Refugee rights should be protected under the principle of universal equality, former French Minister of Justice Christiane Taubira said in a talk Monday night.
Taubira delivered the speech, which was hosted by the University of Chicago via Skype, with the assistance of a translator. About 25 people attended the talk in the School of Global and International Studies.
Taubira was introduced by Jennifer Wild, a professor at the University of Chicago who gave a brief history of Taubira’s professional accomplishments, such as helping legalize marriage equality in France and pushing to define slavery and the slave trade as a crime against humanity.
“She gives voice to those silenced by history and institutions,” Wild said.
Taubira linked historical definitions of equality, as defined by documents such as the Magna Carta and the Declaration of Independence, to modern-day civil rights issues.
“In all parts of the world, we find ancient documents stating that all human beings are equal,” Taubira said through a translator. “We are faced with natural rights, the rights of people.”
Taubira called the relocation of refugees a structural inequality, which she defined as the inequality between men and women or between free and slave.
“There is an upheaval in the world, and we are witnessing it,” Taubira said. “In a few months, we are going to have to face this new era of human migration. When faced with these people, we have to think of the matter of human rights as well as citizen rights.”
Taubira said studying ancient documents calling men equal could help modern lawmakers decide what to do with civil rights issues that affect those around the world.
“What matters is that we have to have an anthropological approach to equality,” she said. “Then it sends us back to the following question: the freedom that we are defending, are they for all human condition or only people close to us?”
She stressed that justice could only be served properly and equality could only be guaranteed if a state’s justice department was independent from politics and the rest of the state.
Taubira resigned from the position of Minister of Justice to protest what she saw as a trade of civil rights for increased security measures.
“Justice has to be independent from the state, which is a big responsibility for the magistrates,” she said. “Who can have the power that far outweighs the power of the states? But they have to be watchful not to position themselves above the law.”
Taubira ended her speech by urging young people around the world to not become complacent in the fights for civil rights..
“Do not think that my generation has done all the work that needed to be done, that there’s nothing that needs to be undone or redone,” Taubira said. “You have a role to play. The world is closer to imperfection than perfection. But we have to fight that.”
She emphasized the people involved in justice had to be true to their own consciences in the end and shape the law accordingly.
“It is not the rule of law that guides us, it is us guiding the rule of law,” Taubira said.
