With a view to preserving and disseminating the thought of René Cassin, the René Cassin Foundation – International Institute of Human Rights is responsible for preserving his memory, through his personal archives deposited at the Archives Nationales in Paris. Archives Nationales. It also intends to develop a documentary database, in order to gather written or visual testimonies concerning René Cassin and to facilitate research into his commitment to peace and human rights.
When René Cassin was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1968, he delivered a speech of thanks and a public lecture which form the core of his message. This lifelong commitment to humanism cannot be divorced from his experience as a First World War veteran and Free French jurist, working in London with General de Gaulle from 1940, as he himself recalls in a interview in 1968.
Other INA resources show his contribution to the creation of post-war institutions, notably UNESCO. His work as a jurist has been summarized in a portrait in the “galerie des internationalistes” of the Société française de droit international, with a brief bibliography.
More recently, two courses have been published.
René CASSIN, On the condition of enemy subjects in France during the war (1916)
preceded by
Julien BROCH, Facing the enemy: René Cassin, a jurist on the “intellectualfront (2021)
René CASSIN, On the condition of enemy subjects in France during the war (1916)
preceded by
Julien BROCH, Facing the enemy: René Cassin, a jurist on the “intellectualfront (2021)
This text, written by René Cassin in the aftermath of injuries sustained during the First World War, marks the turning point in his lifelong commitment to justice and peace.
Julien Broch, Senior Lecturer in the History of Law and Institutions at Aix-Marseille University, puts René Cassin’s tireless fight for human rights into perspective. This book is in free consultation here.
