FIDH has lost far more than an extraordinary ambassador, FIDH has lost a friend, a father, a source of inspiration, a fellow traveller.
He embodied the universality of human rights. He strove to defend these rights at all times and all places.
Stéphane Hessel left a deep mark on the members of FIDH the world over through his resistance to oppression, his intense indignation against everything arbitrary, his obsession with listening and discussion, his gentleness, his poetic senses, his extraordinary humanity, in a word, his personality.
We pay the highest tribute to Stéphane Hessel today, with a feeling of infinite gratitude and the absolute certainty that the little flames of his conscience, ever alert, will continue dancing throughout the century.
We wish to express our full support and our profound affection to Chistiane, his wife and our friend, and to their children.
On behalf of FIDH,
Souhayr Belhassen, President