“Emmanuel Macron does a lot,” says Amnesty International France

“Emmanuel Macron does a lot” said Tuesday May 7 on franceinfo Jean-Claude Samouiller, president of Amnesty International France, while the head of state has been receiving his Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping since Monday to mark the 60th anniversary of diplomatic relations between the two countries. “There are other anniversaries also to commemorate. These are the 35th anniversary of the Tiananmen massacre and the tenth anniversary of the imprisonment of Ilham Tohti, who is a Uighur personality sentenced to life in prison for having taken up the defense of this Uyghur people whose culture, language, religion is eradicated”, he recalled.

Jean-Claude Samouiller maintains that“we need to talk with everyone. But we need to talk about everything, including and especially human rights.” The Élysée has announced that human rights will be discussed between Emmanuel Macron and Xi Jinping but behind closed doors. “We also regret a lack of firmness in declarations concerning human rights, a lack of public commitment concerning human rights,” lamented the president of Amnesty International France.

The president of Amnesty International France welcomes some progress. “France played its role” at the time of the universal periodic review of the UN Human Rights Council in 2024. This system encourages each member state to carry out a peer evaluation of its rights record every 4 and a half years of man: “France spoke about religious freedom, freedom of expression, the death penalty. Things were said”he greeted, but “these things need to be said publicly”specified Jean-Claude Samouiller.