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Abstract
This article investigates the conceptual and organisational connections between late nineteenth-century civil-liberties activism and the emerging human-rights paradigm of the twentieth century. The comparison of the two largest and most influential civil-liberties organisations to emerge in Britain and France before the First World War (the British Personal Rights Association and the French Ligue des droits de l'homme) has three objectives: to place the two groups in a wider context of civil-liberty organisations of the pre-First World War era and to identify personal connections and inspirations. Secondly, by analysing functional definitions of ‘rights’ and who these rights should apply to, the article argues that although one group conceptualised their activism on the basis of ‘civil liberties’ and the other on ‘human rights’ there were significant similarities between the approaches of the two groups. Moreover, differences stemmed from internal politics within each group rather than the dissimilar conceptual framework. Finally the article seeks to understand why the Ligue des droits de l'homme was much more successful than the British Personal Rights Association both in its ability to mobilise supporters, and in inspiring sister organisations in other European countries.
Notes
1. In Britain the Vigilance Association/Personal Rights Association (1871–1978); the Law and Liberty League (1887–8), the Police and Public Vigilance Society (1902–26); in France La Société protectrice des citoyens contre les abus established by Victor Hugo and Clemenceau (1881); L'Association pour la Défense des Droits Individuels by Yves Guyot (1887); the Société des Droits de l'Homme et du Citoyen established by Clemenceau and Arthur Ranc (1888); and the Ligue des Droits de l'Homme (1898–1940; 1946–). In Germany a few small organisations were established, mainly to be closed down within a few months. These included, Verein für Rechtsschutz und Justizreform (1883–4); The Verein zum Schutz gegen Schutzleute – Rechtsschutzverein (1895-after 1906); The Bund für Menschenrechte (1903–5), which fought for the decriminalisation of homosexuality.
2. CitationAfshari, “Historiography,” 10.
3. The VA-PRA existed until 1978. The LDH was disbanded during the Nazi occupation of France, but regrouped after the Second World War and is still active.
4. CitationCmiel, “Recent History,” 125.
5. If the concept was rarely used in the late 1930s by French speakers, as Burgers found, this may be because the concept had been appropriated by the LDH to the extent that people who were not associated with the LDH preferred to employ different vocabulary. CitationBurgers, “Road to San Francisco,” 459–64.
6. A systematic scrutiny of the national catalogues of publications in German, Dutch and Danish shows that the concept of Human Rights (Menschenrechte, Mensenrechte, Menneskerettigheder) was not used until after the First World War, except in works on eighteenth-century Enlightenment philosophy or the French Revolution. Only German activists for the decriminalisation of homosexuality employed the concept of Menschenrechte during this period.
7. CitationRebérioux, “Politique et société,” 16.
8. The Belgian Ligue des droits de l'homme (1901); the Ligue Portugaise des droits de l'homme (1908); Bund neues Vaterland (1914) later Liga für Menschenrechte (1922); La Ligue internationale des droits de l'homme (1922); Lega Italiana dei Diritti dell'Uomo (1922); Österreisische Liga für Menschenrechte (1926) the Ligue suisse des droits de l'homme (1928).
9. CitationMurphy, World War 1; CitationWalker, Defense.
10. CitationCharlot and Charlot, “Rassemblement.”
11. “Les droits de l'homme en politique, 1898–1939,” Mouvement social (special issue on the LDH), 183 (1998); CitationJones, “Civil Rights;” CitationIrvine, “Politics,” 5–28; CitationPerry, Remembering; CitationIngram, “Defending;” Naquet, Ligue; CitationIrvine, Justice.
12. CitationBristow, Individualism; CitationBristow, “Liberty and Property,” 772–3; CitationRoberts, “Feminism;” CitationRoberts, English Morals, 253.
13. Naquet, Ligue, in 1353 pages mentions VA-PRA in only one footnote; Irvine, Justice, compares the LDH briefly with the ACLU in his introduction, but does not mention VA-PRA. Moyn seems unaware of VA-PRA's existence as he describes the LDH as the first citizens' rights organisation CitationMoyn, Utopia, 38–9.
14. CitationHunt, Inventing; CitationHunt, Revolutions; CitationHufton, Historical Change, 6–8.
15. CitationLauren, Evolution; CitationIshay, History; CitationHeadey, Europeanization.
16. CitationHenkin, Age; CitationSellars, Rise; CitationMazower, “Strange Triumph;” Cmiel, “Recent History;” CitationWhelan, Indivisible.
17. Moyn, Utopia.
18. CitationQuataert, Advocating Dignity, 10–11.
19. Afzhari, “Historiography,” 34–5.
20. CitationJohansen, “Complain,” 129–32.
21. CitationMachelon “Liberté,” 142; CitationJaume, Individu, 367–405; CitationRosanvallon, Démocratie, 351; CitationRosanvallon, Demands, 63, 70.
