Its first article states that "any discrimination founded on membership or non-membership of an ethnic group, a nation, a race or a religion is prohibited."
[1] At the request of the International League against Racism and Anti-Semitism, Paul Marchandeau, center-right Justice Minister in the 1938-1939 third and fourth Daladier governments, issued the decree of 21 April 1939 amending the Law on the Freedom of the Press of 29 July 1881 by providing prosecution "when defamation or insult committed against a group of persons, by their origin, race or religion, will have been designed to arouse hatred among citizens or residents" (translated).
[2][3] The decree came again into force after the Liberation of France in 1944 by an ordinance of 9 August 1944 repealing most of the Vichy legislation.
This law came as a requisite after France's ratification in 1971 of the International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination.
The United Nations Human Rights Committee upheld the condemnation of Faurisson, but mentioned that the Gayssot Act may be too broad.