The Pacific archipelago of New Caledonia and the South American territory of Guiana are both part of France. But in these remnants of the French colonial past, indigenous peoples suffer from violations and non-recognition of their human rights. France's human rights commission has now called on the country to recognise New Caledonia's Kanaks and Guiana's Native Americans as indigenous peoples and to grant them full rights, as laid out in the United Nations charter. Julien Sartre reports.
Colonialism is a controversial subject that crops up regularly in France, particularly when a presidential election approaches. This time, conservative candidate François Fillon has called it both “a sharing of our culture” and an “abomination”. Meanwhile independent candidate Emmanuel Macron has said it was “a crime against humanity”, but then found himself apologising to people who had to leave Algeria in 1962 after a bloody independence war.
