“The defense of freedoms has become the most burning subject of the period”

2023-05-03 07:30:04

DFor a few days, the trial has been heard, drum beating. The League of Human Rights (LDH) would no longer be itself, it would have changed, tipped over to the dark side of the enemy forces of the Republic, Islamists and others “eco-terrorists”… The prosecutors are jostling: an interior minister, a prime minister are busy alongside a skewer of polemicists who are always quick to hunt down the “rights-of-the-man”. One suggests that we take a close look at one’s resources, the other drives the point home.

Who has changed? Certainly not the LDH. Founded in the fight against anti-Semitism and a reason of State prevailing over the rights of man and of the citizen, it has never denied the principles of universal defense of rights which have guided it for one hundred and twenty-five years. Against the death penalty, she defended the right to life; against the arbitrariness of the military tribunals, it obtained their dissolution; against torture and degrading treatment, she defended the right to a fair trial. She stood up against the proliferating intrusion of files, she camped alongside Kanak separatists, played a role in the peace process in the Basque Country, fought against police violence, regardless of the governments in place.

She has brought fraternity to life alongside migrants and undocumented people, today she fights for the effectiveness of the right to voluntary termination of pregnancy, supports peaceful demonstrations for a real policy in the face of climate change. The LDH, yes, considers, even when it disturbs the powers in place, that fundamental rights are valid for all. That they therefore apply to people whose ideas or actions she does not approve of, whether collaborators in 1945 or jihadists today.

Strange “liberals”

Admittedly, this is irritating; but who has changed? Certainly not the LDH, quite the contrary, and this is what triggers this attack, with a thoughtful character and which aims wider than it seems. Who has changed? The very people who are suing us, these strange “liberals” who, beyond the LDH, are implementing the questioning of all guarantees of public freedoms. As if to intimidate any independent and critical actor at a time…equally critical.

Also read the interview: Article reserved for our subscribers Patrick Baudouin, president of the LDH: “Public freedoms in France are in danger”

The freedom to protest? It is called into question by the stricter instructions given to the police and gendarmerie, including with regard to non-violent citizens. This results in serious injuries, mutilations, or worse, and toxic manipulation of the police force. We are thus witnessing the return of the charges of mobile brigades on motorcycles, banned since the death of Malik Oussekine in 1986, and a disproportionate use of weapons that no other European police employs in such cases. In Sainte-Soline (Deux-Sèvres), many demonstrators were injured, including two in danger of death, belatedly rescued.

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