Paris, December 10 (EFE). – French President Emmanuel Macron today strongly warned against speeches that relativize the universality of human rights, which he also sees in Europe, and called for no setbacks in the celebration of the 75th anniversary of the Universal Declaration.
“These principles are not cultural, they are not Western, they have no date and they are not geographically limited,” emphasized Macron at an event at the Chaillot Palace in Trocadero Square in Paris, where on December 10, 1948, the General Assembly adopted the United Nations Universal Declaration of Human Rights.
“They represent the horizon of a humanistic project on which our democracies and the UN multilateral project for peace and shared prosperity are founded,” he added.
Macron said that he insists on this idea “at this moment” because there are leaders of countries that have signed this document who “explain to us that these rights have become relative or regional,” in a veiled reference on Russia.
She also criticized leaders of other nations who claim that women's rights are “something that changes depending on latitude or longitude.”
“No. That's wrong. And it would be a huge step backwards in history if we gave in to this kind of contemporary revisionism that is resurfacing everywhere and that is undoing what this Universal Declaration has allowed us to do,” he warned.
The French president also stressed that there are still many battles ahead, including in countries like his, such as equality between men and women, recalling that his government will include the right to abortion in the constitution, with a Legislative process to do this will begin in the coming days.
He also touched on other advances with struggles ahead, such as the rights of the LGTBI community: “To this day, we cannot accept that someone can be judged based on their sexual orientation. This battle is far from won.”
The French president also mentioned the challenges to human rights in the digital world and in the face of the climate crisis, and stressed the importance of organizations that ensure justice for violations, in particular the International Criminal Court.
The president's message was preceded by a series of round tables attended by Nobel Peace Prize winners such as Iraq's Nadia Murad and Philippines' María Ressa, representatives of other nations such as Colombia's Vice Minister for Multilateral Affairs Elizabeth Taylor, and French ministers. , like Foreign Minister Catherine Colonna.
The Universal Declaration of Human Rights was a text created to prevent a repeat of the horrors of World War II, but its universal application remains an open task to this day.
The UN General Assembly approved it with 48 votes in favor and eight abstentions.