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“I think it’s scary that that our elected officials aren’t operating under the principles of human rights, under the principles that this government and this country was founded on.”
“It is time in the West to defend not so much human rights as human obligations.”
“But if USA has 1.3 billion people, USA would have the same human rights problem just like China.”
“Who is against human rights in Belarus today? Of course, no one should view human rights as the right to smash shop windows or stir up unrest in the streets.”
“The idea of human rights as a fundamental principle can be seen to underlie throughout Islamic teachings.”
“The issue of human rights is one of the most fundamental human issues and also one of the most sensitive and controversial.”
“Those who have been outspoken in advocating human rights during these last forty years, have themselves grabbed the most fundamental of human rights from the people of the Third-World countries.”
“Iran’s continued pursuit of nuclear weapons, support for international terrorist organizations, and abhorrent human rights practices pose one of the greatest threats to global security.”
“It is not necessary to dwell on the political and social principles of Islam, to underline how close they also are in spirit to the concepts of human rights which govern the political and social systems of the West.”
“The first piece of advice I would have from my experience is that governments need to be vocal about human rights.”
“We can never afford to be complacent; there is no such thing as security when it comes to human rights.”
“Human rights are praised more than ever – and violated as much as ever.”
“Terrorist groups share an agenda of authoritarianism, misogyny, and intolerance. They are an affront to the common values encapsulated in the U.N. Charter and the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.”
“Women’s rights are human rights.”
“I don’t have any doubts either about the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. Perhaps some more should be added to the list, but I don’t have the slightest doubt about human rights.”
“At some point we must realize that actively defending against radical Islamic teachings is not a matter of cultural relativity. It is a matter of universally recognized human rights.”
“There was a time that human rights was not even an issue in this country. Then prisoners’ rights became an issue.”
“I have noticed encouraging signs in the fight against religious intolerance, and I am impressed by the outstanding degree of human rights activism in India.”
“Every religion curbs women rights to some extent. Some countries acted against religions and put a ban on wearing hijab, which was also a violation of human rights.”
“It is often in the name of cultural integrity as well as social stability and national security that democratic reforms based on human rights are resisted by authoritarian governments.”
“I do protect human rights, and I hope I shall always be looked up as a champion of human rights.”
“Fundamental violations of human rights always lead to people feeling less and less human.”
“I am waiting for the day when the German Bundestag debates the violation of human rights in Saudi Arabia.”
“We are affirming human rights for all women and girls, acknowledging the full range of diversity that exists, and detailing actions to prevent violence.”
“In both Burma and Laos, we have engaged countries that were once adversaries, and will continue to do so in ways that promote good relations, development, and human rights.”
“Well, this is an unfortunate part of the UN institution. It’s the – the theater of the absurd. It doesn’t only cast Israel as the villain; it often casts real villains in leading roles: Gadhafi’s Libya chaired the UN Commission on Human Rights; Saddam’s Iraq headed the UN Committee on Disarmament.”
“George W. Bush and his administration embarked on a full-scale assault on civil liberties, human rights and the rule of law, walking away from his international obligations, tearing up international treaties, protocols and UN conventions.”
“Cultural variety is always worth striving for, but must never precede the declaration of human rights.”
“The UN declaration on human rights must always be first in line before religion or other cultural habits, in case of any conflict between them.”
“And also a lot of Muslims are no more religious then the average Swede. For them it’s natural that human rights come first.”
“I will not ascribe to the ‘Blame America’ club for vicious abuses of human rights, systemic exploitation of Cuban labor, unrelenting repression, and stifling censorship.”
“’Glory’ pays tribute to honorable men who faced unimaginable discrimination even as they fought to preserve basic human rights.”
“My point was very simple, and it was that it is absolutely absurd for the United States of America to continue to urge us further down the line towards a federal superstate when the U.S. has not even signed up to the U.N. Convention on Human Rights.”
