Christiane Marie Taubira (; born 2 February 1952) is a French

politician A politician is a person active in party politics, or a person holding or seeking an elected office in government. Politicians propose, support, reject and create laws that govern the land and by an extension of its people. Broadly speaking, a ...

who served as

Minister of Justice A justice ministry, ministry of justice, or department of justice is a ministry or other government agency in charge of the administration of justice. The ministry or department is often headed by a minister of justice (minister for justice in a v ...

France France (), officially the French Republic ( ), is a country primarily located in Western Europe. It also comprises of Overseas France, overseas regions and territories in the Americas and the Atlantic Ocean, Atlantic, Pacific Ocean, Pac ...

in the governments of

Prime Ministers A prime minister, premier or chief of cabinet is the head of the cabinet and the leader of the ministers in the executive branch of government, often in a parliamentary or semi-presidential system. Under those systems, a prime minister is not ...

Jean-Marc Ayrault Jean-Marc Ayrault (; born 25 January 1950) is a French politician who served as Prime Minister of France from 15 May 2012 to 31 March 2014. He later was Minister of Foreign Affairs from 2016 to 2017. He previously was Mayor of Nantes from 1989 t ...

and

Manuel Valls Manuel Carlos Valls Galfetti (, , ; born 13 August 1962) is a French-Spanish politician who has served as a Barcelona city councillor from 2019 to 2021. He served as Prime Minister of France from 2014 until 2016 under president François Hol ...

under President

François Hollande François Gérard Georges Nicolas Hollande (; born 12 August 1954) is a French politician who served as President of France from 2012 to 2017. He previously was First Secretary of the Socialist Party (PS) from 1997 to 2008, Mayor of Tulle from ...

from 2012 until 2016. She was a

member Member may refer to: * Military jury, referred to as "Members" in military jargon * Element (mathematics), an object that belongs to a mathematical set * In object-oriented programming, a member of a class ** Field (computer science), entries in ...

of the

National Assembly of France The National Assembly (french: link=no, italics=set, Assemblée nationale; ) is the lower house of the bicameral French Parliament under the Fifth Republic, the upper house being the Senate (). The National Assembly's legislators are known a ...

for

French Guiana French Guiana ( or ; french: link=no, Guyane ; gcr, label=French Guianese Creole, Lagwiyann ) is an overseas departments and regions of France, overseas department/region and single territorial collectivity of France on the northern Atlantic ...

from 1993 to 2012 and

of the

European Parliament The European Parliament (EP) is one of the legislative bodies of the European Union and one of its seven institutions. Together with the Council of the European Union (known as the Council and informally as the Council of Ministers), it adopts ...

from 1994 to 1999. She won the 2022 French People's Primary, winning the right to stand as a "unity left" candidate in the

2022 French presidential election The 2022 French presidential election was held on 10 and 24 April 2022. As no candidate won a majority in the first round, a runoff was held, in which Emmanuel Macron defeated Marine Le Pen and was re-elected as President of France. Macron, f ...

. It was her second bid after the

2002 French presidential election Presidential elections were held in France on 21 April 2002, with a runoff election between the top two candidates, incumbent Jacques Chirac of the Rally for the Republic and Jean-Marie Le Pen of the National Front, on 5 May. This presidential ...

where she failed to qualify to the second round after garnering only 2.32% of the votes in the first round. She dropped out of the race on 2 March 2022 after failing to get enough support to qualify.

Early life

Taubira was born on 2 February 1952 in

Cayenne Cayenne (; ; gcr, Kayenn) is the capital city of French Guiana, an overseas region and Overseas department, department of France located in South America. The city stands on a former island at the mouth of the Cayenne River on the Atlantic Oc ...

, as one of 11 siblings and raised by a single mother. Among others, she is the sister of French politician

Jean-Marie Taubira Jean-Marie Taubira (born 15 August 1950) is a French politician from Cayenne. He was Secretary General of the Walwari Walwari () is a political party in the French overseas department and region of French Guiana, founded in 1992 by Christiane ...

, Secretary General of the

Guianese Progressive Party Jean-Marie Taubira (born 15 August 1950) is a French politician from Cayenne. He was Secretary General of the Walwari Walwari () is a political party in the French overseas department and region of French Guiana, founded in 1992 by Christiane ...

