“It would have its place in the Pantheon, that seems obvious to me,” reacts the president of Unicef ​​France

Adeline Hazan, the president of Unicef ​​France, talks about her memories of Robert Badinter for franceinfo: she had him as a law professor, and worked with him when she was general controller of places of deprivation of liberty.

Robert Badinter “would have its place in the Pantheon, that seems obvious to me”, reacted on Saturday on franceinfo Adeline Hazan, the president of Unicef ​​France, the day after the death of the former Minister of Justice, at the age of 95. According to her, there is “not much” of politicians “of his caliber”, who have not “never compromised” even when their beliefs “were not necessarily shared by a majority of public opinion”. “We lost him a little” and it’s “very sad”she declares.

Adeline Hazan holds the “conception of courage” by Robert Badinter. “I never lost sight of him since 1976 and until a few months ago when I had the opportunity to meet him because he was a member of the Unicef ​​sponsorship committee”she emphasizes.

He wanted a prison that allowed education

Adeline Hazan “had the chance” to have Robert Badinter “as a teacher in an amphitheater” when she was a law student.

“His classes were great moments, both of conviction and eloquence.”

Adeline Hazan, president of Unicef ​​France

at franceinfo

Former general controller of places of deprivation of liberty, from 2014 to 2020, and former president of the magistrates’ union, she worked alongside the former Minister of Justice on numerous occasions. “We shared the same fundamentals on justice.” She greets “his fights for a more human, less severe, less disembodied justice”. She recalls that “it was he who created community service because all his life, he thought that we had to believe in humanity and that a pure sanction was of no use if there was no a conscience and something other than imprisonment.”

Adeline Hazan ensures that Robert Badinter “remained extremely concerned about the prison situation”. She says that he “a few months ago”the former Minister of Justice had it “questioned several times” on this subject. According to her, “he was devastated by the prison overcrowding which is only increasing” even if it was appropriate that he “there were improvements compared to the 1980s”. She recalls that Robert Badinter wanted “a prison which does not isolate them from society, which allows prisoners to work, to learn, to educate themselves” For “improve their reintegration into society”.