France’s Senate votes to repeal the 341-year-old Code Noir, reigniting debate over colonial slavery, historical injustice, reparations and accountability for the transatlantic slave trade. Share For more than three centuries, a law that reduced Black human beings to property remained part of France’s legal history. Now, 178 years after slavery was abolished, the French Parliament has finally taken the extraordinary step of formally repealing the Code Noir, a colonial-era decree that helped legitimise one of humanity’s darkest chapters. The decision has been described as a historic act of recognition, but it also raises an uncomfortable question: how could legislation that sanctioned the ownership, punishment and exploitation of human beings remain formally unrepealed for so long? On Tuesday, 20 October 2026, France’s Senate approved legislation abolishing the Code Noir, or “Black Code”, first introduced under King Louis XIV in 1685. The measure ha...
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