. Taubira studied

economics Economics () is the social science that studies the Production (economics), production, distribution (economics), distribution, and Consumption (economics), consumption of goods and services. Economics focuses on the behaviour and intera ...

at Panthéon-Assas University,

African American African Americans (also referred to as Black Americans and Afro-Americans) are an ethnic group consisting of Americans with partial or total ancestry from sub-Saharan Africa. The term "African American" generally denotes descendants of ens ...

ethnology Ethnology (from the grc-gre, ἔθνος, meaning 'nation') is an academic field that compares and analyzes the characteristics of different peoples and the relationships between them (compare cultural anthropology, cultural, social anthropolo ...

sociology Sociology is a social science that focuses on society, human social behavior, patterns of Interpersonal ties, social relationships, social interaction, and aspects of culture associated with everyday life. It uses various methods of Empirical ...

Paris-Sorbonne University Paris-Sorbonne University (also known as Paris IV; french: Université Paris-Sorbonne, Paris IV) was a public research university in Paris, France, active from 1971 to 2017. It was the main inheritor of the Faculty of Humanities of the Universit ...

and

food industry The food industry is a complex, global network of diverse businesses that supplies most of the food consumed by the world's population. The food industry today has become highly diversified, with manufacturing ranging from small, traditiona ...

at the French Center for Agricultural Cooperation.

Political career

Early beginnings

Having served as President of the

Walwari Walwari () is a political party in the French overseas department and region of French Guiana, founded in 1992 by Christiane Taubira and her husband Roland Delannon.1993 File:1993 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The Oslo I Accord is signed in an attempt to resolve the Israeli–Palestinian conflict; The Russian White House is shelled during the 1993 Russian constitutional crisis; Czechoslovakia is peace ...

served as a Deputy to the

French National Assembly The National Assembly (french: link=no, italics=set, Assemblée nationale; ) is the lower house of the bicameral French Parliament under the Fifth Republic, the upper house being the Senate (). The National Assembly's legislators are known a ...

, being re-elected in

1997 File:1997 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The movie set of ''Titanic'', the highest-grossing movie in history at the time; ''Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone'', is published; Comet Hale-Bopp passes by Earth and becomes one of t ...

. Non-affiliated in 1993, she then voted in favour of the conservative

Prime Minister A prime minister, premier or chief of cabinet is the head of the cabinet and the leader of the ministers in the executive branch of government, often in a parliamentary or semi-presidential system. Under those systems, a prime minister is not ...

Edouard Balladur to form a

Cabinet of ministers A cabinet is a body of high-ranking state officials, typically consisting of the executive branch's top leaders. Members of a cabinet are usually called cabinet ministers or secretaries. The function of a cabinet varies: in some countries ...

in 1993.

Member of the European Parliament, 1994–1999

In the 1994 European elections Taubira became a

Member of the European Parliament A Member of the European Parliament (MEP) is a person who has been elected to serve as a popular representative in the European Parliament. When the European Parliament (then known as the Common Assembly of the ECSC) first met in 1952, its ...

(MEP), being the fourth on the '' Énergie Radicale'' list led by

Bernard Tapie Bernard Roger Tapie (; 26 January 1943 – 3 October 2021) was a French businessman, politician and occasional actor, singer, and TV host. He was Minister of City Affairs in the government of Pierre Bérégovoy. Life and career Tapie was bor ...

. In parliament, she served on the

Committee on Development The Committee on Development (Commission du développement, DEVE) is a committee of the European Parliament responsible for promoting, implementing and monitoring the development and cooperation policy of the European Union, notably talks with deve ...

(1994-1997) and the Committee on Culture, Youth, Education and the Media (1997-1999). In addition to her committee assignments, she was part of the parliament's delegation for relations with the countries of South America. In June 1997 Taubira joined the

Socialist Party Socialist Party is the name of many different political parties around the world. All of these parties claim to uphold some form of socialism, though they may have very different interpretations of what "socialism" means. Statistically, most of th ...

