UN General Assembly
1982

announce today—and I do so symbolically from this rostrum—that France will sign the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea, because it does not confine itself to coming here to make proposals. We also want to preach by example and to make our deeds fit our words. 161. I am also in a position to inform the general Assembly that France has decided to endorse the principles contained in the 1975 Declaration on the Protection of All Persons from Being Subjected to Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment. Today I shall give official notification of this to the Secretary-General on behalf of the French Gov¬ernment. 162. Finally I should like to add that France will recognize the right of a State or an individual to exercise, before the Human Rights Committee, the right of recourse provided for in article 41 and the Protocol of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights. 163. Before coming here to address the Assembly, I re-read the remarks made by Leon Blum