Affirming Human Rights
December is National Human Rights Month. Join us in affirming our shared humanity and building Beloved Community where all God’s children flourish and live in dignity. Check out the list below of quotes for every day of December, each echoing the importance of human rights and how we can achieve a more just world together.
“Freedom means the supremacy of human rights everywhere. Our support goes to those who struggle to gain those rights or keep them. Our strength is our unity of purpose. To that high concept there can be no end save victory.” – Franklin D. Roosevelt
“Our hopes for a more just, safe and peaceful world can only be achieved when there is universal respect for the inherent dignity and equal rights of all members of the human family.” – Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka
“A right delayed is a right denied.” – Martin Luther King, Jr.
“The rights of every man are diminished when the rights of one man are threatened.” – John F. Kennedy
“To deny people their human rights is to challenge their very humanity.” – Nelson Mandela
“You can only protect your liberties in this world by protecting the other man’s freedom. You can only be free if I am free.” – Clarence Darrow
“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 rights mean the right to good health, a dignified life and respect for the will of everyday people.” – Denia Castillo
“The achievement of social and economic rights cannot be separated from the protection of civil and political rights and liberties.” – Maria Alesi
“If we are to serve as a beacon for human rights, we must continue to perfect here at home the rights and values which we espouse around the world: A decent education for our children, adequate medical care for all Americans, an end to discrimination against minorities and women, a job for all those able to work and freedom from injustice and religious intolerance.” – Jimmy Carter
“It’s widely recognized that there is no peace without development and no development without peace; it is also true that there is no peace and sustainable development without respect for human rights.” – Antonio Guterres
“The struggle for human rights is at its core a struggle for human dignity.” – Kerry Kennedy
“America’s support for human rights and democracy is our noblest export to the world.” – William Bennett
“The barometer for judging the character of people, in regard human rights, is now those who consider themselves gay, homosexual, lesbian. The judgment as to whether you can trust the future, the social advancement - depending on people - will be judged on where they come out on that question.” – Bayard Rustin
“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.” – Trevor Phillips
“There is no room for legal hair-splitting when it comes to the humane treatment of detainees - not in a nation founded on the rule of law and respect for human rights.” – Dick Durbin
“If human rights are an attribute of being human, then we must consider the fact that tens of millions of displaced people around the world have been rendered less than human.” – Masha Gessen
“Human rights is a universal standard. It is a component of every religion and every civilization.” – Shirin Ebadi
“It is my aspiration that health finally will be seen not as a blessing to be wished for, but as a human right to be fought for.” – Kofi Annan
“We must understand the role of human rights as empowering of individuals and communities. By protecting these rights, we can help prevent the many conflicts based on poverty, discrimination and exclusion (social, economic and political) that continue to plague humanity and destroy decades of development efforts. The vicious circle of human rights violations that lead to conflicts-which in turn lead to more violations-must be broken. I believe we can break it only by ensuring respect for all human rights.” – Mary Robinson
“Where, after all, do universal human rights begin? In small places, close to home - so close and so small that they cannot be seen on any maps of the world. ... Such are the places where every man, woman and child seeks equal justice, equal opportunity, equal dignity without discrimination. Unless these rights have meaning there, they have little meaning anywhere.” – Eleanor Roosevelt
“Within a system which denies the existence of basic human rights, fear tends to be the order of the day. Fear of imprisonment, fear of torture, fear of death, fear of losing friends, family, property or means of livelihood, fear of poverty, fear of isolation, fear of failure. A most insidious form of fear is that which masquerades as common sense or even wisdom, condemning as foolish, reckless, insignificant or futile the small, daily acts of courage which help to preserve man's self-respect and inherent human dignity. It is not easy for a people conditioned by fear under the iron rule of the principle that might is right to free themselves from the enervating miasma of fear. Yet even under the most crushing state machinery courage rises up again and again, for fear is not the natural state of civilized man.” – Aung San Suu Kyi
“We can disagree and still love each other unless your disagreement is rooted in my oppression and denial of my humanity and right to exist.” – James 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
“We cannot despair of humanity, since we ourselves are human beings.” – Albert Einstein
“A feminist is anyone who recognizes the equality and full humanity of women and men.” – Gloria Steinem
“The idea that some lives matter less is the root of all that is wrong with the world.” – Paul Farmer
“You must not lose faith in humanity. Humanity is an ocean; if a few drops of the ocean are dirty, the ocean does not become dirty.” – Mahatma Gandhi
“My humanity is bound up in yours, for we can only be human together.” – Desmond Tutu
“I’m for truth, no matter who tells it. I’m for justice, no matter who it is for or against. I’m a human being, first and foremost, and as such I’m for whoever and whatever benefits humanity as a whole.” – Malcolm X
“You should not underestimate the power you have to affirm the humanity and dignity of the people around you. When you do that, they will teach you something about what you need to learn about human dignity, but also what you can do to be a change agent.” – Bryan Stevenson
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