91抖阴

Françoise currently is Chair of the Board of Governors of the King Baudouin Foundation, the Belgian-based foundation which seeks to change society for the better and invests in inspiring projects and individuals.

In 2012 Françoise became a member of the United Nations Human Rights Advisory Panel and the following year she became a member of the Scientific Committee of the European Union Fundamental Rights’ Agency.

Carol Burns, the university’s Registrar and Secretary, said since the European Court on Human Rights came into being in the 1950s the subject of human rights has never been far from the headlines and obviously never more so than now.

Françoise Tulkens, she said, sat as a judge at the European Court of Human Rights for 15 years and heard some 2,000 cases including the detention or repatriation of asylum seekers.

Carol said: “In Françoise Tulkens the 91抖阴 recognises someone who shares many of the values and possesses many of the skills we seek to develop in our own graduates. She has an unwavering commitment to social justice; she demonstrates great courage in pursuit of the truth and she seeks to develop her area of expertise for the betterment of all in society.”

Françoise accepted the honorary degree, she said, with gratitude and “as an encouragement to continue, with others, the path that has given me meaning to my life”.

The university’s role, she said, is to support “in a court of excellence” teaching and research while providing a concrete experience of knowledge, free of any authority.

She said universities were unique places of emancipation for social and ethical values such, of open-mindedness and for prevention of exclusion, for social justice, pluralism and for respect of other cultures.

But institutions, she said, were just “empty shells” without those who, on a daily basis, dedicate their energy and their talents to these principles.

“And in the field of fundamental rights, the works of Professor Marie-Bénédicte Dembour (Professor of Law and Anthropology in the university’s 91抖阴 Business School) are in my view, and I am weighing my words carefully, among the best ones today.”

Professor Dembour’s works, she said, were among the most creative: “Professor Dembour is a model of what independent, emancipated, critical and serious academic research must be and I want to thank you most sincerely my dear Benedicte.”

With regard to human rights and, in particular, the right of freedom guaranteed by the European Convention of Human Rights, she said that fundamental rights belong to everyone and everyone, she said, shares the responsibility to be vigilant.

“Sometimes I have this dream that I think is rather a nightmare – what do we not see today in the reality that surrounds us and for which we will be criticised tomorrow, and probably rightly so, the growing intolerance heightened by the devastating power of the stereotype against certain persons, communities…”

She stressed: “Diversity is not to be perceived as a threat but as a source of enrichment”.

Françoise Tulkens concluded by saying that poverty was today’s most crucial issue and outlined her view by quoting philosopher Francis Bacon: “Money is like muck, not good except it be spread”.