Human+rights

France and the institutions protecting and promoting human rights

UN Office of the Tall Commissioner for Human Rights (OCHCR)

France actively supports the freedom of the Office of the Lofty Commissioner for Human Rights (OCHCR), whose mandate includes preventing human rights violations, securing respect for all human rights, promoting international cooperation to protect human rights and integrating human rights in the United Nations system.

Human Rights Council (CDH)

France is an active contributor to the task of strengthening the Human Rights Council, the leading inter-governmental body responsible for promoting and protecting human rights.

France has served two successive terms of office on the Council and maintains a policy of engaging actively with the Council itself and continuing to shape its work through its role as an observer nation. This involves overseeing scrupulous application of Council mechanisms and opposing any seek to call into question the universality of human rights, thereby ensuring that the Council remains free to proceed to promote those rights effectively. Every year, acting alone or in partnership with other States, France tables

human+rights

The Defender of Rights

We study if your complaint is part of our 5 missions

The Defender of Rights can only execute in the five areas of intervention assigned to it by law. When he receives a complaint he first checks that he has the right to intervene.

If your demand is not part of our missions, we will direct you to the competent body.
No one is left unanswered.

When your problem is part of our missions, we glance for the best resolution with you.
Depending on your problem, we will inform you about the different possible solutions.
We do not act without your consent.

Mediation: the hunt for an amicable solution

As a priority, we pursue with you a fast solution to your challenge through mediation.
We explore an amicable agreement with the opposing party to avoid legal action.
This is the preferred move by delegates.

If your disagreement has no amicable remedy, the lawyers of the Defender of Rights review your file.

A contradictory and impartial instruction

We collect all the elements necessary to fully understand the file.

Our investigation is neutral.
We are not the attorney for any party. The instructions are unbiased.

The procedure is adversarial: we attend to yo

Human Rights and Development

Mobilizing official development assistance to assemble the challenges of protecting human rights

Fully in line with France’s action to achieve Sustainable Development Goals, this strategy reaffirms the indissociable link between human rights and sustainable maturation. Although the global health crisis has sometimes been used as a pretext for violating human rights, it has also made it possible to display the universality and interdependence of such rights. The right to reliable and pluralistic information has thus emerged as an indispensable public good for efficient and fair treatment of the crisis. The dense toll paid by populations who are the most vulnerable due to poverty or who suffer discrimination also underlines all that remains to be done to ensure full respect for fundamental rights, including equal access to health, the right to decent housing, the right to a decent standard of living, and every person’s right to social security. France’s development cooperation policy aims to address these issues.

Defending human-rights based development

The Human Rights and Maturation Strategy establishes a brand-new method so that our inter

The French National Consultative Commission on Human Rights (Commission nationale consultative des droits de l’homme – CNCDH) is the French national institution for human rights, established in 1947 in Paris.

Independent and with a pluralist composition, its main objectives are to:The French National Consultative Commission on Human Rights (CNCDH) is the French national institution for human rights. Established in 1947, the CNCDH is the oldest National Human Rights institution.

  • Advise and produce proposals to the Government and Parliament in matters connected to human rights and international humanitarian law, through its public opinions;
  • Control the effectiveness in France of the rights protected under the international human rights conventions; and
  • Contribute to the work of the United Nations human rights bodies and to the Universal Periodic Review.

The CNCDH monitors the implementation in France of all recommendations from the international and European committees. It also raises public awareness and educates on human rights topics, by organising trainings and public events, or publishing educational tools.

As the national, independent rapporteur, it evaluates the

International Human Rights Day, famous around the world each year, marks the anniversary of the adoption of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights by the United Nations General Assembly on December 10, 1948. Our two Foundations are particularly keen to be associated with this event, as René Cassin and Robert Schuman played an important role in the genesis of the 1948 Declaration. René Cassin Foundation, photo René Cassin
René Cassin, who was the French member of the United Nations Commission on Human Rights, made a decisive contribution to the drafting and dissemination of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, receiving the Nobel Peace Prize in 1968. Cassin was a member of the French delegation to the General Assembly, as Vice-President of the Conseil d’Etat, and was to speak eloquently on the eve of the decisive vote on December 10, defending the collective work accomplished, at a time when the clouds of the Cool War were gathering.
On December 12, Robert Schuman, as Minister of Foreign Affairs, was to carry the closing speech at the 3rd annual session of the General Assembly, held at the Palais du Trocadéro in Paris. René Cassin Foundation photo Homme, In