Francois Zimeray

François Zimeray, lawyer, politician and diplomat, was born in 1961. He was a Member of the European Parliament for the Party of European Socialists from 1999 to 2004, sitting on the Committee on Foreign Affairs and Defence Policy. He served as President of Greater Rouen from 2002 through to his 13 February 2008 appointment by the French Council of Ministers as Ambassador for Human Rights, at the proposal of the Minister of State for Foreign Affairs and Human Rights.
Career
This lawyer, a close friend of Laurent Fabius, first made his mark in 1989 when at just 27 years old he was elected Mayor of Petit-Quevilly, a communist stronghold since 1945 (23,000 inhabitants). The election made him the youngest mayor of any municipality with over 20,000 inhabitants in France. He was twice re-elected mayor in the first round of voting and won a seat on the departmental council, beating national records time and again. He founded the first association of mayors for the environment, called “Eco-Maires”.
His commitment to human rights dates back to 1979, when he founded his first association for Cambodian refugees before working in the camps on the Thai border where he forged his political beliefs.

At 37 years old, he became a Member of the European Parliament. This youngest member of the French socialist delegation worked on the Legal Affairs Committee and the Committee on Foreign Affairs and Defence Policy. He is the author of eight reports adopted unanimously.

Zimeray is a prominent figure well-known for his support of the “peace camp” in Israel and the Palestinian moderates in 2002, and for raising questions on the use of public monies to finance terrorism. His positions are controversial. He actively supports “People’s Voice”, the initiative by Palestinian Sari Nusseibeh and Israeli Ami Ayalon. And when he launched a call for a parliamentary fact-finding committee on the use of European funds by the Palestinian Authority, the Party of European Socialists cut off his speaking time and the French Socialist Party declined to nominate him for the 2004 European elections. In the general election, he received the support of many leading politicians including Laurent Fabius, Robert Badinter, François Léotard and Corinne Lepage.

He subsequently founded the Cercle Leon Blum and worked to promote dialogue between European leaders and Middle Eastern political and civil society representatives as Chairman of the MedBridge Strategy Center founded in Brussels with prominent European politicians such as Willy De Clercq, François Léotard, Emma Bonino and Ana Palacio. In 2006, he rallied support for Darfur. He played a decisive role in the organisation of the European campaign for this cause. In 2007, he visited the Darfur refugee camps in Chad with Bernard-Henri Lévy and drafted principles for engagement signed by the leading French presidential candidates. He publicly challenged two Sudanese ministers invited by the Paris Chamber of Commerce and Industry. François Zimeray is a member of the Paris Bar and the International Criminal Bar of The Hague. He has represented victims in trials of Khmer Rouge leaders, successfully campaigned to free imprisoned political opponents in Laos, and defended a child soldier in Congo/Kinshasa. He has also spoken before the European Court of Human Rights. François Zimeray is a member of the French Institute of International Legal Experts (IFEJI). Bernard Kouchner, French Minister of Foreign and European Affairs, most recently placed him in charge of preparations for the celebration of the 60th anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.

Distinctions

Public office