ARGENTINA – UNESCO
MIDDLE EAST
FRANCE/BRITAIN
ARGENTINA – UNESCO: NEW INTERNATIONAL HUMAN RIGHTS CENTRE
France welcomes the signature in Buenos Aires by Koïchiro Matsuura, UNESCO Director-General, and Jorge Taiana, Argentinian Minister of Foreign Relations, International Trade and Worship, of the agreement establishing under UNESCO’s auspices the first International Centre for the Promotion of Human Rights.
This international centre will conduct training and research and disseminate information on human rights. It will be set up in a highly symbolic place: the former Navy Mechanics School, today a place of remembrance, where nearly 5,000 people, including several of our compatriots, were illegally detained, tortured and killed during the tragic period Argentina lived through from 1976 to 1983.
France shares UNESCO’s recognition of Argentina’s commitment to defending and promoting human rights in the international fora, particularly the United Nations.
Argentina and France worked together on the establishment of the Convention for the Protection of all Persons from Enforced Disappearance, adopted unanimously by the United Nations General Assembly in December 2006 and signed in Paris in February 2007.
More recently, Argentina's commitment to human rights also led to the signature, in December 2008, of a joint declaration on strengthening the dialogue on human rights with the European Union.
On this occasion, France's thoughts go to the families and loved-ones of the 30,000 victims of the military dictatorship.
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Q. – Do you have a reaction to the conditions given by Israel for a truce with Hamas in Gaza? Do you think there must first be a truce for humanitarian and security reasons and only afterwards discussion of other specific issues such as the exchange of prisoners?
The opening of the crossing points in and out of Gaza is absolutely essential to enable the Gazan people to lead normal lives.
As regards Gilad Shalit, France has always called for and will continue calling for his immediate and unconditional release.
We hope, in everyone's interest, there will be rapid and positive outcomes to these two priority issues which are being dealt with concurrently. We share the Egyptian mediators’ commitment to get them resolved as fast as possible, and are continuing to lend full support to their efforts.
On a more general note, in order to create a momentum of confidence and rejoin as fast as possible the path of peace, we think it essential to make headway towards the release of a large number of Palestinian prisoners, particularly elected representatives, women and children.
Q. – On the Ministry of Foreign and European Affairs' website it says on the page about Israel: "Capital: the State of Israel has made its capital in Jerusalem despite the absence of international agreement on this city's status". Does this mean that for France Israel's capital is Jerusalem?
No, France thinks that Jerusalem's status has to be decided in the framework of the negotiations on the final status of the future Palestinian State.
This is what President Sarkozy particularly stressed in his address to the Knesset last June: there can be no peace without recognition of Jerusalem as the capital of the two States and guaranteed freedom of access to the Holy Places for all the religions?
Q. – Could you tell us the level of contacts between France and Britain regarding an incident said to have taken place on 3-4 February between two nuclear submarines in the Atlantic? Have the two foreign ministers communicated with each other on this affair, on which it seems difficult to get clarification from the Defence Ministry in Paris?
There haven't been any contacts between the two foreign ministries on the matter, and I refer you to the Defence Ministry. (…)./.