(PS), and then-

Lionel Jospin Lionel Robert Jospin (; born 12 July 1937) is a French politician who served as Prime Minister of France from 1997 to 2002. Jospin was First Secretary of the Socialist Party from 1995 to 1997 and the party's candidate for President of France in ...

appointed her to head a government commission into

gold mining Gold mining is the extraction of gold resources by mining. Historically, mining gold from alluvial deposits used manual separation processes, such as gold panning. However, with the expansion of gold mining to ores that are not on the surface ...

Guiana The Guianas, sometimes called by the Spanish loan-word ''Guayanas'' (''Las Guayanas''), is a region in north-eastern South America which includes the following three territories: * French Guiana, an overseas department and region of France * ...

Career in national politics

Taubira was the driving force behind a 21 May 2001 law that recognised the

Atlantic slave trade The Atlantic slave trade, transatlantic slave trade, or Euro-American slave trade involved the transportation by slave traders of enslaved African people, mainly to the Americas. The slave trade regularly used the triangular trade route and i ...

and

slavery Slavery and enslavement are both the state and the condition of being a slave—someone forbidden to quit one's service for an enslaver, and who is treated by the enslaver as property. Slavery typically involves slaves being made to perf ...

as a

crime against humanity Crimes against humanity are widespread or systemic acts committed by or on behalf of a ''de facto'' authority, usually a state, that grossly violate human rights. Unlike war crimes, crimes against humanity do not have to take place within the c ...

. In 2002 Taubira was a

Left Radical Party The Radical Party of the Left (french: Parti radical de gauche, PRG) is a social-liberal political party in France. A party in the Radical tradition, since 1972 the PRG was a close ally of the major party of the centre-left in France, the Socia ...

(PRG) candidate for the Presidency although she did not belong to the Party; she won 2.32% of the votes. After 2002 she became the party's vice-president. She was elected as its Deputy in the 2002 elections and chose to join the Socialists'

group A group is a number of persons or things that are located, gathered, or classed together. Groups of people * Cultural group, a group whose members share the same cultural identity * Ethnic group, a group whose members share the same ethnic ide ...

in the Assembly. In addition to her work in national politics Taubira served as a Regional Councillor of

from 2010 until 2012.

Minister of Justice, 2012–2016

Taubira was nominated

, following the victory of

in the 2012 elections. At the time, she was one of the few black, female politicians within a prominent ministry in the French government.Aurelien Breeden (January 27, 2016)
French Justice Minister Quits Over Plan to Strip Citizenship From Terrorists
''The New York Times''. She soon emerged as one of the most outspoken and progressive voices in the government. Taubira was initially supposed to work with Junior Minister

Delphine Batho Delphine Batho (born 23 March 1973 in Paris) is a French politician of Ecology Generation who has been serving as member of the National Assembly. She is a former Minister of Ecology, Sustainable Development and Energy. Early life and educatio ...

. However, their relationship quickly broke down being unable to share responsibilities. After the June 2012 Legislative elections, Batho was moved to become Minister of Ecology replacing

Nicole Bricq Nicole Bricq (; 10 June 1947 – 6 August 2017) was a member of the Senate of France, representing the Seine-et-Marne department. She received a degree in private law from Montesquieu University in 1970. From 1972 on Bricq was a member of th ...

, leaving Taubira in charge of the Ministry of Justice. She resigned her position as Minister of Justice on 27 January 2016 after a disagreement with President Hollande over policies related to the treatment of French Nationals convicted of terrorism. In 2013, Taubira voiced her support for land reforms in France's Caribbean territories as compensation for slavery. She also formally implemented an important electoral promise of

and introduced

Law 2013-404 ) , citation ACT No. 2013-404 of 17 May 2013, territorial_extent = French Republic , enacted_by = Parliament of France , date_passed = 23 April 2013 , date_signed = 17 May 2013 , signed_by = President ...

, which legalised

same-sex marriage in France Same-sex marriage in France has been legal since 18 May 2013, making France the thirteenth country worldwide to allow same-sex couples to marry. The legislation applies to metropolitan France as well as to all French overseas departments and t ...

. In 2014 Taubira successfully defied opposition parties' calls for her to quit after it emerged that she knew former

President President most commonly refers to: *President (corporate title) *President (education), a leader of a college or university *President (government title) President may also refer to: Automobiles * Nissan President, a 1966–2010 Japanese ful ...