“I refer to calls for humanitarian intervention in the affairs of another state – a new idea, this – even when they are made under the pretext of defending human rights and freedoms.”
“It may be an extreme example brought about by abnormal circumstances – but the criteria of human rights kick in, surely, precisely when the conditions are extreme and the situation is abnormal.”
“The predominant yardstick of your government is not human rights but national interests.”
“We have in the last two years, we have passed 350 legislation in the parliament, most of which deal with democratization, human rights, and of course, economy.”
“Human rights problems will always exist for years to come, but maybe they’ll lessen somewhat.”
“What’s happened at the Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq is one of the grossest violations of human rights under the Geneva Conventions that we have record of. It is simply monstrous.”
“Some of the occurrences leading up to and immediately following the Berlin World Championships have infringed not only my rights as an athlete but also my fundamental and human rights, including my rights to dignity and privacy.”
“When human rights are systematically abused, it raises the question whether it may be legitimate in some circumstances for the international community to intervene within individual states as well as in conflicts between states.”
“We also intend to deal with the issue of incorporating basic human rights into our new constitution.”
“Saddam Hussein wrote the book on human rights violations.”
“South Africa has not turned its back on human rights at all.”
“’Freedom from fear’ could be said to sum up the whole philosophy of human rights.”
“Being a humanitarian, supporting animal rights activists, human rights activists, it’s all the same.”
“In a world of increasing inequality, the legitimacy of institutions that give precedence to the property rights of ‘the Haves’ over the human rights of ‘the Have Nots’ is inevitably called into serious question.”
“For those who have envisioned the State of Israel to be a democracy, which although primarily a Jewish polity for Jews is one in which non-Jews can become citizens and enjoy equal civil rights with the Jewish majority, the question of natural law is the question of human rights.”
“Many instances of persecution and killing have occurred in countries with atrocious human rights records such as Sri Lanka, Guatemala and the Democratic Republic of Congo.”
“If we value human rights, they should be at the core of the project against violent extremism, and women a key part of our imagined future.”
“Hostility to the Human Rights Act has been present in sections of the Conservative Party since its enactment, and this has grown more strident with the passage of time, encouraged by some sections of the press.”
“Despite egregious human rights abuses, military dictatorship in Greece, and Russian atrocities in Chechnya, no state has ever been voted out of the Council of Europe.”
“Prisoners have benefited disproportionately from ‘rights inflation’ – the expansion of human rights into unforeseen nooks and crannies.”
“Beyond the U.S. and E.U., Britain should deepen ties with the Commonwealth and the rising powers of Asia and Latin America – calibrated to our national interest in promoting the global goods of free trade, democracy, and basic human rights.”
“The walk from Selma to Montgomery that turned into Bloody Sunday leaves us with a strong reminder of how much those before us gave for basic human rights.”
“In Uzbekistan, hundreds of protesters were recently killed under the corrupt regime of President Karimov in what human rights groups are calling a massacre.”
“I do think that every super power on the globe has a very poor record on human rights.”
“Here in the United States, corporations has human rights. And then why not – why not nature also, if corporations can defend themselves, saying, ‘We have human rights?’ Well, let’s admit that nature also should be protected.”
“I’ve gone beyond civil rights and human rights to creation rights.”
“I fundamentally believe in freedom and human rights.”
“During most of the Bush administration, human rights and democracy in Egypt were on the front burner.”
“On the human rights side, administration policy has been marked by indifference. When the people of Iran flooded the streets to protest the theft of their presidential election in June 2009, President Obama was silent for 11 days.”
“I first met Kim Dae Jung when he was a Korean dissident whose life was threatened by the military regime ruling in Seoul. I was Ronald Reagan’s Assistant Secretary of State for Human Rights, and Kim was directed to me because the East Asia Bureau at the State Department had long shunned him.”
“No! on Human Rights and Freedom, on a subject that is as self-evident as that two and two make four, there is no need of any written authority.”
