Human Rights Quotes - Page 9

• My father wasn't a militant racist. He was a human rights activist - he was about human beings, so let's just get away from going way back then.

  Malaak Shabazz

  Father, Rights, Racist

  Source: maxblumenthal.com

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• Foreign policy that is obviously guided by interests, but that is very much also committed to shared values, so we have a platform, democracy, freedom, respect of human rights that we would like to see respected all over the world and also, a peaceful world order.

  Angela Merkel

  Rights, Order, Peaceful

  "Remarks by President Obama and Chancellor Merkel of Germany in a Joint Press Conference". www.the-president.us. November 17, 2016.

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• Good, healthy democratic societies are built on three pillars: there's peace and stability, economic development, and respect for rule of law and human rights. And where all three are present, you stand a very good chance of making a go of it.

  Kofi Annan

  Rights, Law, Healthy

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• Often, we take stability - peace in terms of security and economic activity - to mean a country is doing well. We forget the third and important pillar of rule of law and respect for human rights, because no country can long remain prosperous without that third pillar.

  Kofi Annan

  Country, Mean, Rights

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• Even the worst dictator, there is not a single one of them who would say "Oh yes, I violate human rights." They all claim "oh no, we respect human rights" even when they are doing the most egregious things.

  Desmond Tutu

  Rights, Dictator, Claims

  Source: values.mountmadonnaschool.org

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• [Transsexual surgery] could be likened to political psychiatry in the Soviet Union. I suggest that transsexualism should best be seen in this light, as directly political, medical abuse of human rights. The mutilation of healthy bodies and the subjection of such bodies to dangerous and life-threatening continuing treatment violates such people's rights to live with dignity in the body into which they were born.

  Sheila Jeffreys

  Rights, Light, People

  Source: transadvocate.com

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• If [Western] relations with Russia are to be friendly, they must be open and sincere, otherwise there can be no friendship at all. That means one should be able to speak openly about everything at meetings and conferences. It shouldn't be that we can't discuss the killing of journalists in Russia, or the suppression of human rights, or all the warning signs surfacing in Russia because of oil and gas or other economic reasons. It's a big problem, but it's the same in Western relations with Arab states.

  Vaclav Havel

  Mean, Russia, Rights

  Source: www.rferl.org

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• I want to take human rights out of their box. I want to show the relevance of the universal principles of human rights to the basic needs of health, security, education and equality.

  Mary Robinson

  Rights, Principles, Needs

  Source: www.opendemocracy.net

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• I'm not interested in scoring points or being over-critical of the US administration. I want to find the entry points to try and get it back on track so that the United States can get out of the present disastrous situation it's in, and back into being a constructive force for human rights in the world.

  Mary Robinson

  Rights, Track, Trying

  Source: www.opendemocracy.net

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• It is a great problem for the true international agenda of human rights that the United States, uniquely among industrialised countries, has not ratified three main instruments, has not ratified the Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, or the Convention on the Rights of the Child, or the Convention for the Elimination of Discrimination Against Women, and we could have so much richer a debate and dialogue on international human rights standards if the superpower would sign up to the agenda.

  Mary Robinson

  Country, Children, Rights

  Source: www.opendemocracy.net

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• The whole human rights structure is based on the accountability of governments.

  Mary Robinson

  Rights, Government, Accountability

  Source: www.opendemocracy.net

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• Using human rights commitments more effectively, either as part of negotiations in the WTO or as part of the trade policy review process, poses issues of equality in a practical venue.

  Mary Robinson

  Commitment, Rights, Issues

  Source: www.opendemocracy.net

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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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• We live in the age of communication. Write letters to the editor. Speak to your congressman, to your senator. If you are young, especially young people are taken by this human rights activities. They should organize the universities.

  Elie Wiesel

  Communication, Taken, Writing

  Source: www.savetibet.org

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• I don't really mind it when Trudeau calls himself a feminist because, you know, he did the half-female cabinet; that's something to be proud of. On the other hand, when you look at that recent Russian spousal abuse law or attacks on abortion in the U.S, you have to say that's a human rights issue, and feminism is just human rights.

  Stephen Marche

  Law, Issues, Rights

  Source: www.macleans.ca

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• I absolutely believe that America has a responsibility, and the privilege of helping defend freedom and promote the principles that make the world more peaceful. And those principles include human rights, human dignity, free enterprise, freedom of expression, elections.

  Mitt Romney

  Believe, Responsibility, Rights

  Source: genius.com

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• Ethical globalization is possible if only we can hold governments and business accountable for respecting human rights, not just in the traditional political and legal realms, but in everything - health, education and the other social determinants of health - rights to food, safe water, sanitation and so on.

  Mary Robinson

  Rights, Government, Health Education

  Source: www.who.int

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• I'm struck by how very few people outside a rarefied world of true believers understand what you mean when you say human rights - that includes development experts and economists who are very keen to implement the UN Millennium Development Goals. They've told me quite frankly, that they don't know exactly what a human rights approach is.

  Mary Robinson

  Mean, Rights, People

  Source: www.opendemocracy.net

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• I would like people to remember that I kept the peace when I was president and I worked for peace, that I espoused human rights in its broadest definition, not only freedom of speech but freedom of assembly, freedom of worship and trial by jury but also the right of people for people to have a decent home to live, food to eat, employment, healthcare, self respect, dignity. So I think the broad gamut of human rights, peace and freedom. I would like to be remembered for those things to the degree that I deserve it and I still have a long way to go.

  Jimmy Carter

  Home, Thinking, Self

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• Vladimir Putin is a human rights abuser, responsible for deaths in Ukraine, Georgia and Syria, not to mention curious murders of his political opponents and journalists.

  Jake Tapper

  Ukraine, Rights, Political

  Source: www.washingtonpost.com

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• I do not support individual countries taking military action against another country because of its human rights record, or subsequently justifying taking such action on human rights grounds.

  Mary Robinson

  Country, Military, Rights

  Source: www.opendemocracy.net

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• The slightest sign of stability is used by local authoritarian leaders to bargain for the sympathies of Western countries that are, for the sake of a balanced relationship, bound to turn a blind eye to obvious, blatant violations of human rights and the deconstruction of democratic institutions in these countries.

  Garry Kasparov

  Country, Eye, Violation Of Human Rights

  Source: www.rferl.org

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• The idea of justice - even just dreaming of justice - is revolutionary. The language of human rights tends to accept a status quo that is intrinsically unjust - and then tries to make it more accountable.

  Arundhati Roy

  Dream, Ideas, Rights

  Source: www.truth-out.org

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• I'm a human rights activist and it doesn't make any sense not to treat everybody the exact same way. It just doesn't make any sense, it's counter intuitive, it's inhuman and it has to stop.

  Mehcad Brooks

  Rights, Way, Treats

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• There's a dilemma over how to balance concrete economic interests with critical opinions on the state of human rights. It's the human rights that suffer, and that's a great price to pay.

  Vaclav Havel

  Rights, Suffering, Balance

  Source: www.rferl.org

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