Opal Tometi Quotes

The principal cause of suffering during humanitarian crises is insufficient respect of applicable rules of international humanitarian law.

Torture is not a thing we can tolerate.

There are millions of people all over the world, right now, who are looking to the United Nations for protection and redress against the violation of their rights and deprivation of their freedoms.

We tend to think of World War II and all the atrocities that happened, and people say, 'Never again.' But these things are still happening. The Amnesty International files are big.

That's one of the things that I'm going to talk about, is the need for the Human Rights Council to actually deal with human rights. We've got countries on the Human Rights Council right now like Venezuela and Cuba.

Abuse of human rights and international law demand resolution - whoever is responsible.

I've been studying Israeli army martial arts. I now know 16 ways to kick a Palestinian woman in the back.

When human rights are systematically abused, it raises the question whether it may be legitimate in some circumstances for the international community to intervene within individual states as well as in conflicts between states.

I care about people's human rights and, as a country, we have a very proud record indeed. But I'm also realistic about what we can do... we can raise those issues with leaders and we can talk about those issues, and we do that.

We can make a difference. We can save lives. We can stop the genocide.

Many instances of persecution and killing have occurred in countries with atrocious human rights records such as Sri Lanka, Guatemala and the Democratic Republic of Congo.

Up until the end of the Bush Administration, there was indifference to the North Korean suffering under Kim Jong-Il.

Every State has the primary duty to protect its own population from grave and sustained violations of human rights, as well as from the consequences of humanitarian crises, whether natural or man-made.

In the '90s, there was scant presidential leadership and insufficient domestic political mobilization for foreign policy grounded in human rights.

The biggest road block to action on genocide and other human rights crimes is ignorance. Most people just don't know that such things are happening, and often, if they have a vague idea they are happening, there is a feeling that there is nothing that can be done to stop these crimes.

Torture of a person anywhere in the world causes humanity everywhere in the world to suffer.

… all governments have the moral duty to do everything possible to ensure humanitarian assistance to those suffering because of … conflict, both within and beyond the country’s borders.

Two contractors were paid $80 million to conduct this torture.

There is never a humanitarian solution for a humanitarian crisis. The solutions for the humanitarian crisis are always political ones.

I am waiting for the day when the German Bundestag debates the violation of human rights in Saudi Arabia.

Promoting and protecting human rights internationally is not just a matter of principle or morality - doing so also serves our national security interests.

I grew up in a refugee camp. Thirty years. This so-called human-rights world didn't ask me what was happening for me to be there 30 years.

The only situation that I can't be in favour of is the lack of respect to human rights in Venezuela.

If we support human rights, we cannot ignore legalized brutality against any group of our global community.

Every day, we hear of civilians being killed and wounded in violation of the basic rules of international humanitarian law and with total impunity. Instability is spreading. Suffering is growing. No country can remain untouched.