Gaston Jèze (March 2, 1869, Toulouse – August 5, 1953, Deauville) was a French academic, humanitarian and human rights activist.
He was a liberal and supporter of the Third Republic, but he did not hesitate to criticize the mistakes and "demagoguery" of governments, and he had little regard for the professional political bureaucracy of his time.
The Italians, who had ulterior motives, consistently rebuffed all attempts at serious and equitable negotiations and thus having their demands predictably rejected by the Emperor, on Jèze's advice, declared war in 1935.
During the negotiating period, he thus became the symbol of law and anticolonialism because of his oratory for and his championing of the Ethiopian cause before the Permanent Court of International Justice in The Hague.
Notably, on March 5, 1936, the French nationalist groups organised their biggest demonstration to date, demanding his resignation.