France Torture is always unjustifiable for a simple reason…we can’t fight terrorism using the rules of terrorism. The day that democracy strays by using methods that are undemocratic, the terrorists have won. So torture is never justified, justifiable, explicable, tolerable. —Nicolas Sarkozy, President of France (then Interior Minister), February 2006122 We work enormously with partner intelligence services, it has become our daily bread, absolutely necessary. —Pierre de Bousquet de Florian, former head of a French intelligence service123 France is a party to major human rights instruments imposing clear obligations with respect to the prevention, prosecution and eradication of torture.124 National law authorizes universal jurisdiction over torture.125 Priding itself on being the cradle of human rights and the birthplace of modern humanitarianism, France has been at the forefront of efforts to advance respect for international human rights law, as well as expand its boundaries, worldwide. France played a critical role in the drafting and adoption of the 2006 International Convention for the Protection of All Persons from Enforced Disappearance, an important instrument in the struggle to prevent torture. France also contributes to the UN Voluntary Fund for Victims of Torture. France ratified the Optional Protocol to the Convention against Torture in November 2008, having created in July of the same year the institution of the Controller-general for places of deprivation of liberty (Contrôlleur général des lieux de privation de liberté) as the national 122 Nicolas Sarkozy, then interior minister, interview on RCM radio, February 16, 2006, http://sarkozyblog.free.fr/index.php?2006/02/13/243-quand-nicolas-sarkozy-donne-la-parole-aux-francais (accessed September 7, 2009). 123 “La menace terroriste très élevée en France,” Le Figaro, November 9, 2006, http://www.lefigaro.fr/france/20060911.WWW000000426_la_menace_terroriste_tres_elevee_en_france.html (accessed September 22, 2009). 124 ICCPR, ratified by France November 4, 1980, Convention against Torture, ratified by France February 18, 1986; ECHR, ratified by France May 3, 1974. 125 Article 689 (1) and (2) of the French Criminal Code of Procedure. “No Questions Asked” 44