The Defenders Take The Floor

Stéphane Hessel is a French diplomat, a UN Ambassador and former French resistance fighter. Born German, he obtained the French nationality in 1937. As a resistant during World War Two, Mr. Hessel rallied to General de Gaulle in 1941. He was deported to Buchenwald and Dora concentration camps. He took part in the writing of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights of 1948.

Mr. Hessel has been a close advisor to prime ministers Pierre Mendes-France and Michel Rocard and has served in various diplomatic postings.
He has been a member of the National Consultative Commission on Human Rights and of the High Council for International Cooperation.
He is a member of the committee sponsoring the French Coalition for the International Decade for a Culture of Peace and Non-violence and has been actively involved in the solidarity campaigns for undocumented migrants..

In 2003, together with other former resistant fighters, he signed the petition "For a Treaty of a social Europe" and, in August 2006, an appeal against the Israeli strikes in Lebanon.

He was awarded the Grand Cross of the National Order of Merit in 1999 and the title of Grand Officier de la Légion d'Honneur in 2006. Stéphane Hessel is the author of several books, Danse avec le siècle, Citoyen sans frontières, among others.