Claire Hédon (born 5 October 1962) is a French journalist, who was appointed the 2020

Defender of Rights Defender(s) or The Defender(s) may refer to: * Defense (military) * Defense (sports) ** Defender (association football) Arts and entertainment Film, television, and theatre Film * ''The Defender'' (1989 film), a Canadian documentary * ''The D ...

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-Assas University. She also holds a master's degree in communication from

CELSA Paris CELSA Sorbonne University, or the École des hautes études en sciences de l'information et de la communication, is a French communication and journalism school (''grande école'') located in the West of Paris, (Neuilly-sur-Seine) and is part of ...

Career

Hedon was appointed member of the

Comité consultatif national d'éthique The ''Comité Consultatif National d'Ethique'' () is a French governmental advisory council on bioethics issues. It was created by a presidential decree of François Mitterrand in 1983. See also * National Commission for the Protection of Human S ...

in 2017. She became Defender of Rights in 2020.

Socialist Socialism is an economic ideology, economic and political philosophy encompassing diverse Economic system, economic and social systems characterised by social ownership of the means of production, as opposed to private ownership. It describes ...

MP George Pau-Langevin was appointed her deputy. Hédon returned to her positions on 16 February 2021 demanding better traceability to fight against discrimination.

Positions

From the beginning of her tenure as Defender, Claire Hédon publicly opposed certain provisions of the proposed law on global security. On 6 July 2022 the Defender of Rights, during a hearing at the

Senate A senate is a deliberative assembly, often the upper house or chamber of a bicameral legislature. The name comes from the ancient Roman Senate (Latin: ''Senatus''), so-called as an assembly of the senior (Latin: ''senex'' meaning "the el ...

, raised concerns about the increase in complaints from users related to the digitization of public services. This would cause a growing distance between citizens and institutions, particularly affecting the most vulnerable citizens.

Facial recognition

In October 2022, the Defender of Rights expressed her concerns regarding the development of biometric technologies such as facial recognition and called for swift legislation on the issue to protect the fundamental rights of citizens.

Child welfare

In November 2022, she took it upon herself to address the situation faced by child welfare services in the

Nord Nord, a word meaning "north" in several European languages, may refer to: Acronyms * National Organization for Rare Disorders, an American nonprofit organization * New Orleans Recreation Department, New Orleans, Louisiana, US Film and televisi ...

and

Somme __NOTOC__ Somme or The Somme may refer to: Places *Somme (department), a department of France * Somme, Queensland, Australia * Canal de la Somme, a canal in France *Somme (river), a river in France Arts, entertainment, and media * ''Somme'' (book), ...

regions. She declared it a "dramatic situation" that compelled her to take action.

Immigration

In February 2023, she criticized the immigration bill proposed by the

Borne government The Borne government ( French: ''gouvernement Borne'') was the forty-third government of the French Fifth Republic, formed on 16 May 2022 and headed by Élisabeth Borne as Prime Minister under President Emmanuel Macron. It served as a caretake ...

, stating that it would "significantly undermine the fundamental rights and freedoms of foreigners." However, according to Claire Hédon, "in reality, the potential sentences are much higher than the actual sentences handed down, which means that the removal of protections against deportation will affect a wide range of individuals for whom the severity of the threat to public order will be far from established."

Police brutality

Claire Hédon spoke out in the context of

pension reform Welfare reforms are changes in the operation of a given welfare system aimed at improving the efficiency, equity, and administration of government assistance programs. Reform programs may have a various aims; sometimes the focus is on reducing th ...

and police violence, which she had witnessed. She denounced "unacceptable" and "extremely shocking" images. In 2020, she had already criticized the

IGPN The National Police (, ), formerly known as the , is one of two national police forces of France, the other being the National Gendarmerie. The National Police is the country's main civil law enforcement agency, with primary jurisdiction in cit ...

(General Inspectorate of the National Police) by asserting that the requests for judicial proceedings made by the Defender of Rights were never followed up by the police institution.

References

1962 births Living people Paris 2 Panthéon-Assas University alumni 21st-century French journalists Journalists from Paris Ombudsmen in France French women journalists French radio journalists French women radio journalists {{France-law-bio-stub