the March 23rd 1995 tightens to repress the negation, minimization, the justification or the approval of the genocide made during the Second world war by the mode German national-Socialist . Its extension was discussed to the Sénat in June 2005 and stumbled on the legal qualification of the Armenian genocide. A statutory body, the Center for the equal opportunity and the fight against racism, depending directly on the services of the Prime Minister is in particular charged to take care of the application of this law while estant in justice if necessary.

the Council of Europe

An additional protocol with convention on the cybercriminality, " relating to the incrimination of acts of racist nature and xenophobe made by the means of systems informatiques" , was adopted on January 30th, 2003 by the Council of Europe and subjected to the ratification of the Member States and observers. Its article 6 is entitled " Negation, coarse minimization, approval or justification of the genocide or the crimes against the humanité". France integrated it in its legislation on May 19th, 2005. At the time of the debates in June 2005 to the Belgian Senate on the integration of this additional protocol to the Belgian legislation, the question of the inclusion of the Armenian genocide was the subject of sharp debates. The additional protocol will come into effect only after ratification by five States, as soon as possible on March 1st 2006. At December 29th, 2005, 25 States (of which 24 members of the Council of Europe, plus the Canada) signed it and five (Albania, Cyprus, Denmark - with reserves, Macedonia and Slovenia) formally ratified it.

France

At the time of the debate on the law on possible " aspects positifs" colonization, with the autumn 2005, the concept of mémorielles laws was forged in France to indicate primarily the Loi Gayssot, the Loi Taubira, the law on the recognition of the Armenian genocide and that precisely on the pled existence as what was described d'" aspects positifs" colonization. The debate on the relevance of such a legislative intervention was started again, dividing the political community as well as the scientific community and the world of the press. It is necessary however to underline the difference between an effective law like the Law Gayssot, together with declaratory penal sanctions, and laws like the three others, which do nothing but impose principles without matching that of penal sanctions.

The text of February 23rd, 2005 caused the anger of the historians who do not admit that the law writes the History, the more so as in the species the interference of the legislator could be described as company of falsification confining with the revisionism. Nineteen of the largest French historians Co-signed a text entitled " Freedom for the history! " the December 12th 2005 asking for the abrogation of this law, but also quoting the laws of the July 13rd 1990 repressing the racist acts, anti-semites or xenophobes, of the January 29th 2001 recognizing the Armenian genocide of 1915, of the May 21st 2001 recognizing the draft and of slavery as a crime against humanity. The co-signatories of this text are: Jean-Pierre Azéma, Elisabeth Badinter, Jean-Jacques Becker, Francoise Chandernagor, Alain Decaux, Marc Ferro, Jacques Julliard, Jean Leclant, Pierre Milza, Pierre Nora, Mona Ozouf, Jean-Claude Perrot, Antoine Prost, Rene Rémond, Maurice Vaïsse, Jean-Pierre Vernant, Paul Veyne, Pierre Vidal-Naquet and Michel Winock.

For the thirty and one lawyers, historians or writers signatories of the against-petition of the December 20th 2005, an important difference exists between these laws and that of February 23rd, 2005: while the other laws would have only one “declaratory” value and would denounce crimes against humanity (thus assertion of a negative role), the law of February 23rd, on the contrary, would affirm a positive role. One would consequently be located according to historians like Olivier the Court Grandmaison in a " narcotic négationnisme".

Law of July 13rd, 1990, known as Law Gayssot

Law adopted in spite of the opposition of the Senate, and which was not controlled by the Constitutional council. Its article 9 amends the law on the freedom of the press of 1881 by introducing there article 24 (a) aiming at prohibiting the Négationnisme:

Law of January 29th, 2001

Text of the law ( Unique article )

Law of May 21st, 2001 known as law Taubira on slavery

The Loi Taubira of May 21st, 2001 tending to the recognition of the Traite and the Esclavage as a Crime against humanity lays out that: This article follows article 1 which lays out that the French Republic recognizes the Traite négrière like a Crime against humanity, however article 2 does not give a directive on the orientation of the treatment of this page of the history.

Following this law and at the committee for the memory of the slavery, chaired by the writer inhabitant of Guadeloupe Maryse Condé, Jacques Chirac announced the January 30th the 2005 creation of a annual day of the memory of the slavery , which will be held all the May 10th, date of the adoption at the Parliament of the law Taubira. The president entrusted to this same occasion with the writer inhabitant of Martinique Edouard Glissant the presidency of a " mission of prefiguration of a national center devoted to the draft, slavery and their abolitions". This center will be added to the national City of the history of the immigration whose inauguration is waited in April 2007 with the Palate of the Porte-Dorée.

French Law of February 23rd, 2005 on the French presence overseas

Subparagraph 2 of article 4 of the law declared:

the school programs recognize in particular the positive role of the French presence overseas, in particular in North Africa and grant to the history and the sacrifices combatants of the French Army resulting from these territories the eminent place to which they have right

This subparagraph caused a scandal in historians, of which some qualified the aforementioned law of “revisionist”. In addition to the question of the existence of an Official story, the polemic which stirred up the public opinion in particular in the countries in the past colonized by France, at the people originating in these countries and residing in France, or in the overseas departments involved the withdrawal of this provision whose government intended to be disunited. It was downgraded by the Constitutional council (decision of January 31st, 2006) on request of the Prime Minister (January 25th, 2006), then repealed by regulatory way (decree of February 15th, 2006).

But remains in particular subparagraph 1 of article 1 which lays out:

The Nation expresses its recognition with the women and the men who took part in the work achieved by France in the old French departments of Algeria, in Morocco, in Tunisia and Indo-China like in the territories placed before under French sovereignty.

Spain

The Loi on the historical memory ( Ley of extensión of derechos has los afectados por Guerra Civil will dictadura it there : law of extension of the rights to the victims of the civil war and the dictatorship, or Ley of Memoria Histórica ) was approved in the Council of Ministers the July 28th 2006. The bill of the Socialist government of Jose Shine Rodríguez Zapatero, aimed at recognizing the victims of the Franquisme. Discussed, the law caused the proposal for alternative projects like that of Esquerra Republicana de Catalunya.

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