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2mo ago

French National Assembly Votes to Repeal the 1685 Code Noir

The lower house formally struck the colonial-era edict from the statute books to acknowledge past abuses and require study of slavery’s legacy.

French lawmaker Max Mathiasin of the French Caribbean island Guadeloupe, poses at the entrance of the National Assembly in Paris, Wednesday, May 27, 2026, before lawmakers examine a bill to formally repeal the Code Noir, or Black Code, the 17th-century royal edict that governed slavery in French colonies and treated enslaved people as property. (AP Photo/Thomas Padilla)
A statue named "Chains," by French artist Driss Sans-Arcidet, honoring the memory of the abolition of slavery, is photographed in a park in Paris, Wednesday, May 27, 2026, as France's National Assembly examines a bill to formally repeal the Code Noir, or Black Code, the 17th-century royal edict that governed slavery in French colonies and treated enslaved people as property. (AP Photo/Thomas Padilla)
A memorial to the abolition of slavery in the French city of Nantes
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Overview

  • Lawmakers in the National Assembly voted unanimously to adopt the repeal bill, with the 254-0 vote sending the measure to the Senate for final approval.
  • The Code Noir was a set of royal edicts from 1685 that legally treated enslaved people as "movable property" and prescribed brutal punishments such as branding, mutilation and death.
  • President Emmanuel Macron backed the repeal but the text of the bill deliberately omits any program of reparations or direct compensation for descendants of the enslaved.
  • The legislation requires the government to report to parliament on how colonial law shaped inequalities and to assess how the history of slavery is taught in schools, setting a timetable for official study and education work.
  • Critics from overseas departments say the vote is mainly symbolic because poverty, high unemployment and systemic racism persist in territories such as Guadeloupe, Martinique, French Guiana and Mayotte, and they continue to press for concrete measures beyond repeal.