Jc Milhet / Hans Lucas / Hans Lucas via AFP
The International Federation for Human Rights (FIDH) has backed a call launched by its French member organisation, the Ligue des droits de l’Homme (LDH), and signed by the trade unions Confédération générale du travail (CGT) and the Fédération syndicale unitaire (FSU), the Mouvement contre le racisme et pour l’amitié entre les peuples (MRAP), Oxfam France, SOS Racisme, and the Syndicat de la Magistrature (SM).
Paris, 2 October 2024. On Sunday, 29 September 2024, the French Minister of the Interior, Bruno Retailleau, said he was "gripped by a feeling of solemnity" when he spoke of issues relating to democracy and the fight against arbitrary [practices]... like [those of] authoritarian regimes and demagogues leaning towards the extreme right. With chilling lightness, he relegated the rule of law to the cumbersome slag heap of legal constraints. In his view, "the rule of law is not intangible", but rather should evolve according to the needs dictated by national policies.
The rule of law, however, is founded on quite the opposite. The rule of law is a set of rules that must be respected to protect citizens and institutions from the arbitrary dictates of the powers that be. To ensure that the law of the strongest does not prevail, these rules are underpinned by legal mechanisms, such as the independence of judges. Far from being against the people, the rule of law guarantees the equality of all citizens and their freedom of expression against all forms of oppression, whether individual or collective. The rule of law is a condition for democracy.
The rule of law incorporates key elements of the 1789 Déclaration des droits de l’homme et du citoyen, among them the principle of the separation of powers, the guarantee of rights and the equality for all before the law.
An inherent characteristic of the far right, and increasingly of the extreme right, is to not recognise the universality of rights, to negate equality for all under the law. To stop people from claiming their rights, or having them protected by a judge, these political currents need to dismantle the guarantees provided by the rule of law.
By arguing that vox populi, the opinions of the majority, have higher legal standing than anything else, Bruno Retailleau negates the rule of law, which has at its core the equal treatment of every individual. Democracy, however, is not a dictatorship of the majority, it cannot be reduced to a formal process without a framework based on values and principles; it cannot be the mere result of a vote.
The separation of powers must be safeguarded when Parliament passes legislation. Moreover, Parliament can amend or repeal a law that has already been passed. But it cannot call into question the rights and freedoms enshrined in instruments that have constitutional value that take precedence over ordinary laws, such as the 1789 Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen, or the Preamble to the 1946 Constitution (cited in the Preamble to the Constitution of the Fifth Republic), or in the Constitution itself, which enshrines "the freedom guaranteed to women to have recourse to a voluntary interruption of pregnancy". Parliament cannot derogate from conventions ratified by France (which must be passed by Parliament), such as the European Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms, the Convention on the Rights of the Child or the Istanbul Convention on Violence against Women which provide guarantees for the rights without which there is no democratic space.
The rule of law and democracy are inextricably linked. They progress together and regress together. In the face of rising hatred and authoritarianism, and because we are committed to the fundamental principles of democracy, we solemnly declare that we will defend the rule of law.
