“The
rights of every man are diminished when the rights of one man are threatened”
John
F. Kennedy
“To
deny people their human rights is to challenge their very humanity”
Nelson
Mandela
“All
human beings, whatever their cultural or historical background, suffer when
they are intimidated, imprisoned or tortured . . . . We must, therefore, insist
on a global consensus, not only on the need to respect human rights worldwide, but
also on the definition of these rights . . . for it is the inherent nature of
all human beings to yearn for freedom, equality and dignity, and they have an
equal right to achieve that”.
Dalai
Lama
“Peace
can only last where human rights are respected, where the people are fed, and
where individuals and nations are free”
Dalai
Lama
“Whenever
there is a conflict between human rights and property rights, human rights must
prevail”.
Abraham
Lincoln
“Democracy
is based on the majority principle. This is especially true in a country such
as ours where the vast majority have been systematically denied their rights. At
the same time, democracy also requires that the rights of political and other
minorities be safeguarded”.
Nelson
Mandela
“Let
it never be said by future generations that indifference, cynicism or selfishness
made us fail to live up to the ideals of humanism which the Nobel Peace Prize
encapsulates. Let the strivings of us all, prove Martin Luther King Jr. to have
been correct, when he said that humanity can no longer be tragically bound to
the starless midnight of racism and war”.
Nelson
Mandela
“We
discovered that peace at any price is no peace at all. We discovered that life
at any price has no value whatever; that life is nothing without the privileges,
the prides, the rights, the joys which make it worth living, and also worth
giving. And we also discovered that there is something more hideous, more
atrocious than war or than death; and that is to live in fear”.
Nelson
Mandela
“The
fundamental rights of [humanity] are, first: the right of habitation; second, the
right to move freely; third, the right to the soil and subsoil, and to the use
of it; fourth, the right of freedom of labor and of exchange; fifth, the right
to justice; sixth, the right to live within a natural national organization; and
seventh, the right to education”.
Albert
Schweitzer
“Spread
love everywhere you go: first of all in your own house. Give love to your
children, to your wife or husband, to a next door neighbor . . . . Let no one
ever come to you without leaving better and happier. Be the living expression
of God's kindness; kindness in your face, kindness in your eyes, kindness in
your smile, kindness in your warm greeting”.
Mother
Teresa
“For
too long the development debate has ignored the fact that poverty tends to be
characterized not only by material insufficiency but also by denial of rights. What
is needed is a rights-based approach to development. Ensuring essential
political, economic and social entitlements and human dignity for all people
provides the rationale for policy. These are not a luxury affordable only to
the rich and powerful but an indispensable component of national development
efforts”.
Kofi
Annan
“Until
justice rolls down like water and righteousness like a mighty stream”.
Martin
Luther King Jr.
“Freedom
means the supremacy of human rights everywhere. Our support goes to those who
struggle to gain those rights and keep them. Our strength is our unity of
purpose. To that high concept there can be no end save victory”.
Franklin
D. Roosevelt
“Everyone
has the right to freedom of opinion and expression; this right includes freedom
to hold opinions without interference and to seek, receive and impart
information and ideas through any media and regardless of frontiers”.
United
Nations, Universal Declaration of Human Rights
“Sólo
con una ardiente paciencia conquistaremos la espléndida ciudad que dará luz, justicia
y dignidad a todos los hombres. Así la poesía no habrá cantado en vano”.
Pablo
Neruda, Toward the Splendid City: Nobel Lecture
“[T]he
full and complete development of a country, the welfare of the world and the
cause of peace require the maximum participation of women on equal terms with
men in all fields".
[Convention
on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women(1979)]” United Nations
“Always
in your stomach and in your skin there was a sort of protest, a feeling that
you had been cheated of something you had aright to”
George
Orwell
“First
of all, they came to take the gypsies
and
I was happy because they pilfered.
Then
they came to take the Jews and I said nothing,
because
they were unpleasant to me.
Then
they came to take homosexuals,
and
I was relieved, because they were annoying me.
Then
they came to take the Communists,
and
I said nothing because I was not a Communist.
One
day they came to take me,
and
there was nobody left to protest.
Bertold
Brecht, inspired by Emil Gustav Friedrich Martin Niemöller”
“All
human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights. They are endowed
with reason and conscience and should act towards one another in a spirit of
brotherhood”.
United
Nations The Universal Declaration of Human Rights Article 1
“Two
principles have stood face-to-face from the beginning of time; and they will
ever continue to struggle. The one is the common right of humanity and the
other the divine right of kings”.
Abraham
Lincoln
“I
advance in life, I grow more simple, and I become more and more patriotic for
humanity”.
Victor Hugo, Les Misérables
“I
repeat, whether we be Italians or Frenchmen, misery concerns us all”.
Victor
Hugo, Les Misérables
“Women
should have free access to every field of labor which they care to enter, and
when their work is as valuable as that of a man it should be paid as highly”.
Theodore
Roosevelt
“It
was never the people who complained of the universality of human rights, nor
did the people consider human rights as a Western or Northern imposition. It
was often their leaders who did so”.
Mr.
Kofi Annan, United Nations Secretary-General
“Human
rights are not only violated by terrorism, repression or assassination, but
also by unfair economic structures that creates huge inequalities”.
Pope
Francis
“I
do protect human rights, and I hope I shall always be looked up as a champion
of human rights”.
Aung
San Suu Kyi
“I
look forward confidently to the day when all who work for a living will be one
with no thought to their separateness as Negroes, Jews, Italians or any other
distinctions. This will be the day when we bring into full realization the
American dream -- a dream yet unfulfilled. A dream of equality of opportunity, of
privilege and property widely distributed; a dream of a land where men will not
take necessities from the many to give luxuries to the few; a dream of a land
where men will not argue that the color of a man's skin determines the content
of his character; a dream of a nation where all our gifts and resources are
held not for ourselves alone, but as instruments of service for the rest of
humanity; the dream of a country where every man will respect the dignity and
worth of the human personality”.
Martin
Luther King, Jr.
“In
the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (December 1948) in most solemn form, the
dignity of a person is acknowledged to all human beings; and as a consequence
there is proclaimed, as a fundamental right, the right of free movement in
search for truth and in the attainment of moral good and of justice, and also
the right to a dignified life”.
Pope
John XXIII, 1881-1963 Pacem in Terris, 1963
“The
right to development is the measure of the respect of all other human rights.That
should be our aim: a situation in which all individuals are enabled to maximize
their potential, and to contribute to the evolution of society as a whole”.
Kofi
Annan, United Nations Secretary-General
“Freedom
means the supremacy of human rights everywhere. Our support goes to those who
struggle to gain those rights or keep them”.
Franklin
Delano Roosevelt, Former US President, Four Freedoms Speech, 6 January 1941
“Basically
we could not have peace, or an atmosphere in which peace could grow, unless we
recognized the rights of individual human beings... their importance, their
dignity... and agreed that was the basic thing that had to be accepted
throughout the world”.
Eleanor
Roosevelt, USA
“I
have cherished the ideal a democratic and free society... it is an ideal for
which I am prepared to die”.
Nelson
Mandela, President of South Africa, who was imprisoned from 1964-1990.
“We
discovered that peace at any price is no peace at all. We discovered that life
at any price has no value whatever; that life is nothing without the privileges,
the prides, the rights, the joys which make it worth living, and also worth
giving. And we also discovered that there is something more hideous, more
atrocious than war or than death; and that is to live in fear”.
Eve
Curie, French author, speaking to the American Booksellers Association, New
York, 9 April 1940
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