22. CitationNaquet, Ligue, 144–9.
23. The Journal of the Vigilance Association for the Defence of Personal Rights (JVADPR), 15 Jan. 1881, 1.
24. CitationButler, Government by Police; CitationAnon., Police Rule; CitationAnon., Personal Rights Association.
25. Formed in November 1887 in the wake of the Trafalgar Square Riots, it was already disbanded in December 1888.
26. CitationClark, National Council.
27. Bristow, “Defence League,” 772–3.
28. JVADPR 53, 15 Aug. 1885, 71
29. Ibid. See notably the public fall-out between the Executive Committee and Lucy Wilson. JVADPR 56, 15 Jan. 1886, 5; 57, 15 Feb. 1886, 10, 12–13.
30. Bristow, Individualism, 69; Annual Reports for PRA, 1904–12.
31. The Cass vs. Endacott case of 1887 was raised in Parliament by VA-PRA member Atherley-Jones, MP.
32. Times, 9 July 1887, F.C. Banks, “Letter to the Editor;” Anon., Police Rule; CitationPhillimore, Albert Bach; CitationLevy, Miss Jessie Brown.
33. CitationAtherley-Jones, Looking Back, 49, 191.
34. Duclert, “‘l'époque héroïque,’” 37; Charlot and Charlot, “Rassemblement,” 995; Naquet, Ligue, 76, 94, 102, 188.
35. CitationJohnson and Johnson, Josephine Butler, 166; CitationFiaux, Police des moeurs, 392; CitationFiaux, Yves Guyot, 29.
36. The Personal Rights Journal (PRJ), 15 Apr. 1887, 34–5.
37. Naquet, Ligue, 307–9.
38. CitationReinach, Affaire Dreyfus, 547, cit. Duclert, “‘l'époque héroïque,’” 39.
39. Y. Guyot, “Editorial” Siècle, 1 July 1898; Charlot and Charlot, “Rassemblement,” 996; CitationNaquet, “Mystique,” 69–70.
40. First draft of the statutes dated 4 July 1898, in CitationSee, Histoire, 101; CitationDuclert, “‘l'époque héroïque,’” 41.
41. Charlot and Charlot, “Rassemblement,” 995–1028; Rebérioux, “Histoire séculaire,” 28–34; Duclert, “‘l'époque héroïque,’” 28.
42. Naquet, Ligue, 131; CitationFerle, Ligue, 52.
43. Naquet, Ligue, 122–3. Figure for Dec. 1901.
44. At its peak in the early 1930s the organisation had 180,000 members. Ferle, Ligue, 52.
45. Irvine, Justice, 23.
46. Naquet, Ligue, 125.
47. Ferle, Ligue, 52; Naquet, Ligue, 131.
48. Irvine, Justice, 6.
49. A[rchives] N[ationales], F7/12554, “Rapports quotidiens de la Préfecture de Police, 1904–1913”: Figures for 1904.
50. CitationBaldwin, “Victorian State,” 53–4.
51. CitationBrooke, “Public Sphere,” 94.
52. Ishay, History, 8; Hunt, Inventing, 187–90; Quataert, Advocating Dignity, 12.
53. Irvine, Justice, 6; JVADPR, 15 Jan. 1881, 1; LDH, Premier Manifeste de la LDH (4 juillet 1898), CitationDelajarrie and Wallon, Combat, 115–6; LDH, Statuts de la LDH (Paris, 1900).
54. CitationHarling, “Victorian State,” 26–7.
55. Afshari, “Historiography,” 10; See also Cmiel, “Recent History,” 128.
56. Moyn, Utopia, 26.
57. CitationMorhardt, Oeuvre, 18–26, 31.
58. Bulletin officiel de la ligue des droits de l'homme (BOLDH), 1901–2: declarations by local LDH chapters in support of Romanian Jews, Armenians within the Ottoman Empire, or atrocities in the Boer War. Morhardt, Oeuvre, 18–26, 35. Lauren, Evolution, 73.
59. Morhardt, Oeuvre, 31–2.
60. CitationBiagini, “Radicalism,” 103–4.
61. PRJ, 1 Jan. 1887, 5.
62. Yves Guyot was Vice-President from the early 1880s to the First World War. Other Vice-Presidents included: Léon Donnat, Municipal Councillor of Paris; Ernesto Nathan; Lion van Houten, former Dutch Minister of the Interior; William Steadman Aldis, Professor of Mathematics, New Zealand.
63. CitationButler, Personal Reminiscences, 66–7.
64. James Stansfeld and his sister-in-law Emily Ashurst Venturi; and Jacob Bright (brother of John Bright), his wife Ursula Mellor Bright, and several of their nephews and nieces of the Bright McLaren or the Bright Lucas clans. Leading Quakers like Franklin and John Thomasson (also family linked to the Brights); Charles Bell Taylor and Llewin Atherley-Jones, son of the Chartist Ernest Jones.
