Human Rights Activists

"My overall impression is that politicians really like to change their positions and really like to forget about some things. But ordinary people have better memories. As we Chinese people say, ordinary people have conscience, unlike politicians. I think that every nation has a conscience. And good writers express it very well, and those who express the conscience of the nation in their work, those are exceptional writers. I’ve noticed that in every country people don’t like politicians. When people talk about me as a politician, I object immediately, I just say I write books."

"You can't build a future with those who destroyed the past."

"When you cannot physically run anymore, you can use the brain to keep going and that is what activism is all about."

"You cannot force people to participate in a system they no longer believe in."

"The issue of some people earning minimum wage and others earning maximum wage, where a senator earns N14 million monthly is unacceptable"

"I can run Nigeria better than President Buhari – even in my sleep."

"All of the Russian Duma (parliament) unanimously voted to recognize these territories (Donetsk People's Republic and Luhansk People's Republic) of Ukraine are sovereign states. That in itself is a crime. It's against international law, so that should be sanctioned."

"It (2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine) is surreal. I never thought I would be living through the nightmare that my grandmother, who lived through World War II, was telling me about."

"People had been turning to witchcraft because of the mistaken belief that using their body parts in potions can bring good luck and wealth."

"While we have come very far in the fight against these heinous acts, the road ahead remains long and arduous."

"Spread your wings. Soar like an eagle. May the wind be behind you. May the sun be in front of you on your face and may you fly."

"stand up, shake it up, and keep going."

"At one point in life, we are migrants or refugees, if not us, our great grand-parents. What is important is that everyone is treated with the dignity of a human person."

"“We celebrate today because there are women and men who have made it possible,”"

"Every immigrant have its purpose that it is, they fill some gaps to improve the situation in Europe and also get shelter and security in terms of war situations."

"The future of human rights is optimistic. If I look back to fifty years ago, before the declaration of human rights, and look forward to what is happening now, it is true that we made progress. Humanity is dynamic and continuously changing, for example, the entertainment and advertising industry is totally changing our mindsets. I think that human rights laws are making a lot of work but the basic challenge should be NGOs, community-based organisations, inter-governmental agencies. We should not think about human rights in terms of what can we gain from them, but in terms of what we can give to them."

"The powerful force that unite us is our human dignity... I beg you as we move on today and I urge you that we all have potential in us to ask ,to ask that we don't see the other person as the other but we are because they are,The concept of the other does not make us understand each other, so let's ask that we see the other person as we. That is one step that each of us can take, then we can seek peace but above all as the drum of war is now ringing let us knock at the door of peace"."

"The possibility of establishing a positive and constructive dialogue is that You do not fight ideology and extremists with weapons. We cannot defeat them with drones, I think we can do more than that. We have to get other strategies and tactics."

""It is the ability when we look at issues of international peace and justice and freedom that we remember that dialogue does not hurt, that we can engage that we don't have enemies, people can disagree with us, but they are not our enemies at all and that we can make allies"."

"I had a focus. What is your focus? ... You will be tested. What should you do? We don’t know. You are going into a new world order that you may be defining."

"Rafah has now become the largest refugee camp on earth. One million people fled here because it was supposed to be safe. They’ve joined the population which is there already. It’s the most crowded, it’s the largest refugee camp on earth, and you cannot have a war in a refugee camp."

"I was myself recently also in Afghanistan, and I sat down with the mothers in these displacement camps around Kabul. And I asked them, “What about the future? What do you think of the future?” And they told me very clearly, “We believe we will starve and freeze to death this harsh winter, unless there is an enormous aid operation coming through and unless there is a public sector again that is able to provide services.” It is as acute as that. Forty million civilians were left behind when the NATO countries went for the door in August."

"Money should not go to the military political group called the Taliban that took power by force. The money should go to the people, and it is possible. So, number one, there has to be trust funds, as we call it, that is held by U.N. agencies, that funnel money directly to the hospitals, that you just showed, where people are dying at the moment. It can go straight to the teachers that were on the payroll of the World Bank previously, can go straight to them. So, the money can go through us, international organizations, straight to the people. Secondly, unfreeze those funds that will enable banks to function again. At the moment, we cannot even buy relief items in Afghanistan. We have to ship them over, take them over from Pakistan and Iran, which means that employment is dying in Afghanistan. And thirdly, donors, come down from the fence. See that we are there. We are reliable channels for funding. The money will go to the people. Transmit funding, not just come with pledges. This will not become Switzerland in a long time. You have to share the risk with us to save lives this winter."

