Speech by Nathalie Seff, Executive Director of ACAT-France, at the Le Dinh Luong Human Rights Award Ceremony in Paris, 10 December 2023
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First of all, dear Michel, I would like to thank you for inviting me to join the Jury of the Le Dinh Luong Award. I am deeply honoured.
Le Dinh Luong, after whom this Award is named, is a man who has been deprived of 20 years of his life for exercising a right that is nevertheless fundamental: freedom of expression. The People’s Court described him as a dangerous activist and sentenced him to 20 years in prison.
Imagine such a sentence being imposed on a pro-democracy activist, blogger or journalist, or environmental activist, in a country that is a member of the European Union, a democratic state governed by the rule of law, whose founding principles draw upon the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, including equality, freedom and justice.
The Universal Declaration of Human Rights was adopted in Paris on 10 December 1948, exactly 75 years ago today.
Presenting this Award on this anniversary, 10 December, here in Paris, to a human rights defender who has been subjected to persecution, arbitrary detention, and cruel, inhuman and degrading punishment and treatment, all with impunity, is a powerful reminder of the importance of raising awareness and educating people about human rights and their universality, particularly among younger generations.
It also highlights the imperative need to support, protect and defend the women and men who, throughout the world, sacrifice their freedom—and, even worse, risk their lives—in order to bring these rights to life and to enable the most vulnerable and most exposed among us to exercise them.
This is a common objective for all peoples—or at least it should be.
It is a prerequisite that the eminent French jurist René Cassin, one of the principal architects of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, expressed when he stated: “There will be no peace on this planet as long as human rights are violated anywhere in the world.”
We can only be convinced of this when we see the world plunging, in so many places, into violence, obscurantism and the rule of terror, exposing so many peoples and innocent people to repression, the hell of torture and barbarity.
More than ever, the women and men who raise their voices and peacefully struggle to defend the founding principles of the freedoms and rights enshrined in the 1948 Declaration must be protected. They must be welcomed when they are forced into exile, supported and defended so that they do not lose hope and can continue their work, so that all members of the human family, of which we are all a part, may regain peace and dignity.
We all, collectively and individually, have commitments towards humanity based on fraternity and dignity.
The Universal Declaration of Human Rights continues to see its founding principles and the rights it enshrines repeatedly undermined. Human rights, and the people who risk their lives to defend and uphold them, are increasingly under threat.
It is therefore essential that associations, NGOs, activists, human rights defenders, whistleblowers and journalists continue to ensure constant vigilance; to document and bear witness to violations of fundamental rights; and to denounce abuses committed by the authorities of their respective countries and/or in regions of the world that they have taken upon themselves to cover, whatever the cost to themselves.
The 2023 recipient of the Le Dinh Luong Award embodies this universal conscience.
Sunday, 10 December 2023
