Best Human Rights Quotes to Inspire, Uplift & Motivate You Every Day

“We don't play down human rights violations anywhere in the world, including in Yemen.”

“I have a 100 percent rating from the Human Rights Campaign.”

“Members of Congress concerned about human rights in Vietnam are right to maintain a healthy skepticism about its government's intentions.”

“I won't mince words: President Donald Trump's inauguration means it is more important than ever that Robert F. Kennedy Human Rights redouble its commitment to the full scope of our humanitarian and social justice mission.”

“I have a prominent platform and I want to use it to promote respect for human rights, democracy, and personal freedom. For me, this is bigger than basketball.”

“There is no country in this world that is immune to violating human rights.”

“Women's rights are human rights.”

“And when 9/11 came, that was open season to violate human rights. And that's how I was kidnapped.”

“We need to scrap the Human Rights Act and need a balance between rights and responsibilities.”

“Where there are breaches of human rights, you need to speak out about it, no matter where it is.”

“Those who still believe the United Nations is a human rights organization with the best of intentions are kidding themselves.”

“I believe that reproductive rights are human rights, and they are nonnegotiable.”

“I had a lot of space as a kid. My mother worked with human rights for the government, and my dad had a book publishing company, but they weren't really musical.”

“Young people, throughout history, have always been the lifeblood of every movement for civil and human rights.”

“I've always been passionate about human rights in general. I think anyone who knows me can attest to that.”

“It is both wrong and short-sighted to believe that we can better protect our national security interests by ignoring or sidelining human rights.”

“I try to live tolerance in my own way, which is why, as a politician, one of my key priorities is to stand up for human rights.”

“There was a time that human rights was not even an issue in this country. Then prisoners' rights became an issue.”

“Labour accepts that the European Court of Human Rights needs reform.”

“Although each human rights victory energizes us to continue our work, there remains a deep sorrow for those prisoners still wrongfully languishing in jail.”

“The only situation that I can't be in favour of is the lack of respect to human rights in Venezuela.”

“We don't see a choice between securing growth and investment and raising human rights issues.”

“I'm more interested in politicians who deal with human rights in their own country rather than lecture the rest of the world.”

“The United Nations should come in and take over Liberia, not temporarily, but for life. To make Liberians believe in democracy, to make us believe in human rights, they need to go in and just seize control of the country. That is the only way Liberia will ever become the kind of country it was supposed to be.”

“New Zealand's been pretty quiet on human rights issues, which we will be taking rather more interest in, and in international labor issues.”

“We don't know yet how to build a society which is environmentally sustainable, which is shareable with everybody on the planet, which promotes stability and democracy and human rights, and which is achievable in the time-frame necessary to make it through the challenges we face.”

“I care about people's human rights and, as a country, we have a very proud record indeed. But I'm also realistic about what we can do... we can raise those issues with leaders and we can talk about those issues, and we do that.”

“I'm pretty political when it comes to human rights and things like that.”

“Promoting and protecting human rights internationally is not just a matter of principle or morality - doing so also serves our national security interests.”

“I love music; I love performance. I love everything revolving around art. But I also am really passionate about politics and human rights and science and the environment. Those are things that fascinate me.”

“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.”

“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.”

“We need to fight for a new human rights movement that recognizes and values black life.”

“You don't need a passport to work on human rights.”

“I have spoken to Chinese leaders occasionally on human rights, but I've always done it in private.”

“Standing with Israel - for democracy and human rights - will always be an issue of right versus wrong.”

“I was brought up in a family of journalists, and a mother who was deeply committed to human rights, so I think that the mix of those two huge influences have been very, very important to me.”

“South Africa has not turned its back on human rights at all.”

“There is no force that can put an end to the human quest for freedom, and China will, in the end, become a nation ruled by law, where human rights reign supreme.”

“It's not so easy to be gay or even a woman in some places in the world, and in many countries, it's illegal to be gay. You can be put to death. It's a global struggle. A human rights struggle on a global scale.”

“When you vote, vote for those who are not warmongers, and vote for those who respect human rights. When you see a president who doesn't respect human rights, don't vote for that person.”

“Through my years of working on war and peace in Africa, I have learned that there are solutions to some of the greatest human rights challenges, and we all can be a part of those solutions.”

