to-day lives of detained people and, in some cases, led to "serious violations of fundamental rights" being denounced. And yet too many recommendations - even when upheld time and again - are not acted upon. The afternoon opened with a contribution from Mireille Delmas-Marty, Honorary Professor at Collège de France, member of the Academy of Moral and Political Sciences, President of the Pharos Observatory on the pluralism of cultures and religions and Chair of the CGLPL's scientific committee. In her analysis of the increasingly common application of state of emergency measures to the point of slipping into a "soft despotism", she showed that, over the course of a long development, "by making the lifting of the state of emergency dependent upon the transfer of its primary provisions into ordinary law, the law is weakening the Rule of Law - and French society is barely batting an eyelid." She ended by calling on CGLPL members to act "in some ways as guardians of the spirit of laws, keeping watch and refusing to be governed by fear." A final panel discussion revealed a duty for vigilance, since new problems, civil society's expectations and international legal requirements all make prevention of violations of fundamental rights an enduring requirement. Bruno Cotte, Honorary President of the Criminal Chamber of the Court of Cassation, former President of the Trial Judicial Division at the International Criminal Court, and Member of the Academy of Moral and Political Sciences, summed up these two study days. On a final note, the Chief Inspector underscored the CGLPL's meaningful role: supervision of the effectiveness of rights, daily presence in places of deprivation of liberty, daily contact with detained people. She gave a reminder that the law and case law exist, but are called to evolve for they are sometimes insufficient with regard to guaranteeing the effectiveness of fundamental rights of people deprived of liberty. These people are sometimes kept locked up in silence. The CGLPL's role is to give them a voice so that their truth, brought to the public's attention, promotes their rights. This symposium brought together 25 speakers and nearly 300 participants. Its proceedings will be published in Spring 2018. 3. International relations In 2017 the CGLPL had the opportunity to invest in a wide variety of international projects. Within the United Nations, 2017 was marked by preparations for the Universal Periodic Review (UPR), which was conducted in France's case in January 2018. The CGLPL submitted an alternative contribution before being heard during the UPR PreSession, organised by UPR-Info, alongside the National Consultative Commission on Human Rights, French Human Rights League, Secours catholique and ATD quart monde. The previous UPR particularly contained recommendations on the following subjects: immigration detention of families, population overcrowding, detention conditions and investigations into poor treatment. Since no recommendations bore on the question of respect for rights in mental health institutions during this previous review, the CGLPL decided to bring this issue to the fore, from two angles: - by highlighting the increase in sectioning owing to a shortage of means post- and prethe hospitalisation itself, - by drawing attention to the widespread confinement of patients – even voluntary patients – with restrictions on their rights, sometimes lasting years, leading to institutionalisation in a number of their cases. 107