Charles Merlen wins International Human Rights Competition

The final of the International Human Rights Competition took place on Sunday 3 February 2013, during the Memorial de Caen. During the ceremony, ten lawyers fervently defended, in front of 2,000 people, real cases related to human rights that had particularly raised their consciousness.

This year’s 24^thedition was won by Mr. Charles Merlen from the Bar Association of Lille, with his speech entitled “Bradley Manning: a soldier of truth”. From an apology of freedom of speech to a denunciation of inhuman and degrading treatments, he highlighted the importance of freedom through the courage of soldier Manning who had over 300,000 documents of the American military secret services published in Wikileaks.

Bradley Manning broke the silence kept by his hierarchy on the violations of Human Rights in times of war.

The head of the official jury was Mrs. Christiane Féral-Schul, President of the Paris Bar Association.

The winner was awarded an invitation to attend the UIA annual congress in Macau, the publishing of his speech in the official UIA magazine (Juriste International) and a year of free membership.

The other 9 finalists will benefit from a year of free membership and free attendance to a seminar of their choice.