“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.”

“The N.B.A. provides a big platform to shed light on the human rights violations in Turkey and gives a voice to the thousands of people persecuted.”

“We have no quarrel with a policy that seeks to support human rights.”

“To fight for voting rights is to fight for human rights.”

“The predominant yardstick of your government is not human rights but national interests.”

“What do you actually mean when you say human rights? Animals don't have rights in that sense.”

“I thought of running for office when I was in law school, but I wanted to work on human rights.”

“Human rights is something that wasn't hard to be inspired to write about because there have been so many violations of those rights.”

“Human rights only have meaning if they are universal.”

“I hope the example of Saddam Hussein will give a lesson to leaders of other countries where human rights are not respected.”

“The rights of homosexual people are human rights, and human rights are for everyone.”

“I'd personally like to see the Human Rights Act go because I think we have had some problems with it.”

“If a country doesn't recognize minority rights and human rights, including women's rights, you will not have the kind of stability and prosperity that is possible.”

“I am passionate about human rights.”

“We, as Turkey, call on Europe to respect human rights and democracy.”

“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.”

“Movies like 'The Interview' and 'Team America: World Police' don't often show the realities of life in North Korea and the human rights violations perpetrated by the government there.”

“Human rights are praised more than ever - and violated as much as ever.”

“To those who cynically say today that liberal democracy would be 'obsolete,' I reply: liberal democracy, human rights, freedom of the press and the rule of law were the right way, are the right way, and will be the right way.”

“If you don't want women to do whatever they need to do then you must provide them with food, you must provide them with shelter and their basic human rights.”

“If the fight against smallpox, polio, and malaria shows us anything, it's that we can't make the world a wildly better place without science.”

“In what terms should we think of these beings, nonhuman yet possessing so very many human-like characteristics? How should we treat them? Surely we should treat them with the same consideration and kindness as we show to other humans; and as we recognize human rights, so too should we recognize the rights of the great apes? Yes.”

“Peygamber dedi: 'Kadın akıllılara ve gönül sahiplerine tam galip gelir. Cahillerse kadına üstün olur, çünkü onlar sert ve serkeş davranır.' İncelik, letafet ve insaf onlarda az bulunur, çünkü tabiatlarında hayvanlık galiptir. Sevgi ve incelik, insanlık vasfıdır. Öfke ve şehvet, hayvanlık vasfıdır. O, Hakk'ın ışığıdır; sevgili değil. O, sanki yaratıcıdır; yaratılmış değildir.”

“We lost our homeland, but we did not lose our identity.”

“And all Negroes at some period of their lives there is that yearning for a sense of group unity that is the yearning of men for a flag: for a unity that cannot be compromised, that cannot be bought; that is conscious of itself, of its strength, that is militant.”

“Για όλους όσους έχουν βιώσει - με όποιον τρόπο - τον εκφοβισμό στη ζωή τους, ακόμα και από τους πιο κοντινούς συγγενείς τους (ενδοοικογενειακός εκφοβισμός) ή το ευρύτερο περιβάλλον τους - σχολικό, επαγγελματικό, κοινωνικό, και όποιου είδους ήταν αυτός, ψυχολογικός, λεκτικός, σωματικός... - κι έχουν χάσει πλέον κάθε ελπίδα...”

“Rules are not immutable—they can be rewritten.”

“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.”

“Dogs do not have many advantages over people, but one of them is extremely important: euthanasia is not forbidden by law in their case; animals have the right to a merciful death.”

“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.”

“We huddle tightly together as cowards, protecting the ranks of our false collective identity from "less-human" intruders, when the only obvious and sane truth is that we are all the same human beings.”

“To say nothing is saying something. You must denounce things you are against or one might believe that you support things you really do not.”

“At times there's something so precise and mathematically chilling about nationalism.”

“When we struggle for human rights, for freedom, for dignity, when we feel that it is a ministry of the church to concern itself for those who are hungry, for those who have no schools, for those who are deprived, we are not departing from God’s promise. He comes to free us from sin, and the church knows that sin’s consequences are all such injustices and abuses. The church knows it is saving the world when it undertakes to speak also of such things.”

“Quote words that affirm”