Nicolas Sarkozy Nicolas Paul Stéphane Sarközy de Nagy-Bocsa (; ; born 28 January 1955) is a French politician who served as President of France from 2007 to 2012. Born in Paris, he is of Hungarian, Greek Jewish, and French origin. Mayor of Neuilly-sur-Se ...

's phone was being tapped, apparently contradicting an earlier statement from her. She reportedly considered resigning in August 2014, along with other left-wing cabinet members such as

Arnaud Montebourg Arnaud Montebourg (; born 30 October 1962) is a French politician, lawyer and entrepreneur who served as the Minister of Industrial Renewal from 2012 to 2014,the terrorist attacks that shook Paris on 13 November;

Minister of the Interior An interior minister (sometimes called a minister of internal affairs or minister of home affairs) is a cabinet official position that is responsible for internal affairs, such as public security, civil registration and identification, emergency ...

had taken charge of the constitutional reform draft law, which would normally have been part of her portfolio. One week later, she published ''Murmures à la jeunesse'', a book about this proposal.

Later career

Despite being urged to join the race by supporters, Taubira chose not to run in the Socialist Party's 2017 presidential primary, and remained neutral in the contest; following his nomination Taubira later endorsed

Benoît Hamon Benoît Hamon (; born 26 June 1967) is a French politician known for his former role within the Socialist Party (PS) and Party of European Socialists (PES) and his political party Génération.s. Hamon joined the Socialist Party in 1988 and ...

as the party's candidate for the

2017 French presidential election The 2017 French presidential election was held on 23 April and 7 May 2017. As no candidate won a majority in the first round, a runoff was held between the top two candidates, Emmanuel Macron of En Marche! (EM) and Marine Le Pen of the Nationa ...

. In the second round of the presidential election she called on voters to rally behind

Emmanuel Macron Emmanuel Macron (; born 21 December 1977) is a French politician who has served as President of France since 2017. ''Ex officio'', he is also one of the two Co-Princes of Andorra. Prior to his presidency, Macron served as Minister of Econ ...

. Taubira formally announced her candidacy for the 2022 presidential election in January 2022 and won the " people's primary" intended to select a consensus left-wing candidate. By March 2022, the

Constitutional Council Constitutional Council might refer to: * Constitutional Council (Chad) * Constitutional Council (France) * Constitutional Council (Ivory Coast) * Constitutional Council (Sri Lanka) * Constitutional Council (Cambodia) * Constitutional Council (Kaz ...

published data showing Taubira had failed to win enough endorsements from elected officials to qualify for the presidential election.

Political views

Immigration

Taubira is a vocal critic of illegal immigration to

. In 2007 Taubira stated that "We are at an identity turning point. The ethnic Guyanese have become a minority on their own land" as a result of illegal immigration. In recent years Taubira has called for solidarity with

refugees A refugee, conventionally speaking, is a displaced person who has crossed national borders and who cannot or is unwilling to return home due to well-founded fear of persecution.

Metropolitan France Metropolitan France (french: France métropolitaine or ''la Métropole''), also known as European France (french: Territoire européen de la France) is the area of France which is geographically in Europe. This collective name for the European ...

Victim of racist attacks

Like other female ministers Taubira has faced many racist and sexist insults. Taubira allowed the Guyanese political party

Walwari Walwari () is a political party in the French overseas department and region of French Guiana, founded in 1992 by Christiane Taubira and her husband Roland Delannon.Front National The National Rally (french: Rassemblement National, ; RN), until 2018 known as the National Front (french: link=no, Front National, ; FN), is a far-rightAbridged list of reliable sources that refer to National Rally as far-right: Academic: ...

who in October 2013 shared a racist cartoon comparing Taubira to a

monkey Monkey is a common name that may refer to most mammals of the infraorder Simiiformes, also known as the simians. Traditionally, all animals in the group now known as simians are counted as monkeys except the apes, which constitutes an incomple ...

on her

Facebook Facebook is an online social media and social networking service owned by American company Meta Platforms. Founded in 2004 by Mark Zuckerberg with fellow Harvard College students and roommates Eduardo Saverin, Andrew McCollum, Dustin M ...