"The pulverising of Gaza now ranks amongst the worst assaults on any civilian population in our time and age. Each day we see more dead children and new depths of suffering for the innocent people enduring this hell. (...) Countries supporting Israel with arms must understand that these civilian deaths will be a permanent stain on their reputation. (...) The situation in Gaza is a total failure of our shared humanity. The killing must stop."

""I was born in 1989, and my father, being a democracy activist, he was paying a lot of attention to what was going on in Tiananmen, in Beijing, at that time, so after the massacre, he named me Ti-Anna to commemorate the victims ... and also to celebrate the ideals of freedom and democracy. He really wanted to remember their courage."

"The conversations about human rights in China, they can be a little numbingly familiar after you talk about it."

"The values of freedom and democracy upon which America was founded are the same values that once inspired my father and are the ones to which he remains dedicated. Those values are not just every American’s birthright; they are the fundamental rights of all human beings."

"The truth is, the lives of activists are much more complicated than what the novel presented. My father was not a regular man nor a regular father. He gave himself to his cause, and our relationship was forged by distance. There is no resentment. The world needs people like my father."

"In a country without meaningful rule of law, my family has no means appeal my father's conviction, despite having secured exonerating evidence for the charges against him. The lawyers we've retained on his behalf are routinely intimidated by authorities, obstructed from visiting him and threatened with disbarment. Because of my outspokenness, the Chinese government repeatedly refuses my visa applications. Consequently I have been unable to visit him for the past seven years."

"The Botswana High Court decision is a milestone in the fight for LGBT people’s right to equality under the law. Monica Tabengwa Botswana Court allows LGBT rights group to formally register, Elizabeth LaForgia, (25 November 2014) Retrieved 4 November 2021."

"Art is one of the key means we can use to document and showcase our history. Films, documentaries- all are meaningful in our struggle."

"To advocate for legal change, which we do, it should not matter what your sexual orientation is"

"The Zambian government should take immediate action against government officials who make discriminatory statements against LGBT people, or arrest or detain them, The attacks on LGBT people need to stop. Monica Tabengwa Zambia :Stop prosecuting people for homosexuality. (May 20,2013) Retrieved 4 November 2021."

"The court ruled unanimously on March 16 that standing in the way of the group’s registration as an organization was “to deny their personhood... to deny their humanity, their dignity,” For me, this was very personal. The right to legal recognition is the most basic right you can have."

"The challenge that we have before us is to heal those wounds. And we need to be able to look back and say we don’t want that to happen again"

"“Many have even risked their lives to advance justice, freedom, and equal rights for everyone.""

"It has been suggested that it may have been because of the work that our organization was doing, but I was shocked that I was being charged for recruiting people to undergo military training"

"I am so relieved to know that the charges against me have been dropped, but I think the victory was only possible because of the support from the international community, fellow journalists and colleagues in civic society, and human rights defenders"

"I view the judgment in a positive sense, in that it resulted in a reform of the judiciary, especially at a time when the country is going through a constitution-making process, and that the same charges brought against other activists will be dropped"

"However, it is a victory for the rule of law,constitutionalism and a mortal blow to impunity.**https://www.frontlinedefenders.org/en/case/jestina-mukoko-abducted"

"It is difficult at this stage to give a detailed account of what I went through because it is such an emotional subject. I would really have to psych up for that kind of discussion"

"“I came out of this experience not a bitter person, but a better person.”"

"It will not make for lost time as my liberty and all other human rights accorded to me by virtue of my being human was unjustifiably curtailed."

"I came out of this experience not a bitter person, but a better person; better in the sense that I was able to understand what fellow Zimbabwean activists had been going through all this time"

"I am a widowed mother, and what I went through brought a lot of trauma to my family, especially to my son, who did not know if he had lost the only remaining parent that he had"

"Never attack your wife for saying your mouth stinks. Others may say it smells nice, but she's the one who visits it regularly. — On President Buhari's comment on his wife "belonging to the kitchen"."

"Don’t just look for a good wife. Also, look for a good life!"

"It shows a very deep-seated poverty mentality when your specs for a wife are things that can be done by modern electrical appliances. Gone are the days when women were expected to be naked, barefoot, pregnant and in the kitchen. Do catch up with the 21st Century! Leave BC (Before Christ) and join the rest of us in AD (After Death)."

"We had huge expectations that it would have... but we have not noticed any change. In fact, in some ways we can say the pressure on us has increased because post the signing of this deal, I then found myself back in prison. And after having made bail - and it was a huge legal battle - we then found that we were restricted to a 40km radius, and that has never happened before"

"Jenni WIlliams demonstrates the strength and perseverance that has become a hallmark of Ginetta Sagan Award recipients"