- Ligue des droits de l'homme
The "Ligue des droits de l'homme" (LDH, "
Human Rights League ") is a FrenchNGO founded onJune 4 ,1898 , by the republicanLudovic Trarieux to defend captainAlfred Dreyfus , aJew wrongly accused oftreason - this would be known as theDreyfus Affair . The LDH is a member of the "International Federation of Human Rights Leagues " (FIDH).History
Dissolved by Vichy during
World War II , it is clandestinely reconstituted in 1943 by a central committee, includingPierre Cot ,René Cassin andFélix Gouin . The LDH is refounded after the Liberation.Paul Langevin , whom had recently joined theFrench Communist Party (PCF), became its president. Opposed to theAlgerian War and the massive use of torture by the French Army, the LDH called for demonstrations against the 1961Alger putsch .Today
The LDH has opposed itself to the
February 23 ,2005 law on the "positive role ofcolonisation ", which has been accused of being part of a revisionist discourse. PresidentJacques Chirac finally had the law, which had been voted by his UMP majority, repealed start of 2006. The LDH also took position in favor of the recognition offoreigners' right to vote in local elections end of December 2005. Besides, it took part inprison ners' movement organized since 1970 by the GIP ("Groupe d'information sur les prisons", Group of Information on Prisons), founded byMichel Foucault andDaniel Deferre . The LDH also supports Italian former activist Cesare Battisti and AmericanIra Einhorn . The LDH has also opposed itself toNicolas Sarkozy 's policies, which it deems "repressive". In its 2003 report, it declared that "since theAlgerian War we had never seen such a strong rollback of human rights in France".The LDH has filed a complaint end of 2005 concerning a CIA flight which landed in
Le Bourget airport in the frame of the so-called "war on terror " (seeMarch 2006 in Europe ).End of 2004, the LDH counted 7,487 members, organized into 309 local sections and 57
federation s. In 1932, it could boast 170,000 members.List of presidents
*
Ludovic Trarieux (1898-1903)
*Francis de Pressensé (1903-1914)
*Ferdinand Buisson (1914-1926,Nobel peace prize in 1927, along with the GermanLudwig Quidde )
*Victor Basch (1926-1944)
*Paul Langevin (1944-1946)
*Sicard de Plauzoles (1946-1953)
*Emile Kahn (1953-1958)
*Daniel Mayer (1958-1975)
*Henri Noguères (1975-1984)
*Yves Jouffa (1984-1991)
*Madeleine Rebérioux (1991-1995)
*Henri Leclerc (1995-2000)
*Michel Tubiana (2000- 2005)
*Jean-Pierre Dubois (2005-)See also
*
Caroline Rémy de Guebhard (1855-1929)External links
* [http://www.ldh-france.org/ Official site]
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