Today, poverty prevails as the gravest human rights challenge in the world. Combating poverty, deprivation and exclusion is not a matter of charity, and it does not depend on how rich a country is. By tackling poverty as a matter of human rights obligation, the world will have a better chance of abolishing this scourge in our lifetime....Poverty eradication is an achievable goal. �
- UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Louise Arbour, 10 December 2006
It is difficult to imagine today just what a fundamental shift the Universal Declaration of Human Rights represented when it was adopted sixty years ago. In a post-war world scarred by the Holocaust, divided by colonialism and wracked by inequality, a charter setting out the first global and solemn commitment to the inherent dignity and equality of all human beings, regardless of colour, creed or origin, was a bold and daring undertaking.
- High Commissioner for Human Rights Louise Arbour
Human rights education is much more than a lesson in schools or a theme for a day; it is a process to equip people with the tools they need to live lives of security and dignity. On this International Human Rights Day, let us continue to work together to develop and nurture in future generations a culture of human rights, to promote freedom, security and peace in all nations."
- Kofi Annan
So long as we have enough people in this country willing to fight for their rights, we'll be called a democracy.
- Roger Nash Baldwin
It has long been recognized that an essential element in protecting human rights was a widespread knowledge among the population of what their rights are and how they can be defended.
- Boutros Boutros-Ghali, Sixth UN Secretary-General, 1992-1996
America did not invent human rights. In a very real sense, it is the other way around. Human rights invented America.
- Jimmy Carter
"Peace can only last where human rights are respected, where the people are fed, and where individuals and nations are free."
- 14th Dalai Lama
Human Beings, indeed all sentient beings, have the right to pursue happiness and live in peace and freedom.
- 14th Dalai Lama
"Human Rights for everyone is the necessary foundation upon which all of us may build a world where everybody may live in peace and serenity and plenty."
- Michael Douglas
The UN Declaration of Human Rights laid down what any person might reasonably expect, yet there are remarkably few people who enjoy these rights. With cameras in the hands of activists and meaningful distribution of those images, we will witness what really goes on in this world and hopefully want to change it."
- Peter Gabriel
Human rights are not a privilege conferred by government. They are every human being's entitlement by virtue of his humanity. The right to life does not depend, and must not be contingent, on the pleasure of anyone else, not even a parent or sovereign. ... You must weep that your own government, at present, seems blind to this truth.
- Mother Teresa
