Basic Rights Quotes

• Religious freedom doesn't mean you can force others to live by your own beliefs

  Barack Obama

  Religious, Mean, Belief

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• Everyone has a right to peaceful coexistence, the basic personal freedoms, the alleviation of suffering, and the opportunity to lead a productive life.

  Jimmy Carter

  Peace, Freedom, Opportunity

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• Fear is not the natural state of civilized people.

  Aung San Suu Kyi

  Fear, People, Basic Human Rights

  Aung San Suu Kyi (1991). “Freedom from fear: and other writings”, Penguin (Non-Classics)

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• The Good Friday Agreement and the basic rights and entitlements of citizens that are enshrined within it must be defended and actively promoted by London and Dublin.

  Gerry Adams

  Friday, Rights, Agreement

  Gerry Adams (2007). “An Irish Eye”, Brandon Books

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• In a matrilineal society, a woman has basic rights that no one has to grant her but you can't take it away from her because the society is based on the concept that the lifegiver is equal to those she gave the life to. And that will remain... until you find a pregnant man.

  John Henrik Clarke

  Men, Rights, Equal

  Source: www.ourtimepress.com

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• Why is it that any technological and scientific achievement reached in the Middle East regions is translated into and portrayed as a threat to the Zionist regime? Is not scientific R&D one of the basic rights of nations?

  Mahmoud Ahmadinejad

  Rights, Achievement, Middle East

  "EU3 pushing incentives plan for Iran". www.cnn.com. May 10, 2006.

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• If one benefits tangibly from the exploitation of others who are weak, is one morally implicated in their predicament? Or are basic rights of human existence confined to the civilized societies that are wealthy enough to afford them? Our values are defined by what we will tolerate when it is done to others.

  William Greider

  Rights, Done, Benefits

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• As straight Americans we have two choices: we can choose to sit back and enjoy our rights as we have them, or we can realize that it is actually not freedom at all when our friends, family, neighbors, and colleagues do not share these basic rights.

  Jack Antonoff

  Two, Rights, Choices

  "Straight Allies: The Importance and the Realities" by Jack Antonoff, www.huffingtonpost.com. February 16, 2012.

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• We must never forget that many around the globe are denied the basic rights we enjoy as Americans. If we are to continue enjoying these privileges and freedoms we must accept our mission of expanding democracy around the globe.

  James Inhofe

  Rights, Democracy, Privilege

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• As more and more people awaken to the threats against our basic rights online, we must start a debate - everywhere - about the web we want.

  Tim Berners-Lee

  Rights, People, Want

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• I guess what I'd like to say is that people in Sierra Leone are human beings, just like Americans. They want to send their kids to school; they want to live in peace; they want to have their basic rights of life just like everyone else. I think we all owe an obligation to support people who want to do that.

  Ishmael Beah

  School, Kids, Thinking

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• The Saudi government's denial of basic rights to women is not only wrong, it hurts Saudi Arabia's economic development, modernization and prosperity.

  Barbara Boxer

  Hurt, Rights, Government

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• There is no person in this room whose basic rights are not involved in any successful defiance to the carrying out of court orders.

  Dwight D. Eisenhower

  Successful, Rights, Order

  Eisenhower, Dwight D. (1959). “Public Papers of the Presidents of the United States: Dwight D. Eisenhower, 1958”, p.397, Best Books on

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• We can give our intelligence and law enforcement community the powers they need to track down and take out terrorists without undermining our commitment to the rule of law, or our basic rights and liberties.

  Barack Obama

  Commitment, Nsa, Rights

  "Senate Passes Its FISA Bill, While House Rejects 21 Day Extension Bill". www.techlawjournal.com. February 13, 2008.

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• There are still countries where women don't enjoy basic rights like the vote or the freedom to study or the freedom of choice in marriage. Every year there are twenty million little girls in Africa who are deprived of their sexuality through brutal genital operations. Basically, there's still much to be done.

  Dacia Maraini

  Girl, Country, Rights

  Source: wordswithoutborders.org

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• We need to finally accept that all sentient creatures are deserving of basic rights. I define basic rights as this -the ability to pursue life without having someone else's will involuntarily forced upon you.

  Moby

  Acceptance, Animal, Rights

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• When the man who feeds the world by toiling in the fields is himself deprived of the basic rights of feeding, sheltering, and caring for his own family, the whole community of man is sick.

  Cesar Chavez

  Caring, Men, Rights

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• It's a travesty that people have forced someone who is gay to have to make their case that they deserve the same basic rights...

  Jon Stewart

  Gay, Rights, People

  "David Bianculli's Top 10 TV Shows Of 2008". "Fresh Air" with Terry Gross, www.npr.org. December 23, 2008.

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• There can only be one answer to this hideous act of jihad against the staff of Charlie Hebdo. It is the obligation of the Western media and Western leaders, religious and lay, to protect the most basic rights of freedom of expression, whether in satire on any other form. The West must not appease, it must not be silenced. We must send a united message to the terrorists: Your violence cannot destroy our soul.

  Ayaan Hirsi Ali

  Religious, Media, Expression

  "How to Respond to Islamist Kalashnikovs in the Heart of Paris" by Ayaan Hirsi Ali, www.huffingtonpost.com. January 7, 2015.

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• Look, you are interested in trying to make sure that governments keep a clean environment, have regard for the lifestyles of indigenous peoples, and work for fair trade rules. Well, it's exactly the same for human rights - from non-discrimination to the basic rights to food, safe water, education and health care. We are talking rights not needs. There are standards that governments have signed up to - but nobody is holding them to account.

  Mary Robinson

  Talking, Rights, Government

  Source: www.opendemocracy.net

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• No, you can't deny women their basic rights and pretend it's about your 'religious freedom'. If you don't like birth control, don't use it. Religious freedom doesn't mean you can force others to live by your own beliefs.

  Barack Obama

  Religious, Freedom, Women

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• Until relatively recently, mass political movements were still about basic rights of food, shelter, education and self sufficiency. The reasons fewer people vote these days, or turn up for political meetings, is that for the vast majority of us those rights have been fulfilled. These days it's in the adverts for mobile phones or foreign holidays where phrases like "Join the Revolution!" and "Cry Freedom!" are bandied about for a generation which knows nothing of their provenance. Just as now we have luxury illnesses to replace real ones, so now we have luxury politics.

  John Diamond

  Real, Holiday, Rights

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• A state that denies its citizens their basic rights becomes a danger to its neighbors as well: internal arbitrary rule will be reflected in arbitrary external relations. The suppression of public opinion, the abolition of public competition for power and its public exercise opens the way for the state power to arm itself in any way it sees fit.... A state that does not hesitate to lie to its own people will not hesitate to lie to other states.

  Vaclav Havel

  Lying, Exercise, Rights

  "Living in Truth". Book by Vaclav Havel, 1986.

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• The Universal Declaration of Human Rights - This great and inspiring instrument was born of an increased sense of responsibility by the international community for the promotion and protection of man's basic rights and freedoms. The world has come to a clear realization of the fact that freedom, justice and world peace can only be assured through the international promotion and protection of these rights and freedoms.

  U Thant

  Responsibility, Men, Rights

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• The international community cannot accept that whole communities are marginalized because of the color of their skin. People of African descent are among those most affected by racism. Too often, they face denial of basic rights such as access to quality health services and education. Such fundamental wrongs have a long and terrible history.

  Ban Ki-moon

  Rights, Race, Color

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