Human rights quotations

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◆ Rights are either God-given as part of the divine plan, or they are granted by government as part of the political plan. If we accept the premise that human rights are granted by government, then we must be willing to accept the corollary that they can be denied by government.

- Ezra Taft Benson99

◆ The amount of violations of human rights in a country is always an inverse function of the amount of complaints about human rights violations heard from there. The greater the number of complaints being aired, the better protected are human rights in that country.

- Daniel Patrick Moynihan99

◆ If the prisoner is beaten, it is an arrogant expression of fear.

- Ghassan Kanafani99

◆ The humanity of all Americans is diminished when any group is denied rights granted to others.

- Julian Bond99

◆ We are beckoned to see the world through a one-way mirror, as if we are threatened and innocent and the rest of humanity is threatening, or wretched, or expendable. Our memory is struggling to rescue the truth that human rights were not handed down as privileges from a parliament, or a boardroom, or an institution, but that peace is only possible with justice and with information that gives us the power to act justly.

- John Pilger99

◆ One cannot fail to notice the inconsistency of those rejecting human rights: their rejection takes place in the public square created by human rights. It is difficult to reject human rights without using them.

- Filip Spagnoli99

◆ Whatever happened in those more than one hundred years, from the time my great-great-great grandfather studied law to the time when my own father took his bar exam in 1989, I may never know. Perhaps it was just greed and the good, old-fashion corruption that comes with power. The Drexlers have moved from the fight for human rights to the fight for corporations and wealthy individuals. We file their taxes, write their contracts, clean up their messes. As I see it, we have become little more than glorified Public Relations reps

- Gwenn Wright99

◆ No wonder prostitution is so rampant in China, I mused as I watched the four girls watch us: why stand on your feet all day for slave wages when you can get rich on your back?

- Tom Carter99

◆ 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 Nations99

◆ Remember, the change you want to see in the world, and in your school, begins with you.

- Joseph Clementi99

◆ Hay criminales que proclaman tan campantes ‘la maté porque era mía', así no más, como si fuera cosa de sentido común y justo de toda justicia y derecho de propiedad privada, que hace al hombre due?o de la mujer. Pero ninguno, ninguno, ni el más macho de los supermachos tiene la valentía de confesar ‘la maté por miedo', porque al fin y al cabo el miedo de la mujer a la violencia del hombre es el espejo del miedo del hombre a la mujer sin miedo.

- Eduardo Galeano99

◆ No matter how pathetic or pitiful, every human is fated to have one moment in their lives in which they can change their own destiny.

- Takayuki Yamaguchi99

◆ Goldstone has done terrible damage to the cause of truth and justice and the rule of law. He has poisoned Jewish-Palestinian relations, undermined the courageous work of Israeli dissenters and—most unforgivably—increased the risk of another merciless IDF assault.

- Norman G. Finkelstein99

◆ Safeguarding the rights of others is the most noble and beautiful end of a human being.

- Khalil Gibran99

◆ The right to live is the most basic of human rights.

- 99