65. Bristow, Individualism, 772–3; Bristow, Vice, 84–5; Roberts, “Feminism,” 98.
66. Including Auberon Herbert, Wordsworth Donisthorpe, Roland Knyvet Wilson, the Tory Feminist Emilia Boucherret, the Tory MP H.C. Stephens and Yves Guyot.
67. The MP H.C. Stephens and Emilia Boucherret.
68. CitationParry, “Liberalism,” 90.
69. BOLDH, 15 Jul. 1904, 891.
70. Delajarrie and Wallon, Combat, 10–2; Duclert, “‘l'époque héroïque,’” 40.
71. Statutes of VA 1871; Constitution printed in Anon, Police Rule.
72. These included the following leading feminists: Ursula Bright, Elizabeth Wolstenholme-Elmy, Clementia Taylor (née Doughty), Emilie Ashurst Venturi and Lucy Wilson.
73. Membership lists published in the Annual Reports, 1904–14. By 1906 seven out of 17 Executive Committee members were women. PRA Annual Report 1906, back page.
74. Josephine Butler; Elizabeth Wolstenholme-Elmy; Clementia Taylor (née Doughty); Ursula Bright; Jacob Bright; Katherine Thomasson; Priscilla Bright McLaren; Margaret Bright Lucas and Millicent Garrett Fawcett.
75. JVADPR, 15 Dec. 1884, 100–1; ibid., 15 Feb. 1885, 9–10; ibid., 15 Apr. 1885, 36.
76. Roberts, “Feminism,” 107; PRA, Annual Report, 1907, 14.
77. Irvine, Justice, 6–7.
78. Duclert, “‘l'époque héroïque,’” 30–2; Irvine, Justice, 6, 7, 14.
79. BOLDH, 15 Jul. 1909, minutes from the Annual Congres; Morhardt, Oeuvre, 170.
80. Irvine, Justice, 82; CitationFabre “Ligue des droits de l'homme,” 31.
81. BOLDH, 15 Jul. 1909, minutes from the Annual Congress; Morhardt, Oeuvre, 170.
82. Irvine, Justice, 6–7, 81–4.
83. Parry, “Liberalism,” 73, 83–5; CitationStedman Jones, Outcast, 303; CitationWalkowitz, Prostitution, 521.
84. Guyot, Siècle, 55.
85. CitationGuyot, Tyranny, viii; CitationGuyot, Démocratie Individualiste, 230–1.
86. Rosanvallon, Démocratie, 63, 70.
87. Individualist, Mar. 1907, 24; Jan–Feb. 1914, 2–5.
88. PRA, Annual Report, 1914, 12–3.
89. Individualist, Nov.–Dec. 1915.
90. CitationLupton, Address; Bristow, Individualism, 70–1.
91. CitationGraham, Conscription, 256.
92. Individualist, Nov.–Dec. 1915, 59–60.
93. Even a pacifist like Ferdinand Buisson before the World War “joyfully” accepted military service in defence of a “Patrie morale”. Radical, 23 Sept. 1905.
94. BOLDH, 15 Dec. 1901, Séance du Comité Central 1 Décembre 1901: Affaire Goutaudier.
95. Irvine, Justice, 132–3.
96. CitationPoncy, Campagne; Naquet, Ligue, 655.
97. CitationMill, On Liberty, 14–5; Biagini, “Radicalism,” 101–4.
98. JVADPR, 15 Jan. 1881, 3–5, “The work over the past ten years”.
99. Ibid. 15 May 1881, 42; JVADPR, 15 July 1881, 58–5.
100. Levy “Introduction,” in Guyot Tyranny, xi.
101. JVADPR, 15 June 1881, 50–1.
102. JVADPR, 15 Jane 1881, 3–5, “The work over the past ten years”.
103. JVADPR, 15 Feb. 1881, 17–9.
104. Art. 10 “Nul ne doit être inquiété pour ses opinions, même religieuses, pourvu que la manifestation ne trouble pas l’ordre public établi par la loi.”
105. Irvine, Justice and Politics, 3.
106. Morhardt, Oeuvre, “Instruction publique: enseignement primaire et secondaire,” 132–7.
107. Morhardt, Oeuvre, “Cultes: liberté de conscience,” 51–3 and “Séparation de l'Eglise et de l'Etat,” 56–60.
108. Morhardt, Oeuvre, “Séparation de l'Eglise et de l'Etat,” 56–60.
109. CitationGuyot, Pretensions, 1; Rebérioux, “Ligue des droits de l'homme” in Affaire Dreyfus, 416.
110. Morhardt, Oeuvre, “Travail,” 227–30.
111. Charlot and Charlot, “Rassemblement,” 997; Duclert, “‘l'époque héroïque,’” 27–8.
112. Naquet, Ligue, 262, 307.
113. Irvine, Justice, 12–6.