In France, the Defender of Rights (DDD) ( French: Défenseur des droits) is an independent administrative authority of the

Government of France The Government of France ( French: ''Gouvernement français''), officially the Government of the French Republic (''Gouvernement de la République française'' ), exercises executive power in France. It is composed of the Prime Minister, who ...

, created by the constitutional revision of July 23, 2008 and instituted by the organic law of March 29, 2011. The Defender of Rights is an independent administrative authority enshrined by the

Constitution of France The current Constitution of France was adopted on 4 October 1958. It is typically called the Constitution of the Fifth Republic , and it replaced the Constitution of the Fourth Republic of 1946 with the exception of the preamble per a Constitu ...

. The current Defender of Rights is journalist

Claire Hédon Claire Hédon (born 5 October 1962) is a French journalist, who was appointed the 2020 Defender of Rights in France. Early life Claire Hédon was born on 5 October 1962 in Paris. She is the holder of a master's degree in law from Panthéon ...

History

The expression “Defender of Rights” was used by

Gracchus Babeuf The Gracchi brothers were two Roman brothers, sons of Tiberius Sempronius Gracchus who was consul in 177 BC. Tiberius, the elder brother, was tribune of the plebs in 133 BC and Gaius, the younger brother, was tribune a decade later in ...

in the subtitle of his newspaper ''Le Tribun du peuple'' from 1795: “The Defender of Human Rights”. In 2007, the Reflection and Proposal Committee on the Modernization and Rebalancing of Institutions , known as the “Balladur Committee”, proposed the creation of a “Defender of Fundamental Rights” to replace the Mediator of the Republic , an institution created in 1973 but which is not mentioned by the Constitution . According to the report, the Defender of Fundamental Rights, inspired by the Defender of the People in Spain , should be appointed by the

National Assembly In politics, a national assembly is either a unicameral legislature, the lower house of a bicameral legislature, or both houses of a bicameral legislature together. In the English language it generally means "an assembly composed of the repre ...

Responsibilities

The organic law of March 29, 2011, amended by the law of December 9, 2016, established four other additional missions for the Defender of Rights: # Defend and promote the best interests and the rights of the child enshrined in law or by an international commitment regularly ratified or approved by France; # Fight against discrimination, direct or indirect, prohibited by law or by an international commitment regularly ratified or approved by France as well as to promote equality; # Ensure compliance with ethics by people carrying out security activities on the territory of the Republic; # Direct to the competent authorities any person reporting an alert under the conditions set by law, to ensure the rights and freedoms of this person

List of officeholders

References

{{France-gov-stub Law of France 2011 in France 2011 in law Discrimination in France Constitutional law of France Organizations established in 2011 Ombudsmen in France