Henri Caillavet is a French

France

The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...

 political figure most prominent during the postwar

World War II

World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...

 years 1946-58, when, during the Fourth Republic

French Fourth Republic

The French Fourth Republic was the republican government of France between 1946 and 1958, governed by the fourth republican constitution. It was in many ways a revival of the Third Republic, which was in place before World War II, and suffered many of the same problems...

, he was a member of the National Assembly and as a Senator from 1967-1985.

A native of Agen

Agen

Agen is a commune in the Lot-et-Garonne department in Aquitaine in south-western France. It lies on the river Garonne southeast of Bordeaux. It is the capital of the department.-Economy:The town has a higher level of unemployment than the national average...

, Lot-et-Garonne

Lot-et-Garonne

Lot-et-Garonne is a department in the southwest of France named after the Lot and Garonne rivers.-History:Lot-et-Garonne is one of the original 83 departments created during the French Revolution on March 4, 1790...

, and trained as a lawyer, Henri Caillavet is renowned in France as a veteran guardian of civil liberties. He proposed bills concerning gay rights, abortion, transgender issues, divorce by mutual consent, euthanasia and organ transplants.

He was a freemason and an atheist.

In January 1953, the ministerial portfolio of France d'Outre-mer was conferred on him in the government of René Mayer

René Mayer

René Mayer was a French Radical politician of the Fourth Republic who served briefly as Prime Minister during 1953. He led the Mayer Authority from 1955 to 1958.-Mayer's Ministry, 8 January – 28 June 1953:*René Mayer – President of the Council...

, then that of the Navy in the government of Pierre Mendès France in 1954. In 1958, he opposed General Charles de Gaulle

Charles de Gaulle

Charles André Joseph Marie de Gaulle was a French general and statesman who led the Free French Forces during World War II. He later founded the French Fifth Republic in 1958 and served as its first President from 1959 to 1969....

in voting against his investiture and against the new Constitution.