“We must do all we can to help improve the deplorable human rights situation of the North Korean people.”
“The subject of human rights in China confounds absolute pronouncements.”
“We need to have Turkey respect democracy, human rights, and fundamental freedoms.”
“Our expectation is that the Russian Federation does its part to protect its own citizens in full respect of human rights principles.”
“We have no quarrel with a policy that seeks to support human rights.”
“ISIL struck France because it is ‘free’ and ‘the nation of human rights’. This is not a war of civilisation, as these assassins don’t have any. This is a war against the jihadist menace that threatens not just France.”
“There cannot be any concessions on the matter of human rights or the criteria for visa liberalisation.”
“Whatever happened after the liberation of Krajina, this was in no way a violation of human rights by Croatian authorities.”
“Part of our history includes the long struggle to pass the Chicago Human Rights Ordinance.”
“I’m rooting for Saudi Arabia getting a seat on the U.N. Human Rights Council.”
“The rights of some must not be enjoyed by denying the rights of others. Neither can we permit states’ rights at the expense of human rights.”
“I’m sad that it’s uncool or offensive to talk about environmental or human rights issues.”
“I got a job as a human rights and refugees officer, working on youth-based projects. But I realized all the kids I was working with were far more into ‘The Daily Show’ than the policy briefings.”
“I am passionate about human rights.”
“However, if the religions in essence merely repeat statements from the United Nations Human Rights Declaration, such a Declaration becomes superfluous; an ethic is more than rights.”
“I stand on my public record as a defender of the human rights of Muslims, notably my work for Moazzam Begg and other British Muslims detained without trial in Guantanamo Bay.”
“How have relations with Iran and Belarus benefited Venezuela? We are interested in countries that have democracies, that respect human rights, that we have an affinity with. What affinity do we have with Iran?”
“I have spoken to Chinese leaders occasionally on human rights, but I’ve always done it in private.”
“Human rights are women’s rights, and women’s rights are human rights.”
“Gay rights are human rights.”
“Iran has a dismal record on human rights.”
“And occasionally some of the nations that will be partners in this would probably not be, in terms of passing a pure human rights check, have everything going for them that you would like to have.”
“Criticism of the Middle East should not be directed only at Saudi Arabia. Human rights abuses are happening throughout the Arab world.”
“It is good that the Canadians are raising the flag among Western countries to raise the issue of human rights abuse throughout the Middle East.”
“We receive reports now on a daily basis from our own people on the ground in Darfur on widespread atrocities and grave violations of human rights against the civilian population.”
“Well, they are critics of the Bush administration generally on the human rights record of the administration, and in particular, they are very, very critical of this use of science.”
“America did not invent human rights. In a very real sense human rights invented America.”
“Human rights is the soul of our foreign policy, because human rights is the very soul of our sense of nationhood.”
“At the Carter Center we work with victims of oppression, and we give support to human rights heroes.”
“My mother, for the last 20 years anyway, would not call herself a Marxist but a human rights activist.”
“If the U.N. were to be successful in its efforts to control the Internet, countries where human rights records range from questionable to criminal could be put in charge of determining what is and is not allowed to appear online.”
“The UN Commission on Human Rights, whose membership in recent years has included countries – such as Libya and Sudan – which have deplorable human rights records, and the recent Oil-for-Food scandal, are just a few examples of why reform is so imperative.”
“The United States expects a lot of its partners and allies, including joint patrolling, significant contributions to armed conflicts, and a strict adherence to human rights, among other things.”
“Wars can be resolved. Human rights atrocities can be stopped. We just have to apply the right policies.”
“In human rights and peacemaking, it’s really about having a solid concrete goal – the reduction of human suffering somewhere in the world – and then doing what is required to get that goal achieved.”
“Slavery, racism, sexism, and other forms of bigotry, subordination, and human rights abuse transform and adapt with the times.”
