Human Rights Activists

"I was the clever child who induced the fairy godmother to bring her parents back to life."

"My mom says tears are good for your skin.” And maybe your soul, too."

"I want to be so loud about the experience of killing each other. I want to tap into everyone’s senses, to touch on our human sensibility."

"Home is a concept. It’s one of a story that we cling to so deeply. When your home has been really, “here is my couch, here is my this, here is my that,” it becomes like mine. For me, home is where people who are loving are. It could be on the street. It could be inside of a tent. It could be in a place where they’re not given a land, then that is a place called a slum. It could be in the high rises of New York or in the middle of chaos in Mexico City. And the physical piece of a home is so important, especially when the weather—sun, cold—is against you…"

"Safety should be a birthright"

"Every single person on the planet has equal humanity. In my own life I’ve gone from being seen as utterly worthless to [having] great privilege, and nothing about who I am inside has changed. Every person you see seeking refuge, every person you see walking away from their whole life because their country has descended into chaos and war…I am every one of those people. You are every one of those people too…"

"Anything to help me connect with my strength beyond suffering."

"It’s strange, how you go from being a person who is away from home to a person with no home at all. The place that is supposed to want you has pushed you out. No other place takes you in. You are unwanted, by everyone. You are a refugee."

"It’s the journey of digging deep into yourself and the things you discover if you only dare to dig deep into your memories, your relationship, and your thoughts. It’s been such an incredible journey, but thank goodness I was not alone in it. So many people feeding me, listening to me, editing, hosting me—so it’s not been alone."

"We don’t write about the human emotions of conflicts; we write about the political and economic aftermath. I wanted to write about those feelings."

"We’ve created these categories that divide us as humans, and in doing that, we miss each other. I want to bring people together and remind everyone that they have permission to know themselves and others beyond labels."

"My life does not feel logical, sequential, or inevitable. There’s no sense of action, reaction; no consequence, repercussion; no plot. It’s just fragments, floating."

"There is so much human pain and suffering in the world. I want to honor all those difficult experiences and acknowledge their aftermath."

"I thought if I stated my name enough times, my identity would fall back into place […] But a name is a cover, a placeholder, not the whole story. A name is a basin with a leak that you need to constantly fill up. If you don’t, it drains and it’s just there, a husk, dry and empty."

"I wanted to piece [the] world back together, but the idea of one group of people killing another group of people—people they lived with, people they knew—that chunk of knowledge could never fit itself in my mind. It was categorically, dimensionally, fundamentally wrong. It was like trying to store a tornado in a chest of drawers. That was not how the universe worked."

"To be a refugee was to be a victim—it was tautological. And not just a victim due to external forces like politics or war. You were a victim due to some inherent, irrevocable weakness in you. You were a victim because you were less worthy, less good, and less strong than all the non-victims of the world."

"It felt surreal and awful. I’d lost track of who I was and who we were to each other. None of us were the same people who’d lived together in that house in Kigali. Those people had died. We had all died."

"I resent and revile [the word genocide]. The word is tidy and efficient. It holds no true emotion. It is impersonal when it needs to be intimate, cool and sterile when it needs to be gruesome. The word is hollow, true but disingenuous, a performance, the worst kind of lie."

"Often, still, my own life story feels fragmented, like beads unstrung. Each time I scoop up my memories, the assortment is slightly different. I worry, at times, that I’ll always be lost inside. I worry that I’ll be forever confused."

"I lost myself anyway. Every little thing. I had always loved the fancy soaps at my aunts’ houses. I loved the ones that smelled like geranium and lilac best of all."

"I needed to see the world in front of me clearly so I could perform my part well. I needed to crack the code. So many times, in my former life, I’d had to become someone else in order to stay out of a refugee camp or out of jail, to stay alive. I had played a mother. I had played a yes ma’am younger sister. I had made myself a nobody, invisible. Now I had to become this strange creature: an American teenager."

"I work every day now to erase [the] language of ruin, to destroy it and replace it with language of my own. With konona (rape, ruin), you’re told, there is no antidote, no cleansing agent. […] You’re polluted, you’re worthless—that’s it."

