thumb|The Committee of General Security was located in Hôtel de Brionne on the right; it gathered on the first floor. (The Tuileries Palace, which housed the convention, is on the left)
The Committee of General Security () was a parliamentary committee of the French National Convention which acted as police agency during the French Revolution. Established as a committee of the Convention in October 1792, it was designed to protect the Revolutionary Republic from internal enemies. Along with the Committee of Public Safety it oversaw the Reign of Terror. The Committee of General Security supervised the local police committees in charge of investigating reports of treason, and was one of the agencies with authority to refer suspects to the Revolutionary Tribunal for trial and possible execution by guillotine. In 1794 the committee was involved in the arrest and execution of Maximilien Robespierre and several of his political allies on 9 Thermidor. On 4 November 1795, along with the end of the National Convention, the Committee of General Security dissolved.
Among its prominent members, there were Marc-Guillaume Alexis Vadier, Jean-Pierre-André Amar, Jean-Paul Marat or Jacques-Louis David.
Origins and evolution
On 2 October 1792, the National Convention created the Committee of General Security from its predecessors: the Search Committee (Comité des recherches) and the Committee of Surveillance (Comité de Surveillance). The committee was not large and never exceeded 16 members. Once the evidence was fully considered in an individual case the members of the committee made the decision on the likelihood of the innocence or guilt of the suspect, which determined if that person would be released or sent to the Tribunal.
Throughout the existence of the committee, it contributed to a large number of people being sent to the Revolutionary Tribunal, many of whom ended up at the guillotine. On March 29, 1794, the committee ordered twenty-four former members of the parlements of Paris and Toulouse to be sent to the Tribunal, where they were subsequently executed.
On 22 and 23 July the two committees met in a plenary session. Saint-Just declared in negotiations with Barère to be prepared to make concessions on the subordinate position of the Committee of General Security. Couthon agreed with more cooperation between the two committees. For Robespierre, the Committee of General Security had to remain subordinate to the Committee of Public Safety. Both committees were responsible for suppressing counterrevolution, but sometimes ended up targeting each other.
The tensions grew and contributed to the downfall of Robespierre and many of the Montagnards.
The Committee of General Security had more than 160 employees on the eve of the 9 Thermidor. The Committee of General Security dissolved with the end of the National Convention in November 1795.