“Upholding human rights is not merely compatible with fighting terrorism, it is essential.”
“The new narrative for Europe should be about the need to have a responsible organisation, the need to be able to defend our interests and promote our values, like human rights.”
“China-led globalization in some ways worries me because they are not concerned about human rights, labor rights. They probably aren’t even really concerned about competitive marketplaces. So in some ways, they’re like Mr. Trump.”
“’The Look of Silence’ is able to have a wide public release, although still not in cinemas. It’s distributed by two government bodies, the National Human Rights Commission and the Jakarta Arts Council.”
“There are two things that I put my focus on. One is the fight against AIDS and finding a cure. The other is human rights.”
“There are genuine concerns about the status of children to be sent to Malaysia and also there are genuine concerns about the human rights record in Malaysia.”
“Big global players like China need to do a better job of respecting human rights.”
“I think that whenever businesses harm the economy, harm workers, harm consumers, or undermine human rights in any way, then it is the role of the government to make sure that they don’t do that and to make sure that markets are fair and they operate properly.”
“Foreign relations should involve human rights, workers’ rights, and environmental protection.”
“I believe that reproductive rights are human rights, and they are nonnegotiable.”
“Human rights is something that wasn’t hard to be inspired to write about because there have been so many violations of those rights.”
“I’ve always been passionate about human rights in general. I think anyone who knows me can attest to that.”
“I’m not guided by what Human Rights Watch says.”
“We must not allow the practices of an anti-democratic State that abuses the powers of government to violate the human rights of Venezuelans.”
“Since January 2002, when the United States began detaining at Guantanamo Bay enemy combatants captured in Afghanistan, Iraq, and other fronts in the war on terror, critics have complained of human rights abuses.”
“There is no country in this world that is immune to violating human rights.”
“The free world led by the U.S. fought almost all regimes that trampled on human rights.”
“Our strategic dialogue with China can both protect American interests and uphold our principles, provided we are honest about our differences on human rights and other issues and provided we use a mix of targeted incentives and sanctions to narrow these differences.”
“Working in the Middle East, daily I face the questions, disbelief, and accusations about how Americans could violate the human rights which they once championed.”
“The only situation that I can’t be in favour of is the lack of respect to human rights in Venezuela.”
“Additionally, any Human Rights Council reform that allows countries with despicable human rights records to remain as members, such as China and Saudi Arabia, is not real reform.”
“Any Human Rights Council reform that allows countries that sponsor terrorism to remain as members, such as Cuba, is not real reform. And in the past, countries such as Libya, Iran and Syria have participated on this council.”
“Currently, the United States provides 22 percent of the U.N. annual budgets, over $900 million in fiscal year 2007, and some of that funding goes to the Human Rights Council.”
“Over the past year, several cases of human rights abuses, specifically sexual exploitation and abuse, by individuals involved in U.N. peacekeeping operations have raised the suspicions of many Members of Congress and members of the International Relations Committee.”
“The respect for human rights is nowadays not so much a matter of having international standards, but rather questions of compliance with those standards.”
“Human rights represent absolute and universal values. They should be protected by all means we have at our disposal.”
“If Islam’s sole interest is the welfare of mankind, then Islam is the strongest advocate of human rights anywhere on Earth.”
“In the year 2010, Kenya adopted a new constitution. With that constitution, we further secured the human rights and civil liberties of our citizens and entrenched constitutional governance and justice.”
“I state in no uncertain terms: An order to uproot an Arab village or a Jewish settlement violates the most basic of human rights… It’s a difficult dilemma.”
“Violence against women and girls touches every corner of the globe and is one of the world’s most pervasive human rights violations.”
“The candid and honest and pure heartedness of children has strengthened my views that we are all equal and should be afforded the basic human rights that we all deserve.”
“Moreover, as we live in an era of the ascendancy of democracy and human rights, we must see that Taiwan has been a vibrant democracy with a democratically elected president and legislature.”
