Christiane Taubira

Who is Christiane Taubira?

Christiane Taubira was born on 2 February 1952 in Cayenne, French Guiana, one of eleven children raised by a single mother. She studied economics at Panthéon-Assas University in Paris and later earned further degrees in sociology and African-American ethnology, before returning to political activism in French Guiana through the Mouvement guyanais de décolonisation in the late 1970s. She represented French Guiana in the French National Assembly from 1993 to 2012 and served in the European Parliament from 1994 to 1999. In 2001, as a member of parliament, she authored the landmark Taubira law formally recognizing the transatlantic slave trade and slavery as crimes against humanity, which established 10 May as France's national day of remembrance for slavery. She ran for the French presidency in 2002. Appointed Minister of Justice in 2012 under President François Hollande, Taubira became the public face of the successful 2013 campaign to legalize same-sex marriage in France, before resigning from government in January 2016 over a policy disagreement concerning the treatment of convicted terrorists. She remains an influential writer and political voice.

Sources: Wikipedia, "Christiane Taubira" (biographical summary, cross-checked against primary reporting) · Americas Quarterly, "Christiane Taubira, French Guiana"