On the World Day Against the Death Penalty on October 10 of each year, the French Ambassador to Lebanon, Bruno Foucher, conferred French Honor Knight of the National Order of Merit on human rights activist Antoinette Shahine who was sentenced to death but later set free for acquittal. During the ceremony held at the Pine Palace in Beirut, Foucher hailed on behalf of his country Shahine’s struggle for the abolition of capital punishment, commending her tolerance that helped her continue her battle in this direction. “What you went through makes you the ambassador of human dignity in every sense of the word,” Foucher said. Shahine in response said the French honor inspired her to fight against capital punishment, injustice and torture that she experienced in prison. “Today, is the World Day Against Death which I have been celebrating for the past 22 years. And since my release from prison in 1998, I have been working to stop the death sentence in defense of human rights,” Shahine maintained. (An Nahar, Al Mustaqbal, Al Diyar, October 12, 2017)