“That’s one of the things that I’m going to talk about, is the need for the Human Rights Council to actually deal with human rights. We’ve got countries on the Human Rights Council right now like Venezuela and Cuba.”
“The valuation of profit over people impedes human rights across much of the world.”
“The U.S.’ refusal to acknowledge the plight of displaced Haitians and maintaining inhumane practices of neglect, disrespect, and violence amounts to a gross violation of human rights.”
“I believe that our communities can benefit if they know about and participate in the U.N.’s various human rights forums.”
“The only way to do the human rights thing is to do the right thing medically.”
“I’m pretty political when it comes to human rights and things like that.”
“Every State has the primary duty to protect its own population from grave and sustained violations of human rights, as well as from the consequences of humanitarian crises, whether natural or man-made.”
“Human rights are not only violated by terrorism, repression or assassination, but also by unfair economic structures that creates huge inequalities.”
“I became an immigrant, civil and human rights advocate, then the first South Asian elected to the Washington State Legislature and the only woman of color in the Washington State Senate, and then was elected in 2016 to the United States Congress.”
“The system of racial classification is fiction, and we need to thoughtfully evaluate whether perpetuating it rigidly or allowing fluidity across the spectrum best supports human rights and social justice.”
“No country is 100 percent free of human rights abuses.”
“The Olympics brought a lot of development to Beijing, but I don’t see that there have been any changes to human rights as a result of the Olympics.”
“There is a broad movement that has been holding companies accountable on human rights for a long time.”
“Without global human rights, labor and environmental movements, companies would still be hiring 12-year-olds as a matter of course and poisoning our groundwater without batting an eyelid.”
“Human rights in cyberspace are really no different from rights in the physical world.”
“We, as Turkey, call on Europe to respect human rights and democracy.”
“Paramount is the need to secure human rights. The form of rule should be such that the citizen does not have to fear the State, but gives it direction and confidently participates in its administration.”
“As a consequence of these hesitations and of the vague character of such innovations, the Commission on Human Rights itself had doubts from the beginning about its role and its functions in general.”
“As corollaries to the right of every individual to life and to full participation in society, the Declaration incorporated in the list of human rights the right to work and a certain number of economic, social, and cultural rights.”
“The single outstanding exception was the broad yet precise mandate communicated by the General Assembly in 1946 to prepare as soon as possible the Charter of Human Rights which the San Francisco Conference had not had the time or the courage to draw up.”
“Few governments in the world, for example, praise human rights more ardently than does the government of France, and few have a worse record of supporting tyrants and killers.”
“All governments should be pressured to correct their abuses of human rights.”
“The rights of homosexual people are human rights, and human rights are for everyone.”
“Cooperation and respect for each other will advance the cause of human rights worldwide. Confrontation, vilification, and double standards will not.”
“What Russia really needs is not gay rights but human rights, and the rule of law.”
“Human rights must work to uplift human dignity.”
“The United States has held out against taking part in any of the world consensus that there should be a court of human rights or that there should be an international court of criminal justice.”
“In most countries, the political class supervises the defense establishment and restrains its leaders from violating human rights or pursuing dangerous, aggressive policies.”
“When you consider what Tony Blair was saying about liberty, human rights and that sort of thing, it would be terribly revolutionary to sell the speeches he and Jack Straw made in 1994.”
“Black-on-black crime is a massive human rights issue that’s going on in America.”
“Labour accepts that the European Court of Human Rights needs reform.”
“We must take proactive steps to promote democracy and human rights abroad.”
“I do a number of things working on human rights issues, prison recidivism rates, and then I also push and have worked a lot on the social issues of rebuilding the family.”
“Historical hypocrites have themselves carried out the very human rights abuses that they suddenly decide warrant intervention elsewhere.”
“The U.S. government engages with many countries around the world in official dialogues on human rights.”
