Human Rights Activists

"A fire that burns in secret, a lethal conflagration that you can only discover when its too late to save anyone."

"We may be changing and getting closer to your way of life, but give us a chance to decide what we want to carry with us into the future".'"

"Show me a people who don't have a bloody history."

"On a personal level, that was hard. It wasn't just my case, my issue, but the focus was on me personally. At the time I was young and thought everything was possible but there was a real cost both financially and emotionally. I always say at the start I was driving a BMW and by the end of the case I was in a pick-up truck. I had to take my kids out of private school and put them in public school."

"I was born into a Botswana where there was no tarmac road, no telephone, where you had to hold water on your head and firewood as well. I think I saw my first refrigerator when I was a teenager."

"Reforming the African Union, will open great opportunities in areas of trade, employment and economic growth in Africa."

"It got me thinking about the issue on a broader scale, How do you retain a cultural identity, which everyone says is a good thing, without being isolated."

"“However it is disturbing that so many of our citizens experience cases of gender-based corruption in their offices, that is why I call on all employers to immediately put in place mechanisms to prevent and punish such cases.”"

".” (In Rwanda, politicians enter politics to get “bread” instead of serving citizens)"

"'ultimately about a people demanding dignity and respect."

"It has turned out to be the most expensive and longest-running trial this country has ever dealt with. It has also attracted a lot of interest as well as a fair amount of bandwagon jumpers, both nationally and internationally, than perhaps any other case has ever done.'The Bushmen belong to an ethnic group 'that has been historically looked down upon,', said the judge - the names for them 'common terms of insult in the same way as nigger' and kaffir'."

"“If you are a parent and you accept that someone who abused your child is released, if a parent allows someone to go free after abusing a child, what about the next one?” Plus: “That person deserves to be punished in prison… children from other families should be safe.”"

"In Rwanda, politicians go into politics to grab bread more than to serve citizens.”"

"Botswana is emerging from a 'national shutdown'."

"“This sends a message that there is no impunity for people who try to stop the fight against corruption… Although justice is done, we are not satisfied because this is a capital offence which deserves a maximum sentence…”"

"There is no one to challenge those in leadership; some people misappropriate State funds because there is no one caring, no follow up, money is used as they wish.”"

"“Although justice is done, we are not satisfied because this is a capital offence which deserves a maximum sentence.”"

"I do not accept the statistic that unity and reconciliation among Rwandans is 94%, because genocide ideology is still visible both among adults and children."

"“If you go to RIB and ask for the data … we have it, not just in my head but in our work, and in all districts.”"

"Women should be confident because they are capable, and the country needs them. They should do all they can such as study University, show that they can also manage to do things and are also talented."

"We know the role of taxes, we also know that developed countries were able to achieve that status as a result of the taxes paid by their citizens... But, in taxation policy, you also consider the taxpayers' financial means"

"There is a saying that many or high taxes spoil taxation. What this means is that if you ask people for taxes that are within their means, you will encourage more people to honour their duties. It is always better to increase gradually"

"It is sad to see that people are more scared of police than they are of Covid-19, which kills! It seems like we have abandoned the government to fight this battle alone,"

"od examples, they ignore family responsibilities and are not strict enough with their children the way parents were in the past."

"I love the American dream. I feel this is the place I was supposed to be in. It's beautiful. I love it."

"Traffic police officers these days tell car drivers to go and pretend to urinate in a nearby place, then put the bribe where they can see so that they come and continue the journey. The Police officer goes and pick it later."

"“This vice is like a pest. It’s never that obvious and by the time you see it, so much has been damaged. We need to fight corruption at all levels, without leaving any type behind. We may assume that we have gotten somewhere when there are some aspects that are blocking our country from progressing,"

"The language of law is very masculine. The culture of law is so masculine. At one point, I started to think that it shouldn't be like this and that I have a right to be where I am."

"If a person wants to give a bribe to a given official, they go through a chain of people whose network is difficult to link. For instance, a person wanted to offer bribe [via mobile money] to a prosecutor and passed it through [the phone number of] their former house servant."

"It wasn’t that simple. But in the end, I won. It not only changed the law on citizenship, so that men and women were equal in citizenship, it actually influenced other laws."

"If we have managed to survive as an entity, we owe this partly to our deep attachment to certain institutions and certain values regarded as the norm in Europe. We owe it to religion and the Church, our attachment to democracy and pluralism, human rights and civil liberties and to the ideal of solidarity."

"The Polish people are acutely aware of belonging to Europe and the European heritage. They are as conscious of this as are the other European peoples situated at the cultural crossroads adjacent to the superpowers, experiencing alternating phases of political existence and non-existence and hence feeling the need to strengthen their identity. In all these situations, Europe has always remained a beacon, an object of affection which the Poles felt ready to defend."

"Our country is confronted with the enormous task of reconstituting the rights and the institutions that characterise modern democracies and rebuilding a market economy, after an interruption of several decades. Added to this, there is the need to overcome enormous economic problems. We not only have to re-create rights and institutions but, in cases where they were non-existent, we have to start from scratch. Otherwise, our two European worlds will never manage to live in harmony."

