Ligue des droits de l’Homme

Founded in 1898 during the Dreyfus affair, the League for Human Right (LDH) has a rich history thanks to a century of activism and attentive monitoring of all major contemporary issues. Originally, its mandate was to defend an innocent man, victim of anti-Semitism and reason of state, but the LDH expanded its actions to include the defence of all citizens that were victims of injustice or of a breach of rights.

From World War I to the 1960s, the LDH’s aim was to preserve peace, fight against fascism and for decolonisation. In the 1970s, the organisation campaigned for the right to contraception and abortion as well as for the abolition of the death penalty. Since the 1980s, the LDH has fought for the abolition of restrictive laws on immigrants, for the legalisation of undocumented immigrants, and for the right of foreigners to vote in local elections. At the same time, in accordance with the concept of social citizenship, it fights against new forms of poverty and precariousness.
It is attached to the protection of secularism against fundamentalism and defends the right to housing, to universal healthcare and equality between the sexes. It condemns all forms of discrimination as well as police violence and fights for the respect of rights by the security forces.

For the LDH the abolition of the death penalty in France and in the rest of the European Union is not enough: it supports the international campaign to pressurise countries still using the death penalty, especially in the United States where it is involved in the abolitionist campaign.

Date founded

1898             

Structure type

NGO             

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