“In the ’90s, there was scant presidential leadership and insufficient domestic political mobilization for foreign policy grounded in human rights.”
“A binding treaty and mandatory human rights due diligence would clean up slavery in global supply chains. Workers demand it, and consumers demand it.”
“My hope is that the 21st century will be the first century where there will be no violation of human rights, and to that end, Japan would like to do our outmost.”
“The idea of cultural relativism is nothing but an excuse to violate human rights.”
“Human rights is a universal standard. It is a component of every religion and every civilization.”
“I hope the example of Saddam Hussein will give a lesson to leaders of other countries where human rights are not respected.”
“Lawyers should not be charged with the same crimes as their clients. Trials related to political charges are not in accordance with human rights.”
“Human rights commissions, as they are evolving, are an attack on our fundamental freedoms and the basic existence of a democratic society… It is in fact totalitarianism. I find this is very scary stuff.”
“For many years as a foreign correspondent, I not only worked alongside human rights advocates, but considered myself one of them. To defend the rights of those who have none was the reason I became a journalist in the first place. Now, I see the human rights movement as opposing human rights.”
“Rebels in Darfur have learned the value of mobilizing western human rights groups to prolong wars, and this lesson is working gloriously for them.”
“The global response to global terrorism must not endanger fundamental human rights and freedoms.”
“Bishop Frederick Henry of Calgary is facing at least two official objections to his public statements along with expensive hearings before the Alberta Human Rights Commission for expressing his biblical views on same sex marriage.”
“How can human rights be ever developed for the majority of Chinese people? The only way is to organize. To organize workers, peasants, merchants, industrialists, and students at the grassroots level.”
“Who can be a greater transgressor of human rights than a terrorist?”
“We show our faces to demand human rights for everyone, everywhere.”
“Working across the aisle, I helped pass laws exposing business dealings in Iran, cracking down on Iranian human rights abusers, and applying crippling sanctions to Iran’s oil and gas industries.”
“Xi has made plain that he will no longer tolerate hearing the words ‘human rights’ spoken out loud in the same sentence with the word ‘China.’”
“As far back as Iran’s aborted ‘Green Revolution’ in 2009, Obama’s supplications to Iran’s ruling theocracy have amounted to diplomatic shivs in the backs of Iran’s youthful democratic insurrectionists, mash notes written directly to Khomeinist supremo Ali Khamenei and the scuttling of programs documenting the regime’s human rights outrages.”
“The CUAG specializes in providing support to Chinese human rights lawyers.”
“We all know the stories about the Human Rights Act… about the illegal immigrant who cannot be deported because, and I am not making this up, he had a pet cat.”
“I’d personally like to see the Human Rights Act go because I think we have had some problems with it.”
“Human rights are not worthy of the name if they do not protect the people we don’t like as well as those we do.”
“I used to always fight for human rights. I still fight for Leonard Peltier, who’s spent 35 years in jail for a crime he didn’t commit.”
“No references to the need to fight terror can be an argument for restricting human rights.”
“The term ‘human rights defender,’ incidentally, isn’t something I or my attorneys came up with. Personally, I find it a little embarrassing.”
“Iran’s continued, widespread persecution of ethnic minorities, human rights defenders and political prisoners is a disgrace and stands as a shameful indictment of Iran’s leaders.”
“Democracy in Myanmar cannot be achieved with discrimination and gross violations of human rights.”
“The people standing up most strongly for our democracies should be celebrated, not prosecuted – be it those countless human rights defenders who defend all our rights or the brave whistle-blowers who expose tax dodging.”
“The giant industries that are polluting our planet as well as violating human rights worldwide are the ones nearest and dearest to the hearts of American politicians.”
“The Human Rights Organisation deceives the world by calling itself a human rights council.”
“We can suspend disbelief about Harry Potter, and we do the same thing with God, and we do the same thing with human rights, and we do the same thing with money.”
