France Still Concealing Sensitive Memory Files
The French Ministry of Culture published an article entitled “History, memory… how archives open up to as many people as possible” on its website, to define the ways to open the archive related to history and memory for the most significant possible number of audiences, explaining that “the early opening of the sensitive archives, guides to sources… For several years, the State policy regarding archives has been open to as many people as possible and resonates with the extension of the duty of memory”.
“If the anticipated opening of archives fully participates in the memorial policy of the State – that of the files of the Papon trials is further proof of this –, they also enshrine the principle of universal access to archives. Decryption with Jean-Charles Bédague, Deputy Director of Management, Communication and Valorization of Archives at the Interministerial Service of the Archives of France at the Ministry of Culture”, it added.
It confirmed that; Algeria, Rwanda, Papon trial… the list of archives opened in advance seems to be closely linked to the memorial policy of the State? adding; “Opening the archives means allowing all users early consultation of archival holdings that are not normally immediately accessible before the deadlines for communicability that weigh on them have expired. This faculty was instituted by the 1979 law on archives but was not implemented until the end of the 1990s. Between 1998 and 2017, the Second World War was almost the only historical period to benefit from it. Since 2019, the connection between the State’s memorial policy and the opening of archives has accelerated. Thus, when the President of the Republic entrusted a research commission with the study of the role of France in Rwanda between 1990 and 1994, and in particular during the genocide of the Tutsi, the submission of the report was accompanied by an opening of archives. The same is true for the various initiatives that have been made in favour of the appeasement of the memories of colonization and the Algerian war”.
The French ministry asserted in its publication that “the other major change is that more and more recent boxes have been opened. However, since these archives relate to close periods and to events that are still often raw, they are opened taking into account the fact that in all the collections relating to the themes targeted, certain documents are occasionally too sensitive to be returned. immediately accessible. When we opened the judicial archives of the Second World War, in 2015, we thus excluded the files of the trials for clandestine abortion”.
The source noted that the mechanism that allows the opening of some documents to the public requires prior approval from the authorities that issued the documents, which was taken in the early opening process of the Papon trials’ archive that took place after the approval of the Ministry of Justice and in close cooperation with its departments.
The ministry talked about the judicial archive of Algeria by saying: “By opening the archives by this mechanism, everyone is authorized to have access to them without any particular formality: there is no longer any reserve commitment to sign, as is the case when a user requests early access to individually, and above all, there are no longer any admissibility criteria for an access request”, adding; ” As soon as we open by general derogation, everyone has access to it, it’s universal. We facilitate and avoid procedures: before we decided to open the judicial archives of the Algerian war, nothing prevented the grandson of one of the people concerned from applying for early access on an individual basis, which was generally granted to him/her. But filling out a form can be scary. As soon as the consultation of documents can be done without formality, without paper to fill out, and without having to justify a particular procedure, we remove psychological locks on access to archives”.
The ministry explained “since 2017, there has been a French national portal, the Francearchive portal which brings together the research instruments of all the Archives of France, regardless of their institutional attachment. We have added guides that describe the most educational way possible and how to seek and refer to good institutions. These guides participate in their own right in better access to the archives, which is too often summed up in a simple legal mechanism, but which is only complete if we also facilitate in terms of tools and support personalized concrete identification of documents”.
It concluded by saying; “In France, access to public archives is a constitutional right: the citizen must be able to ask his administration to account for the decisions it takes and to do so, have access to the archives. Thus, in principle, anyone who so requests may have access to documents produced or received by the State, local authorities or public establishments. As an exception, the legislator has however provided for a certain number of cases for which this immediate access is deferred in time. It is a balancing mechanism between access to information and the protection of a certain number of secrets. The law lists the secrets, the interests to be protected, and sets deadlines which are all the longer as the secret or the interest to be protected is identified as sensitive”, underlines Jean-Charles Bédague. A 25-year period thus protects the secrecy of government deliberations or business secrecy. It goes to 50 years to protect privacy (“it’s very short, in other countries neighbouring France, privacy is protected for 60 years, even 75 years”). Finally, a period of 75 years protects judicial archives (judicial police and court records). This period is extended to 100 years when these archives concern minors or infringe on the privacy of sexual life”.
