Quotes On Fundamental Human Rights

#1. In the end, abortion is an issue of fundamental human rights. To force women to undergo pregnancy and childbirth against their will is to deprive them of the right to make basic decisions about their lives and well-being, and to give that power to the state.

Katha Pollitt

#2. I think both freedom of religion and freedom of expression are both fundamental human rights, everyone has not only the freedom and the right but the obligation to say what Pope Francis thinks for the common good ... we have the right to have this freedom openly without offending.

Pope Francis

#3. The global response to global terrorism must not endanger fundamental human rights and freedoms.

Stjepan Mesic

#4. Relativism should be confronted where it damages fundamental human rights, because we're not relativists if we believe that the human being should be at the centre of society and the rights of every human being should be respected.

Rocco Buttiglione

#5. Japan and Australia share the universal values of freedom, democracy, the rule of law, and fundamental human rights.

Shinzo Abe

#6. In my country of South Africa, we struggled for years against the evil system of apartheid that divided human beings, children of the same God, by racial classification and then denied many of them fundamental human rights.

Desmond Tutu

#7. The passage of time hasn't changed the fact that abortion is a serious, lethal violation of fundamental human rights, and that women and children deserve better, and that the demands of justice, generosity, and compassion require that the right to life be guaranteed to everyone.

Chris Smith

#8. We've always been involved with issues that deal with the fundamental human rights of people, whether that means the right to political freedom or the right to breathe air that's clean.

Mary Travers

#9. Fundamental violations of human rights always lead to people feeling less and less human.

Aung San Suu Kyi

#10. Overcoming poverty is not a gesture of charity. It is an act of justice. It is the protection of a fundamental human right, the right to dignity and a decent life.
[ Live 8 Concert, Mary Fitzgerald Square, Johannesburg, South Africa, 2 July 2005]

Nelson Mandela

#11. The idea of human rights as a fundamental principle can be seen to underlie throughout Islamic teachings.

Ali Khamenei

#12. It just seems so fundamental to me. I'm able to marry the person I wanted to marry. That's the fundamental human imperative. Those of us who have been lucky enough should expand these rights to others.

Chelsea Clinton

#13. The fundamental human right, the presupposition of every other right, is the right to life itself. This is true of life from the moment of conception until its natural end. Abortion, consequently, cannot be a human right
it is the very opposite. It is a deep wound in society.

Pope Benedict XVI

#14. In this context, the church supports and favors every effort today to seek the full development of the personality of all human beings, and to promote their fundamental rights, their dignity and liberty.

Claudio Hummes

#15. Criminalization is a human rights issue because it disregards the fundamental principles of self-determination, bodily integrity, and sexual freedom.14

Melinda Chateauvert

#16. I am willing to take any measures when it comes to the fundamental principle of human rights.

Ban Ki-moon

#17. We must vigilantly stand on guard within our own borders for human rights and fundamental freedoms which are our proud heritage ... w e cannot take for granted the continuance and maintenance of those rights and freedoms.

John Diefenbaker

#18. It is hard to talk about a middle ground for something that is a fundamental right.

Teri Reynolds

#19. The issue of human rights is one of the most fundamental human issues and also one of the most sensitive and controversial.

Ali Khamenei

#20. It's something fundamental to me, human rights that people are equal under law simply because they are human beings. And I can no more imagine falling in love with someone who believed, for instance, as Orthodox Jews do, that women are unclean during their menstrual periods.

Susan Jacoby

#21. Fundamental rights belong to the human being just because you are a human being.

Desmond Tutu

#22. May no one use religion as a pretext for actions against human dignity and against the fundamental rights of every man and woman.

Pope Francis

#23. The Universal Declaration of Human Rights describes the family as the natural and fundamental unit of society. It follows that any choice and decision with regard to the size of the family must irrevocably rest with the family itself, and cannot be made by anyone else.

Garrett Hardin

#24. Can we get control of an individual to the point where he will do our bidding against his will and even against fundamental laws of nature such as self preservation? (CIA Document, Project ARTICHOKE, MORI ID 144686, 1952)
As cited by Dr Ellen P. Lacter, p57

Orit Badouk Epstein

#25. Privatization is a neoliberal and imperialist plan. Health can't be privatized because it is a fundamental human right, nor can education, water, electricity and other public services. They can't be surrendered to private capital that denies the people from their rights.

Hugo Chavez

#26. Those who have been outspoken in advocating human rights during these last forty years, have themselves grabbed the most fundamental of human rights from the people of the Third-World countries.

Ali Khamenei

#27. Reproductive freedom is critical to a whole range of issues. If we can't take charge of this most personal aspect of our lives, we can't take care of anything. It should not be seen as a privilege or as a benefit, but a fundamental human right.

Faye Wattleton

#28. We can't build a safer world with honorable intentions and good will alone. Achieving the fundamental goals our nation seeks in world affairs - peace, human rights, economics progress national independence and international stability - means supporting our friends and defending our interests.

Ronald Reagan

#29. Human rights commissions, as they are evolving, are an attack on our fundamental freedoms and the basic existence of a democratic society ... It is in fact totalitarianism. I find this is very scary stuff.

Stephen Harper

#30. All women and girls have the fundamental right to live free of violence. This right is enshrined in international human rights and humanitarian law. And it lies at the heart of my UNiTE to End Violence against Women campaign.

Ban Ki-moon

#31. it is hard to argue that housing is not a fundamental human need. Decent, affordable housing should be a basic right for everybody in this country. The reason is simple: without stable shelter, everything else falls apart.

Matthew Desmond