Strange phenomenon noticed on Twitter. On the site of the Elysée, the Declaration of the rights of man and of the citizen (DDHC) would have been modified. The change in question would concern article 1 which would stipulate according to the Internet user: “All human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights. They are endowed with reason and conscience and should act towards one another in a spirit of brotherhood”.
Henceforth on the site of the Elysée, it would be written: “Men are born and remain free and equal in law. Social distinctions can only be based on common utility”. Also according to the Internet user, this would allow Emmanuel Macron to free himself from certain rights. “Is it to justify the suspension of non vax? Is it preparing for apartheid? “, we wonder on Twitter.
But was there really a suspicious modification on the Elysée site? 20 minutes make the point.
FAKE OFF
On the Elysée site, the Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen is well quoted and we read on the first article: “Men are born and remain free and equal in rights. Social distinctions can only be based on common utility”. This was adopted in 1789 during a new political era post-French Revolution. The Declaration appears in particular in the preamble of the Constitution and its constitutional value has been recognized since 1971.
The article quoted above, the one that would have been modified, says as a reminder: “All human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights. They are endowed with reason and conscience and should act towards one another in a spirit of brotherhood”. In reality, this article does exist but comes from of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. This was voted on much later, in 1948. At the Palais de Chaillot in Paris, 58 Member States adopted a universal charter specifying fundamental human rights.
What the Constitution says
But is it really possible to modify the Constitution as easily as claimed by Internet users? According to the website of the Constitutional Council, it is possible to use a constitutional revision according to section 89. It can be on the initiative of the President of the Republic or of any parliamentarian. “Once placed on the agenda of Parliament, the draft or proposed revision must be voted on in identical terms by the National Assembly and the Senate. […] Unlike what happens with ordinary laws, the Government cannot give the National Assembly “the last word” by asking it to rule definitively in the event of disagreement with the Senate”, underlines the Constitutional Council.
But is the preamble – of which the Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen is a part – modifiable in the same way? “In theoretical law, yes, because the Declaration of Human Rights is part of a constitutional norm. So it could in absolute right be modified”, confirms Jean-Eric Gicquel, professor of Constitutional Law and political institutions at the University of Rennes 1. In 2005, for example, the preamble of the Constitution was modified to integrate the Charter of the environment.
Preferred “symbolic value”
For the lecturer in public law at the Sorbonne, Julien Padovani, the answer is less certain. “On a formal level, one would think that it is possible… the power of revision being able to do almost everything”. But for him, the 1789 text remains the 1789 text. One solution would be to delete the mention of it from the preamble and to draft a new charter”.
For the lecturer, the power to revise the Constitution is not unlimited. “We cannot remove the reference to the Declaration from the constitutional text without producing an illegitimate legal revolution”, he justifies. In his work, Julien Padovani advocates keeping the DDHC as it is in the Constitution and adopting a new, more modern charter of rights and freedoms. “This would therefore give the DDHC a symbolic value, the one it had for two centuries”.