"I want to really live in the present, and find love and joy in the world around me."

"My body is destroyed and my body is sacred. I will not live in that story of ruin and shame."

"But nothing gets better. There is no path for improvement—no effort you can make, nothing you can do, and nothing anybody else can do either, short of the killers in your country laying down their arms and stopping their war so that you can move home."

"Staying alive was so much work…. You had to try to stay a person."

"I now felt I’d made a mistake in Uvira. I’d let my guard down. I’d allowed myself to feel I belonged. But there was no real belonging—not anymore. There was only coming and going and coming and going and dying. There was no point in letting anybody get close."

"One of the most valuable skills I’d learned while trying to survive as a refugee was reading what other people wanted me to do."

"In Malawi, I used to write my name in dust on trucks, hoping my mother would see my loopy cursive and realize that I was alive."

"By being such a fearless voice fighting for human rights and fundamental freedoms in China, Ilham Tothi fully embodies the spirit of the Sakharov prize. Over the years, he advocated for the implementation of regional autonomy laws in China, encouraged greater awareness of the situation and treatment of the Uyghur community and fought against its exclusion from Chinese society. Ilham Tohti now risks spending the rest of his life in prison. The Renew Europe group sends today a strong message of support for his fight for human rights and freedoms of the Uyghur population by nominating him for the Sakharov prize."

"My film is called Never Children [in Italian, Bambini Mai] because they have no chance of living as children. If they go outdoors, there are shootings, drug-related crimes of every kind, and a network of pedophiles operating in that neighborhood. There were 12 cases in the last two years, and two children died because of that. It’s just a nightmare of a place for someone to be a child."

"Worst case scenario — they slap you and break your camera. It’s not really a life-threatening type of situation. It’s not as though all of a sudden it’s super-dangerous. You know what you’re doing and then you decide to take the risk or not. Last year I didn’t want to take too many because I was pregnant."

"He sails on the GC32s, the fastest boats in the world that are the same boats used in the America’s Cup. Now he’s opened a medieval combat club so he does medieval combat. In the end, we look at each other and say, ‘We’re just going to have to accept who we are and pray.'"

"It is clear that in my life there are contradictions. There is a contrast between my work life and my family life and that of my partner. Whoever criticizes me has his reasons. I cannot have credibility in the eyes of everyone, but in the end, I am more normal than I look.... The altered reality, the yacht, is much photographed, as well as formal situations in which I accompany Pierre because I’m his partner and should be at his side. But then there is another reality that no one tells. I never go out, I’m always at home in the evening. I have dinner, watch a movie, and go to sleep. If Pierre is not there, it is mostly my friends who keep me company. And I live in Milan, not Monte Carlo."

"I remember that when on Anno Zero, [Michele] Santoro chose Beatrice Borromeo, beautiful and blonde, they all criticized her. She was not human that could be [beautiful and] intelligent too. Today, after graduating in Italy and in two months at Columbia University, if they do not to say congratulations, a dignified silence, at the very least."

"This is where the Mafia stockpiles heroin for basically the whole of Europe. It is the place drug dealers go to buy drugs, not normal people. The life of children there is insane. They get recruited very early on, when they are 12 or 13. They turn into lookouts, hide drugs, transport drugs and there is absolutely nothing that saves them."

"The Church no, I do not like it. [The Pope] intervenes in politics, in things that do not concern him. He did damage that could not be worse than this."

"He is not a Pope, he is a theologian. I do not like him. He has no humanity. It has pissed off the whole Islamic world."

"Politics is something you choose. And you also choose your lifestyle. But you don't choose your belonging to a class."

"I want to find a job to be proud of. One of those jobs you're standing up to at four in the morning because you don't feel like quitting."

"Mussolini insists on keeping the memory of her grandfather high. Impossible business. She would do better to distance herself, both politically and humanly."

"There is no limit to evil, but Bossi is the limit of what can be ugly in the world."

