ABSTRACT

The Tower of Babel has not stopped causing us problems yet, and the conflicts that it sets offcast their shadow over Canada, and in particular, French-speaking Canada. Thus, when my English-speaking friends talk about the rights to which the René Cassin Lectureship is dedicated, they use the neutral expression “human rights.” It is the same with Spanish speakers when they refer to “derechos humanos.” But in French, the phrase “droits humains” does not sound quite right, and tradition dictates that we speak of “droits de l’homme.” Accordingly, it was only natural that the United Nations would, in 1948, adopt the Déclaration universelle des droits de l’homme (Universal Declaration of Human Rights). But this French expression is not neutral, and of late it has prompted such sharp controversy among us that both national legislation in Canada and provincial legislation in Quebec have opted in 30their French texts for the phrase “droits de la personne.”