Notable Quotes on Human Rights ​​​
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“We want the world our children inherit to be defined by the values enshrined in the U.N. Charter: peace, justice, respect, human rights, tolerance, and solidarity.”
Secretary-General Antonio Guterres
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“When the fundamental principles of human rights are not protected, the center of our institution no longer holds. It is they that promote development that is sustainable; peace that is secure; and lives of dignity.”
Former UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Zeid Ra’ad Al Hussein
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“We declare that human rights are for all of us, all the time: whoever we are and wherever we are from; no matter our class, our opinions, our sexual orientation.”
Former UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon
“Our hopes for a more just, safe, and peaceful world can only be achieved when there is universal respect for the inherent dignity and equal rights of all members of the human family.”
UN Women Executive Director Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka
“There can be no peace without development, no development without peace, and no lasting peace or sustainable development without respect for human rights and the rule of law.”
Former UN Deputy Secretary-General Jan Eliasson
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"All human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights. Everyone is entitled to all the rights and freedoms set forth in the universal Declaration of Human Rights, without distinction of any kind, such as race, creed, colour, sex, language, religion, political or other Notable Quotes on Human Rights opinion, national or social origin, property, birth or other status. Everyone has the right to life, liberty and security of person."
Principle 1, ICPD Programme of Action
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"Even if he can vote to choose his rulers, a young man with AIDS who cannot read or write and lives on the brink of starvation is not truly free. Equally, even if she earns enough to live, a woman who lives in the shadow of daily violence and has no say in how her country is run is not truly free.
Larger freedom implies that men and women everywhere have the right to be governed by their own consent, under law, in a society where all individuals can, without discrimination or retribution, speak, worship and associate freely. They must also be free from want — so that the death sentences of extreme poverty and infectious disease are lifted from their lives — and free from fear — so that their lives and livelihoods are not ripped apart by violence and war. Indeed, all people have the right to security and to development."
UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan
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"We must understand the role of human rights as empowering of individuals and communities. By protecting these rights, we can help prevent the many conflicts based on poverty, discrimination and exclusion (social, economic and political) that continue to plague humanity and destroy decades of development efforts. The vicious circle of human broken. I believe we can break it only by ensuring respect for all human rights."
Former UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, Mary Robinson
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“Freedom means the supremacy of human rights everywhere. Our support goes to those who struggle to gain those rights or keep them. Our strength is our unity of purpose. To that high concept there can be no end save victory.” - Franklin D. Roosevelt, 32nd President of the United States, Combatted the Great Depression Notable Quotes on Human Rights “Where, after all, do universal human rights begin? In small places, close to home – so close and so small that they cannot be seen on any maps of the world. … Unless these rights have meaning there, they have little meaning anywhere. Without concerned citizen action to uphold them close to home, we shall look in vain for progress in the larger world.”
Eleanor Roosevelt, First Lady of the United States, American political figure, Diplomat, and Activist
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“The rights of every man are diminished when the rights of one man are threatened.”
John F. Kennedy, 35th President of the United States
“You are America. Unconstrained by habit and convention. Unencumbered by what is, ready to seize what ought to be. For everywhere in this country, there are first steps to be taken, there is new ground to cover, there are more bridges to be crossed. America is not the project of any one person. The single most powerful word in our democracy is the word ‘We.’ ‘We The People.’ ‘We Shall Overcome.’ ‘Yes We Can.’ That word is owned by no one. It belongs to everyone. Oh, what a glorious task we are given to continually try to improve this great nation of ours.”
Barack Obama, 44th President of the United States and Nobel Prize Laureate
“Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere.”
Martin Luther King Jr., Civil Rights Leader and Nobel Prize Laureate
“A democracy cannot thrive where power remains unchecked and justice is reserved for a select few. Ignoring these cries and failing to respond to this movement is simply not an option — for peace cannot exist where justice is not served.”
John Lewis, Civil Rights leader and U.S. Congressman
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“There are wrongs which even the grave does not bury.”
Harriet Jacobs, American abolitionist and author of Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl, an autobiography
“If one really wishes to know how justice is administered in a country, one does not question the policemen, the lawyers, the judges, or the protected members of the middle class. One goes to the unprotected — those, precisely, who need the law’s protection most! — and listens to their testimony.”
James Baldwin, American writer and intellectual
“Injustice makes the rules, and courage breaks them.”
Ursula K. Le Guin, American science fiction writer
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“There may be times when we are powerless to prevent injustice, but there must never be a time when we fail to protest.”
Elie Wiesel, Romanian Jewish writer and activist best known for his memoir, Night
“If you are neutral in situations of injustice, you have chosen the side of the oppressor. If an elephant has its foot on the tail of a mouse and you say that you are neutral, the mouse will not appreciate your neutrality.”
Desmond Tutu, Anglican minister and activist known for his work on equality and justice, and Nobel Prize Laureate
“To forgive and accept injustice is cowardice.”
Mahatma Gandhi, Indian anti-colonist nationalist, lawyer and icon of civil disobedience
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