Ligue des droits de l'homme

The "Ligue des droits de l'homme" (LDH, "Human Rights League") is a French NGO founded on June 4, 1898, by the republican Ludovic Trarieux to defend captain Alfred Dreyfus, a Jew wrongly accused of treason - this would be known as the Dreyfus 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, including Pierre Cot, René Cassin and Félix Gouin. The LDH is refounded after the Liberation. Paul Langevin, whom had recently joined the French Communist Party (PCF), became its president. Opposed to the Algerian War and the massive use of torture by the French Army, the LDH called for demonstrations against the 1961 Alger putsch.

Today

The LDH has opposed itself to the February 23, 2005 law on the "positive role of colonisation", which has been accused of being part of a revisionist discourse. President Jacques Chirac finally had the law, which had been voted by his UMP majority, repealed start of 2006.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 of foreigners' right to vote in local elections end of December 2005. Besides, it took part in prisonners' movement organized since 1970 by the GIP ("Groupe d'information sur les prisons", Group of Information on Prisons), founded by Michel Foucault and Daniel Deferre. The LDH also supports Italian former activist Cesare Battisti and American Ira Einhorn. The LDH has also opposed itself to Nicolas Sarkozy's policies, which it deems "repressive". In its 2003 report, it declared that "since the Algerian 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" (see March 2006 in Europe).

End of 2004, the LDH counted 7,487 members, organized into 309 local sections and 57 federations. 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 German Ludwig 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]