page. Leclère was sentenced to nine months in prison and five years of ineligibility by the court before the judgement was quashed on appeal as Walwari's actions were deemed invalid.« Anne-Sophie Leclère, ex-candidate FN qui avait comparé Christiane Taubira à un singe, condamnée à une amende avec sursis » rchive huffiningtonpost.fr, 28 septembre 2016 (consulté le 14 février 2017). In September 2016 the Paris criminal court, which had opened an investigation when the facts were revealed, found Leclère guilty of the crime of public insult and sentenced her to a suspended fine of 3,000 euros. In November 2013 the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights condemned the comments, which it considered as racist attacks against Taubira, in particular those on the cover of the extreme right-wing weekly ''

Minute The minute is a unit of time usually equal to (the first sexagesimal fraction) of an hour, or 60 seconds. In the UTC time standard, a minute on rare occasions has 61 seconds, a consequence of leap seconds (there is a provision to insert a nega ...

'', which featured her photo with the caption: "Clever as a monkey, Taubira finds the banana". The weekly rejected the accusation of racism, arguing that it merely used two French expressions, "the second of which - the part about the banana - is familiarly used to describe a person in good shape". The minister denounced comments of "extreme violence", denying her "belonging to the human race". The weekly's editor was sentenced to a fine of 10,000 euros for its front page on 30 October 2014. The public prosecutor's office appealed against the fine, saying that it was too lenient.

Honours

Taubira holds a Dr. Sc. (honorary doctorate degree) in law and human rights from the

University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee A university () is an institution of higher (or tertiary) education and research which awards academic degrees in several academic disciplines. Universities typically offer both undergraduate and postgraduate programs. In the United States, the ...

Personal life

Taubira has been married twice. She has four children with her second husband, Roland Delannon. They are divorced. Delannon is a separatist politician who founded the

Decolonization and Social Emancipation Movement The Decolonization and Social Emancipation Movement (french: Mouvement de décolonisation et d'émancipation sociale, MDES) is a pro-independence political party in French Guiana. Platform The principal platform of the party is the demand for in ...

; he was jailed for 18 months for planning to blow up an oil and gas facility in the 1980s.

Books

* ''L'Esclavage raconté à ma fille'' ("Slavery explained to my daughter"), Paris, Bibliophane, coll. « Les mots à coeur », 2002 (réimpr. 2006), 165 p. ( et 2-86970-122-5). * ''Codes noirs : de l'esclavage aux abolitions'', Paris, Dalloz, coll. « A savoir », 2006, 150 p. () (introduction). * ''Rendez-vous avec la République'' ("Meeting with the Republic"), Paris, La Découverte, coll. « Cahiers libres », 2006, 195 p. (). * ''Égalité pour les exclus : le politique face à l'histoire et à la mémoire coloniales'', Paris, Temps Présent, 2009, 93 p. (). * ''Mes météores : combats politiques au long cours, Paris, Flammarion'', 2012, 551 p. (). * ''Paroles de liberté'' ("Words of Freedom"), Paris, Flammarion, coll. " Café Voltaire ", 2014, 138 p. (). * ''Murmures à la jeunesse'', 2016. * ''Nous habitons la Terre'', 2017, REY, 128 p. (). * ''Nuit d'épine'' ("Thorny Night"), Paris, Plon, 2019, 288 p. (). * ''Gran Balan'', Paris, Plon, 2020, 480 p. ().

References

External links

*
Page on the French National Assembly website

www.gouvernement.fr
{{DEFAULTSORT:Taubira, Christiane 1952 births Living people Black French politicians Candidates in the 2002 French presidential election French Guianan politicians French Ministers of Justice French people of French Guianan descent Grand Croix of the Légion d'honneur LGBT rights activists from France MEPs for France 1994–1999 20th-century women MEPs for France Paris 2 Panthéon-Assas University alumni Paris-Sorbonne University alumni People from Cayenne Politicians of the French Fifth Republic Radical Party of the Left MEPs Walwari politicians 21st-century French women politicians Women government ministers of France French Guianan women in politics Women members of the National Assembly (France) Deputies of the 12th National Assembly of the French Fifth Republic Deputies of the 13th National Assembly of the French Fifth Republic Female justice ministers Members of Parliament for French Guiana