- Person
- Alfred Dreyfus
- Lived
- 1859–1935
- Field
- Army officer
- From
- French
The story
Alfred Dreyfus, a Jewish artillery officer born in Alsace in 1859, was convicted of treason by a French court martial in December 1894 and sent to Devil's Island. The trial was held behind closed doors and relied on a secret file his lawyers never saw. When evidence emerged that another officer, Ferdinand Walsin Esterhazy, was the real spy, the army acquitted Esterhazy and held to its verdict against Dreyfus.
On 13 January 1898 the novelist Emile Zola published his open letter J'accuse in the newspaper L'Aurore, accusing the authorities of covering up the truth. The case split France. Those who believed Dreyfus was innocent argued that it was not only about one man, but about whether the state could ignore the basic rights promised in the Declaration of the Rights of Man of 1789.
On 4 June 1898 a group of Dreyfus's defenders met in Paris and founded the Ligue des droits de l'homme, the Human Rights League. Its leading figure was Ludovic Trarieux, a former Minister of Justice who had given up his political career to defend Dreyfus. Joseph Reinach and a small group of intellectuals, among them the sociologist Emile Durkheim, also took part. The League's purpose was to defend the principles of the Declaration of the Rights of Man.
Dreyfus was pardoned in 1899 and fully cleared by the Court of Cassation on 12 July 1906. But the League did not disband when his case was won. It went on to defend the rights of many other people. It opposed the use of torture during the Algerian War, supported the prisoners' rights group co-founded by Michel Foucault in 1971, and challenged a 2005 law that required schools to teach the positive effects of colonialism, which was repealed the following year. Dissolved under the Vichy regime, it was secretly rebuilt in 1943 by figures including René Cassin.
Today the League's statutes commit it to the Declarations of 1789 and 1793, the Universal Declaration of Human Rights of 1948 and the European Convention on Human Rights. It has thousands of members in more than 300 local sections and belongs to the International Federation for Human Rights.
Why it matters
A human rights organisation born from one wrongful conviction still works across France to defend the rights and equal treatment of everyone, more than a century later.
About Alfred Dreyfus
Jewish French artillery captain falsely convicted of treason in 1894. The long fight to clear him became a landmark struggle for truth, justice and equal citizenship.
More about Alfred Dreyfus
Alfred Dreyfus in the news
Sources
- Human Rights League (France) Wikipedia
- Ligue des droits de l'homme Encyclopædia Universalis
- Affaire Dreyfus (repères chronologiques) Encyclopædia Universalis
- Alfred Dreyfus Wikipedia
Another act of tikkun olam. This is part of tikkun olam, the Jewish idea of repairing the world, and every one of us can add to it.