France recognizes 'slavery and the slave trade as a crime against humanity'

On 10 May 2001, the French Senate unanimously passes the so-called (first) Taubira law recognizing 'slavery and the slave trade as a crime against humanity'.The original proposal called for the creation of a committee of experts to examine 'the conditions for reparations resulting from this crime'; however, this article is replaced by a committee of experts to guarantee the 'continuation of the memory [of slavery] for generations to come'.