These basic human rights quotes will inspire you. Human rights are rights inherent to all human beings, regardless of race, sex, nationality, ethnicity, language, religion, or any other status.
Below you will find a collection of motivating, knowledgeable, and encouraging basic human rights quotes, basic human rights sayings, and basic human rights proverbs.
Best Basic Human Rights Quotes
- “Citizenship has not delivered Indigenous Australians the same quality of life other Australians expect. Basic human rights involve health, housing, education, employment, economic opportunity, and equality before the law, and respect for cultural identity and cultural diversity. These human rights must be capable of being enjoyed otherwise they are empty gestures.” ~ Jackie Huggins
- “Everyone has a right to peaceful coexistence, the basic personal freedoms, the alleviation of suffering, and the opportunity to lead a productive life.” ~ Jimmy Carter
- “Life is not a matter of place, things or comfort; rather, it concerns the basic human rights of family, country, justice and human dignity.” ~ Imelda Marcos
- “I come out of the environment of the Deep South, where I had seen the millstone of racial discrimination weighting down my people, both the black people and the white people; and I had seen the enormous progress that we were able to make after we removed the legal restraints of a two-class society, with the whites superior and blacks inferior. So I was very convinced before I became President that basic human rights, equality of opportunity, the end of abuse by governments of their people, was a basic principle on which the United States should be an acknowledged champion.” ~ Jimmy Carter
-
“Fear is not the natural state of civilized people.” ~ Aung San Suu Kyi
- “That until the philosophy which holds one race superior and another inferior is finally and permanently discredited and abandoned: That until there are no longer first-class and second class citizens of any nation; That until the color of a man’s skin is of no more significance than the color of his eyes; That until the basic human rights are equally guaranteed to all without regard to race; That until that day, the dream of lasting peace and world citizenship and the rule of international morality will remain but a fleeting illusion, to be pursued but never attained.” ~ Haile Selassie
- “I am a technological activist. I have a political agenda. I am in favor of basic human rights: to free speech, to use any information and technology, to purchase and use recreational drugs, to enjoy and purchase so-called ‘vices’, to be free of intruders, and to privacy.” ~ Bram Cohen
- “I have great confidence in the universal value and in basic human rights and I have great confidence that referenda will eventually take root and become part of our daily lives in Taiwan.” ~ Chen Shui-bian
- “Their prejudice allowed white Southerners to look the other way when blacks were denied their most basic human rights, and it encouraged the worst of them to engage in unspeakable acts of cruelty and violence.” ~ Linda Chavez
-
“There is only one basic human right, the right to do as you damn well please.” ~ P. J. O’Rourke
- “Those of us who decided to work for democracy in Burma made our choice in the conviction that the danger of standing up for basic human rights in a repressive society was preferable to the safety of a quiescent life in servitude” ~ Aung San
- “I think all Americans believe in human rights. And health is an often overlooked aspect of basic human rights. And it’s one that’s easily corrected. The reason I say that is that many of the diseases that we treat around the world, I knew when I was a child. My mother was a registered nurse. And they no longer exist in our country.” ~ Jimmy Carter
- “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.” ~ Aung San Suu Kyi
- “Basically we could not have peace, or an atmosphere in which peace could grow, unless we recognized the rights of individual human beings… their importance, their dignity… and agreed that was the basic thing that had to be accepted throughout the world.” ~ Eleanor Roosevelt
-
“Its up to any government to decide how to react to the denial of basic human rights anywhere in the world, including Egypt.” ~ Mohamed ElBaradei
- “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
- “Just because a child’s parents are poor or uneducated is no reason to deprive the child of basic human rights to health care, education and proper nutrition.” ~ Marian Wright Edelman
- “The basic human rights documents-the American Declaration of Independence and the French Declaration of the Rights of Man-were written by political, not by religious, leaders.” ~ Arthur M. Schlesinger, Jr.
- “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.” ~ Emma Thompson
- “The American experience influenced my understanding of individuality, basic human rights, freedom of expression and the rights and responsibilities of citizens.” ~ Ai Weiwei
-
“We also intend to deal with the issue of incorporating basic human rights into our new constitution.” ~ Chen Shui-bian
- “It might be depressing, but it’s also the truth that no one has the power, the money, or the resources to save everyone on the planet from going hungry, living in poverty or allowed basic human rights. But consider the other side of this: there are people in this world who truly WOULD do all of these things for everyone if only they could. There is hope after all.” ~ Ashly Lorenzana
- “I’m not a feminist,’ some women say sternly as they march off to work where equal opportunity legislation protects them … Women who say they are not feminists and act like individuals with basic human rights have just got their terminology wrong.” ~ Kaz Cooke
- “Until the philosophy which hold one race superior and another inferior is finally and permanently discredited and abandoned… Everything is war. Me say war. That until the’re no longer 1st class and 2nd class citizens of any nation… Until the color of a man’s skin is of no more significa…nce than the color of his eyes, me say war. That until the basic human rights are equally guaranteed to all without regard to race me say war!” ~ Bob Marley
- “We do need great change in Burma. We are trying to build a new society, a society where basic human rights are respected, and where our people enjoy all the benefits of democratic institutions.” ~ Aung San Suu Kyi
-
“My parents are big liberals and taught us to never trust a government that rids their people of basic human rights.” ~ Andrea Suarez Paz
- “We must build a movement for education, not incarceration. A movement for jobs, not jails. A movement that will end all forms of discrimination against people released from prison – discrimination that denies them basic human rights to work, shelter and food.” ~ Michelle Alexander
- “[White men] has the audacity to call himself even the “Leader of the Free World” while he has a country that can’t even give the basic human rights to over twenty-two million of its citizens. This is aud-, this is, this takes audacity; this takes nerve. So it is this attitude today that’s causing the Americans to be condemned.” ~ Malcolm X
- “In a system which denies the existence of basic human rights, fear tends to be the order of the day. The only real prison is fear, and the only real freedom is freedom from fear. Never let fear prevent you from doing right.” ~ Aung San Suu Kyi
- “The challenging of repression by a new generation of activists – from Malala Yousafzai to Pussy Riot – across the globe reminded us how many women are still fighting for basic human rights. Our great-grandmothers’ struggle in all its shocking detail seemed so relevant.” ~ Sarah Gavron
-
“Within a system which denies the existence of basic human rights, fear tends to be the order of the day.” ~ Aung San
- “The promises of Fidel Castro’s so-called revolution of pluralism and democracy were and continue to be a false promise and a betrayal of all basic human rights.” ~ Andy Garcia
- “Old ideas die hard. We’ve had thousands of years of women having almost no rights. Parts of the world are in a struggle toward very basic human rights for women, and most of the world isn’t even there yet. And it’s going to take a long time to change these attitudes.” ~ Kathe Kollwitz
- “Tanzania is standing by the people of Zimbabwe including President Mugabe… Mugabe is there, he is president, he has been elected. If Tanzania had simply said, stupid, you’re hopeless, a murderer, a violator of basic human rights; does that remove Mugabe from office? It doesn’t.” ~ Jakaya Kikwete
- “Democratic societies can no longer give religious fanatics a free hand to abuse and murder non-believers. Such action betrays contempt for the basic human rights which animate any democracy with meaning.” ~ Armstrong Williams