"The 1988 strikes discouraged the Party leadership and demonstrated its failure to find a solution to Poland’s problems. Combined with Gorbachev’s renunciation of intervention on behalf of Communism, this failure encouraged the leadership to move toward yielding its monopoly of power. On 30 November 1988, there was a televised debate between Lech Walesa and Alfred Miodowicz, the head of the official trade union federation and a member of the Politburo. This was a highly significant step as the television served as a means of controlling the dissemination of opinion. On 6 February 1989, Round Table talks between government and the technically illegal opposition began, with the Church, an institution of great prestige in Poland, playing an important mediatory role. Under an agreement, signed on 5 April 1989, reached against a background of widespread strikes, elections were held in Poland on 4 June. Only 35 per cent of the seats in the lower house, the Sejm, were awarded on the basis of the free vote, the remainder going to the Communists and their allies, but all of these seats were won by Solidarity. This expression of the public will was a dramatic blow to the old order. Communist cohesion collapsed, not least with the Communist Party being abandoned by its hitherto pliant allies. Strikes and other protests meanwhile continued. The new government was headed by Tadeusz Mazowiecki, a member of Solidarity and a Catholic intellectual. He became the first non-Communist Prime Minister behind the Iron Curtain. There was, however, to be a major division between those who endorsed the ‘Round Table’ political settlement of 1989 as a way to avoid bloodshed, and those who criticised it as, allegedly, a compromise providing subsequent cover for ex-Communists to pillage the state."

"We, as a people, must surmount the sense of hopelessness and confront the challenge of the moment - namely, the tasks of extricating ourselves from economic disaster and reconstructing our state."

"The French writer, Albert Camus, once lamented that "man eventually becomes accustomed to everything". I have always believed that this is an unjustly pessimistic view of our human condition; and in recent weeks I have seen enough to convince me that Camus, on this point at least, was wrong: 30,000 East Germans abandoning home, friends, jobs, everything, to escape to a new life of opportunity but also uncertainty in the West; thousands of Soviet miners striking not for more pay, but for better supplies; the joy of Poles as they greet their first non-Communist Prime Minister in 40 years; over a million inhabitants of the Baltic states forming a human chain to protest against the forced annexation of their nations; demonstrators in Prague braving the security forces to mark the 21st anniversary of the Warsaw Pact invasion; or in Leipzig calling for freedom of speech. Clearly the peoples of the East have not become accustomed to their lot. Totalitarian rule has not made people less attracted by freedom, democracy and self-determination. The opposite is true. Nor has it made them incapable of exercising these values through political organization and self-expression: look at the debates in the new Congress of the People's Deputies, the activities of the popular fronts, Solidarity in Poland or the opposition parties in Hungary. The demand for pluralism and reform can now be heard in every Eastern nation."

"Mister Speaker, Members of the House! I want to form a government that is able to act for the good of the people, for the good of the nation, and for the good of the state. It will be a coalition government focused on delivering thorough reform of the state. Today, such a task can only be undertaken by a government that embraces cooperation between all the forces represented in this Parliament and by a government that is formed on new political principles."

"The government I will form is not responsible for the legacy it inherits. However, this legacy shapes the circumstances in which we must act. We must draw a thick line in the sand and separate ourselves from the past. We will be responsible only for what we will now do to get Poland out of its current state of collapse. I am aware that for my compatriots today, the most important question is whether things can ever be better. I assure you that, together, all of us will respond to that question."

"The government alone will not heal any-thing. We must do this together, for Poland will only be different, if we all truly want it to be so."

"We all desire to live with dignity in a sovereign, democratic, and law-abiding state, one that everybody - regardless of their worldviews and ideological and political diversity - can consider their own."

"We want to live in a country with a sound economy, one where it is profitable to work and to save money, and where meeting our basic material needs entails no anguish or humiliation. We want a Poland that is open to Europe and to the world; a Poland which, with no inferiority complex, contributes to the creation of material and cultural goods; a Poland whose citizens will feel they are welcome guests in the other countries of Europe and the world, and are not deemed troublemaking intruders."

"We reject a political philosophy asserting that economic reforms can be launched over and against society, above people's heads - one that pushes democratic change aside."

"What you gave me, I've never had No one has fought for me like you have Please forgive all of my mistakes I will fix them with whatever it takes"

"I tried repeatedly to change and undergo a 'curative treatment' to no avail. I got to the conclusion that this is me, accepted myself, and moved on."

"I spend countless minutes thinking of you Wondering if you love me too, why am I sure you do? I’m just so sure you do The spark in your eyes took over my mind And there’s nothing I can do, not run nor hide I surrender, surrender to your charm There is nothing that I won’t do for you"

"Come here, let's not care Whatever's happening out there Just feel me, reach all over Let us blindly discover What we never thought could exist Make up for all the time we missed"

"Every workplace should be legally forced to be inclusive to LGBT people in job opportunities."

"The rules of your religion do not apply to people who do not believe in it so let people live the way they want."

"I strived to be a better and more successful person. I am proud of the person I have become today, and know that none of my family members could do what I have done. However, I feel that my success did not get enough attention from them for being gay."

"My biggest challenge was getting used to the new lifestyle. Avoiding food I loved was a bit tough at first but then I learned how to cook vegan versions of my favourite dishes. Aside from that, in my country, the concept is so new that we have little to no vegan products, which made my life very hard."