Society, Justice & Peace: Human Rights Quotes

Similar topics:Equality Freedom Justice Peace War

"I don't know anyone at the highest levels who approved Abu Ghraib. If President Barack Obama for a moment thought that somebody at a high level had approved it, he would go after them"

Peter King, Politician

"No doubt concentration camps were a means, a menace, used to keep order"

Albert Speer, Criminal

"It is certain that concentration camps had a bad reputation with us"

Albert Speer, Criminal

"We do, and there is a law in the United States - the Torture Convention - that prohibits the United States from deporting an individual to a country where there is a reasonable expectation that he will be subjected to torture - physical, mental or otherwise"

Jonathan Shapiro, Cartoonist

"But I do not admit the comparison between your slaves and even the lowest class of European free labourers, for the former are allowed the exercise of no faculties but those which they enjoy in common with the brutes that perish"

Fanny Kemble, Actress

"Instead of this confusion, we need the unifying force of an official language, English, which is the language of success in America"

Ernest Istook, Politician

"The military is trying very hard right now to put a better face on Guantanamo, and I think they actually have tried to rid some of the extreme versions of abuse that we have read about"

Jane Mayer, Journalist

"I don't think we will ever go the way of Zimbabwe, but people are concerned"

Helen Suzman, Politician

"The predominant yardstick of your government is not human rights but national interests"

Breyten Breytenbach, Writer

"Some values must be universal, like human rights and the equal worth of every human being"

Bjorn Ulvaeus, Musician

"I believe health care is a civil right"

Dennis Kucinich, Politician

"To try to expunge an individual's history is a terrible violation"

Helen Dunmore, Poet

"We spend millions of dollars per year supplying more than adequate meals and a Koran to every detainee along with a prayer rug that meets their religious standards"

Bill Shuster, Politician

"However, the Department of Defense treats these detainees in accord with the Geneva Convention, even though that is not required because of the inhumane methods used by these killers"

Bill Shuster, Politician

"There are many hands touching ballots after a voter drops his ballot into the ballot box. There is no guarantee of ballot secrecy for anyone, which makes the whole system vulnerable to intimidation and bribery"

Bob Schaffer, Politician

"Dangerous because your present Administration and its specialized agencies, by all accounts, know no restraint in hitting out at any perceived enemy of America, and nobody or nothing can protect one from their vindictiveness"

Breyten Breytenbach, Writer

"I have great confidence in the universal value and in basic human rights, and I have great confidence that referenda will eventually take root and become part of our daily lives in Taiwan"

Chen Shui-bian, Statesman

"And what sort of philosophical doctrine is thi - that numbers confer unlimited rights, that they take from some persons all rights over themselves, and vest these rights in others?"

Auberon Herbert, Philosopher

"But now all of a sudden some idiots in Taiwan start to say that they are not Chinese. Their grand parents were Chinese. But for some reason, they feel they are not Chinese"

Alex Chiu, Businessman

"Cheney is a terrorist. He terrorizes our enemies abroad and innocent citizens here at home indiscriminately"

Alec Baldwin, Actor

"I mean that at least 80% of the Russian people feel destitute. It's the people who had their past and future taken from them - they don't get paid - many of them face a wall. They have nowhere to go"

Aleksandr Lebed, Politician

"It is hardly fair to accuse us of ignorance when it was made a crime under the former order of things to learn enough about letters to even read the Word of God"

George H. White, Politician

"All those who are here can stay. I don't say send them home like he does"

Pim Fortuyn, Politician

"The twentieth century has exhibited a barbarism and lack of respect for human life on a massive scale just about unknown before"

Ron Silver, Actor

"I'm pretty political when it comes to human rights and things like that"

Peter Krause, Actor

"Customary though it may be to write about that institutionalized pastime as though it existed apart from the general environment, my story does not lend itself to such treatment"

Curt Flood, Athlete

"Not all the Americans in Iraq are those who torture and murder, or course they're not, I don't know how many are doing it, I know it is systematic throughout the United States military, I think that's been revealed"

John Pilger, Journalist

"The majority of people in Angola were not provided with any kind of schooling and were completely illiterate, very badly paid, and treated almost as slaves"

Louis Leakey, Scientist

"Colonial governors and senior civil servants are not easy people to argue with, and I was not popular because of my criticism of the colonial service in Kenya"

Louis Leakey, Scientist

"There's this huge number of desperate people"

Lloyd Alexander, Writer

"We should seek international support for our mutual objectives abroad, in promoting freedom, democracy, respect for human rights, and also the elimination of weapons of mass destruction"

Robert Menendez, Politician

"There are many domestic issues that give us a lot of common ground to work on. Health, education and immigration are among the areas where we share mutual goals and aspirations. There are also many values that we share as a communities"

Robert Menendez, Politician

"The values of Islam are expressed by Muslims clearly. September 11 changed the world, and put Muslims on the spotlight"

Karen Armstrong, Writer

"Markets are very important, but for the government the citizens are more so"

Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero, Politician

"The effort to blur the lines between Guantanamo and Abu Ghraib reflects a deep misunderstanding about the different legal regimes that apply to Iraq and the war against al Qaeda"

John Yoo, Educator

"It has never demonstrated any desire to provide humane treatment to captured Americans. If anything, the murders of Nicholas Berg and Daniel Pearl declare al Qaeda's intentions to kill even innocent civilian prisoners"

John Yoo, Educator

"If that form of government, that system of social order is not wrong - if those laws of the Southern States, by virtue of which slavery exists there, and is what it is, are not wrong - nothing is wrong"

Leonard Bacon, Clergyman

"I have always believed that I should have had no difficulty in causing my rights to be respected"

Eli Whitney, Inventor

"Everybody's looking for the niche to make the difference. Some people think they see the mother lode in the beautiful people, especially the vote of the beautiful women"

Suzanne Fields, Writer

"When you become part of something, in some way you count. It could be a march; it could be a rally, even a brief one. You're part of something, and you suddenly realize you count. To count is very important"

Studs Terkel, Journalist

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