France will host the next World Congress for the Universal Abolition of the Death Penalty in 2026, Emmanuel Macron announced Sunday evening on the occasion of the 75th anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. “This fight is essential,” underlined the French president while this practice is still very widespread in Saudi Arabia, China and Iran and has not been abolished in a democratic country like the United States.
“We must raise our voices when necessary to defend this precious heritage”
On December 10, 1948, the UN adopted the Universal Declaration of Human Rights at the Palais de Chaillot in Paris, where this celebration was organized this Sunday. Emmanuel Macron stressed that the principles laid down were neither “cultural” nor “Western” and were “open to all people”. “We must (…) raise our voices when it is necessary, to defend this precious heritage, to remember that it was built on the refusal of the violence and dehumanization of the Second World War”, underlined the president citing the need to work in favor of women’s rights which are violated in particular in Afghanistan and Iran.
He mentioned access to education for girls or the sexual violence of which they are victims, without mentioning the most recent accusations, those targeting Palestinian Hamas during the attacks of October 7. The French president was careful not to link this anniversary with the conflict in the Middle East, whether it be the massacres committed by Hamas or the massive and deadly bombings that Israel has been carrying out for two months on Gaza.
In this very broad speech, he also insisted on the fight for the rights of LGBT people. “We cannot accept, even today, that anyone can be judged based on their sexual orientation. This fight is very far from being won,” he declared, deploring the criminalization of homosexuality. carried by relativist discourses on many continents”, or “carried by religious and traditionalist discourses which are completely falsified”.
“Respect for human rights is a daily battle”
We must also “obviously” fight against pedophilia and child pornography, also said the French president, also mentioning the problem of harassment which continues on social networks. He welcomed the next artificial intelligence summit which will take place in France and which should contribute to “establishing a governance framework which allows us to respect the rights of everyone”.
He also praised the work of human rights defenders and announced that French embassies would speed up the processing of their visa applications. Earlier, his Minister of Foreign Affairs Catherine Colonna called for redoubled efforts to ensure respect for human rights around the world and to “put an end to the impunity of those who violate them”. “We must not forget that respect for human rights is an everyday fight. And that this fight is (…) far from won,” she declared. “We face attempts to sometimes roll back rights and freedoms throughout the world.”
The minister had praised the role of France which “is honored to act for peace and security, and for respect for the humanitarian conditions of populations victims of conflicts or victims of terrorism”, in allusion, without however citing them the war in Ukraine, the October 7 attacks in Israel committed by the Palestinian Islamist movement Hamas and the dramatic humanitarian situation in the Gaza Strip.