CGN Wire: French National Assembly Votes to Repeal Slavery-Era Code Noir

PARIS | France’s National Assembly voted unanimously Thursday to repeal the colonial-era Code Noir, the 1685 decree that governed slavery in French colonies and treated enslaved people as property.

The 254-0 vote does not change the legal status of slavery in France, which was abolished in 1848. Instead, lawmakers framed the measure as a symbolic act of memory and public recognition, saying the text remained an unresolved part of France’s statutory history even though it had no modern legal force.

The Code Noir, signed under King Louis XIV, regulated slavery across French colonies and imposed rules on enslaved people, free Black people and colonial society. The text has long been viewed as one of the clearest legal expressions of France’s role in the transatlantic slave system.

The bill now moves to the French Senate, where supporters expect it to be considered next. Reuters reported that the measure avoids a direct reparations provision, even as the vote renewed debate over France’s colonial history, overseas territories and the long-term consequences of slavery.

For descendants of enslaved people in Guadeloupe, Martinique, French Guiana, Réunion and other places connected to French colonial rule, the vote carries emotional weight even without immediate financial redress. It places the name of the law itself back into public debate and forces the republic to confront a document that codified human bondage.

Critics of purely symbolic measures argue that repealing an unenforced text is not enough without investment, education and structural response. Supporters say formal repeal still matters because law is not only a tool of enforcement; it is also a record of what a state has chosen to tolerate, preserve or repudiate.

Additional Reporting By: Reuters; Associated Press; Le Monde