"The Elders announced today that their new Chair will be Mary Robinson, former President of Ireland and former United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights. Mary Robinson becomes The Elders’ third Chair since the group was founded by Nelson Mandela in 2007, following Archbishop Desmond Tutu (2007-13) and Kofi Annan (2013-2018). Ban Ki-moon, former UN Secretary-General, and Graça Machel, former Education Minister of Mozambique and co-founder of The Elders, will serve as joint Deputy Chairs, succeeding Gro Harlem Brundtland, former Prime Minister of Norway, who has held the role since 2013."

"Archbishop Desmond Tutu, Emeritus Elder and former Chair, said: “I am delighted that Mary Robinson is the new Chair of The Elders. I have witnessed her commitment to rights and justice in Palestine, Côte d’Ivoire, India and so many other parts of the world. Mary always puts ordinary people at the heart of The Elders’ mission, and I know she will fight for their rights with the same vigour as our dearly missed brother Kofi.”"

"Ban Ki-moon, former UN Secretary-General and new Deputy Chair of The Elders, said: “It is a pleasure and a privilege to become Deputy Chair of The Elders alongside Graça Machel. I look forward to working with my fellow Elders under Mary Robinson’s leadership to defend human rights, address the challenge of climate change and promote equality.”"

"This Elders mission to China included high-level discussions on multilateralism, climate change and development, nuclear rearmament and non-proliferation, and human rights, alongside a ‘town-hall’ meeting with students of the China Foreign Affairs University... Ban Ki-moon, Deputy Chair of The Elders, said: China has shown a clear desire to fulfil its commitments under the Paris Agreement, and play a central role in meeting the Sustainable Development Goals. At a time when international cooperation is faltering, this is welcome news. Ernesto Zedillo, Elder and former President of Mexico, said: These discussions clearly underlined how recent actions by some nuclear powers threaten to reverse the progress achieved on nuclear disarmament since the Cold War. We ask President Xi to use his influence to help limit any further deterioration of international agreements on the development and deployment of nuclear weapons. ...In response to questions from the Chair of The Elders, Mary Robinson, President Xi said he was open to dialogue on issues of human rights and welcomed the idea of continuing these discussions with The Elders in the future. Mary Robinson, Chair of the Elders, said: China has made tremendous strides in freeing millions of people from the injustices of poverty. We hope that same determination to improve human rights can apply to all people throughout China. We look forward to continuing discussions on how to enhance international cooperation on global peace, security and prosperity."

"The Elders today called on all nuclear powers to take urgent steps towards nuclear disarmament, in the form of a “minimisation” agenda, to counter a dangerous rise in geopolitical tensions and distrust between states. The Elders... urge nuclear-armed states, particularly the five Permanent Members of the UN Security Council, to commit to a “minimisation” agenda that offers a realistic long-term path to the total elimination of nuclear weapons. Mary Robinson, Chair of The Elders, said: Nuclear weapons pose an existential threat to the future of humanity, and tensions between key powers are dangerously high. The only way to tackle this threat is through tough, credible and sustained multilateral engagement. The shared goal must be to reduce stockpiles and prevent weapons being acquired or developed by any further states, which could have catastrophic humanitarian consequences for the whole world."

"It is a huge honour to take up the role as Chair of The Elders at such a critical moment for peace, justice and human rights worldwide. Building on the powerful legacies of Archbishop Tutu and Kofi Annan, I am confident that our group’s voice can both be heard by leaders and amplify grassroots activists fighting for their rights."

"The executives were given a dressing down by the former Irish premier Mary Robinson. She said: "We should all salute the courage the Holy Father has shown on climate change when too many secular leaders have spurned their responsibilities." Ms Robinson asked the oil bosses: "What could be more cynical than still seeking to exploit fossil fuel reserves when the scientific evidence is abundantly clear that we need to end all combustion of fossil fuels by 2050?" She said the energy transition would require a massive shift of capital to clean energy and warned: "If some industries fail to adjust to this new word, they will fail to exist.""

"This movie is groundbreaking! I highly recommend it to anyone who has lost faith in true love because this is a romantic comedy in which anyone can find himself. It doesn't matter what race, religion or sexuality you are. This is the kind of movie that inspires everyone and restores faith in true love. Everyone deserves a great love story and I am convinced that many young people will make their friends, and hopefully, their parents go watch the movie."