France will host the next World Congress for the Universal Abolition of the Death Penalty in 2026, Emmanuel Macron announced Sunday night on the occasion of the 75th anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, AFP reported.

“This fight is important,” the French president emphasized, although this practice is still very common in Saudi Arabia, China and Iran and has not been abolished in a democratic country like the United States.

On December 10, 1948, at the Palais Chaillot in Paris, the UN adopted the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.

Emmanuel Macron emphasized that the established principles are neither “cultural” nor “Western” and “open to all people.”

“We must (…) raise our voices when necessary, defend this precious heritage, remember that it was built on the rejection of the violence and dehumanization of the Second World War,” the president emphasized, referring to the rights of women who especially important. is violated in Afghanistan and Iran.

He mentioned girls’ access to education or sexual violence against them, without mentioning the allegations against Hamas.

The French president was careful not to link the anniversary to conflict in the Middle East, be it the mass killings by Hamas or the massive and deadly bombing of Gaza that Israel has been carrying out for two months.

In this speech, he also insisted on fighting for LGBT rights. He lamented the criminalization of homosexuality in religious and traditionalist discourses.