Emile Joseph Kahn (born 21 December 1876 in
Paris
Paris () is the Capital city, capital and List of communes in France with over 20,000 inhabitants, largest city of France. With an estimated population of 2,048,472 residents in January 2025 in an area of more than , Paris is the List of ci ...
– died on 21 January 1958 in
Montpellier
Montpellier (; ) is a city in southern France near the Mediterranean Sea. One of the largest urban centres in the region of Occitania (administrative region), Occitania, Montpellier is the prefecture of the Departments of France, department of ...
) was the president of the
Human Rights League (France) from 1953 to 1958.
Biography
Secretary-General of the League of Human Rights from 1932 to 1953, Emile Kahn became its president in 1953 and remained so until his death in 1958. In the 1930s, he was a sincere supporter of the
Popular Front. He was violently hostile to the global rejection of
colonization
475px, Map of the year each country achieved List of sovereign states by date of formation, independence.
Colonization (British English: colonisation) is a process of establishing occupation of or control over foreign territories or peoples f ...
and the possibility of some self-determination for indigenous peoples, on the contrary, he thinks it is the duty of the colonial powers to civilize the natives until they are able to exercise their human rights.
[ Alain Herbeth, « La gauche "Algérie française" », '' La Nouvelle Revue d'histoire'', n°85 de juillet-août 2016, p. 27-29]
In 1957, he published The League's fight for democracy, in which he expressed his political ideas and his fight for human rights.
KAHN Émile, Joseph
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His wife, Suzanne Collette-Kahn (1884-1975), an associate Professor of German, was vice-president of the League of Human Rights and Secretary-General of the International Federation for Human Rights.
Quote
"The League of Human Rights remains attached to this idea that men enlisted under the flag are citizens and they may be asked to choose between two tasks: that of obeying their leaders or acting against them, the Constitution and the Republic "13 (May 1935)
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Kahn, Emile
French human rights activists
French activists
1876 births
1958 deaths