Torture The Role of Ideology in the French-Algerian War

Subjects:

• Multicultural Studies » African Studies

Reviews:

• From the Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen in 1789, through the Universal Declaration of Human Rights 1948, and the European Convention on Human Rights 1950, France has subscribed to the right of an individual to be protected from torture. How, then, did France condone the use of torture in the Algerian War? Maran's well-researched study describes the reasons for torture and the tension that accompanied this change in French ideology. The French mission civilisatrice to Algeria was badly damaged when French national law failed to protect the right to be secure from torture. `For torture to occur, the victim must be seen as subhuman by the torturer.' Torture supported by the French state was rationalized as a regrettably necessary tactic during the Algerian War. Questions of French politics superseded questions of French law. There is not another book on North Africa that addresses the problem of torture from an ideological perspective. In this day of emphasis on human rights throughout the world, Maran's book will be a valuable addition to both undergraduate and graduate libraries.
  —Choice
• The scope and impact of this work is almost belied by its subtitle. This is far more than another book on a trendy subject (and alas a commonly accepted practice) viewed in the context of a long ago war. Dr. Maran is a human rights `activist' who is unusually well equipped by training and experience to take a balanced and dispassionate view of this aspect of the Algerian War. . . . This is a beautifully crafted, carefully researched and throrughly documented work framed around a refreshingly non-legal methodology, a social scientist's approach that is no less valid and effective for its being an alternative approach. . . . This work, a study on the ideological institutionalization of torture as an accepted if submerged part of war, and especially "civil" war, has much to say about present-day international society.
  —International Journal of Legal Information
• This book is one result of [Maran's] scholarly work. . . . This book is an examination of the French civilizing mission and its contradictions with respect to torture tactics used in the French-Algerian War . . . The strength of the book is in its attempt to link the ideology of the civilizing mission and notions of international law and morality to the actualities of the combat environment in Algeria. . . . this book adds to the literature on tactics an behavior in revolutionary wars. . . .
  —Perspectives on Political Science
• Maran's treatment of French torture in Algeria is entirely relevant to people in the United States today.
  —The Nation

Table of Contents:

• Introduction
• Torture
• International Human Rights Law
• Mission Civilisatrice: Ideology, Practice, Implications
• Methodology
• Narrative of Projected Chapters
• Discourse of the French Government
• Protection of the Individual by State
• France's System of Justice with respect to Algeria
• International Legal Norms
• Government Responses to Accounts of Torture
• Charles de Gaulle
• Discourse of the French Military
• Substantive Content
• Arrangement of Chapter
• Discourse of Soldiers
• Discourse of the Commanders
• Discourse of the Intellectuals
• "Intellectuals" in Context
• Universalism
• Intellectuals as a Political Factor
• Wartime Activities of Intellectuals
• Availability of Public Information on Torture
• Discourse of Intellectuals
• Discourse of Intellectuals Who Were Tortured
• Conclusions
• Summary and Conclusions
• The Civilizing Mission's Historic Underevaluation
• The Civilizing Mission in French Theory and Practice on Rights
• The Civilizing Mission Ideology and Torture
• Antinomies of the Ideology
• Rights in France
• Bibliography
• Index