Antonio Guterres Quotes

In the war, nearly the whole civilized world was shocked by the crimes alleged to have been committed by the Turks. It is far from my thoughts to cast a veil over these misdeeds, which are such as to make the conscience of mankind shudder with horror forever; still less will I endeavor to minimize the guilt of the actors in this great drama. The aim which I have set myself is that of showing to the world with proofs in my hand, who are the truly responsible authors of these terrible crimes.

Over the past year, several cases of human rights abuses, specifically sexual exploitation and abuse, by individuals involved in U.N. peacekeeping operations have raised the suspicions of many Members of Congress and members of the International Relations Committee.

The Charter of the United Nations expresses the noblest aspirations of man: abjuration of force in the settlement of disputes between states; the assurance of human rights and fundamental freedoms for all without distinction as to race, sex, language or religion; the safeguarding of international peace and security.

Justice can help reduce sexual violence: bringing to justice those soldiers responsible for sexual violence discourages other soldiers from committing such crimes.

Syrians need to prepare for the aftermath if the Assad regime falls. Atrocities that could be considered war crimes have been committed in this country, and Syrians should rightly demand that the perpetrators be held accountable.

War criminals in the U.S. and Israel are not punished: no international court has the courage to put them on trial.

Henry Kissinger is the greatest living war criminal in the world today, with the blood of millions of people in Vietnam and Cambodia and Laos and Chile and East Timor on his hands. He will never appear in a court or be behind bars.

[The new Congolese] security forces committed unlawful killings, torture, beatings, acts of rape, extortion and other abuses, largely with impunity.

I think that you are a war criminal, and I am going to do everything in my power to see that you will be tried as one.

They have been waiting for eight years to tell me that I am a war criminal and now they do it.

The use of rape or sexual intimidation as a means of punishment or retribution, whether by individuals or by groups, is unacceptable in our view.

What the Serbs are doing is an international crime. What the world is not doing is also an international crime.

National crimes demand international law, to restrain, prohibit, punish, best of all, prevent.

After genocide, justice is impossible …. You cannot put all these people who committed these atrocities to death or in prison.

A letter arrived from Shanghai reporting in detail the atrocities of our army in Nanking. It describes a horrendous situation of pillage and rape. My God, is this how our Imperial Army behaves?

In the course of these contests [the Seminole Wars] the rights of Indian and Negro alike were ruthlessly disregarded. There was redress for neither before the courts, and at the end in dealing with them every honorable principle of men and nations was violated.

The missile that downed the Malaysian plane, they say, is a Russian-made missile. But the weapons that are used in the barbarism in the barbaric act against the Palestinians were made by the West, and nobody is blaming them. Nobody talks about it; not even the U.N. Security Council can pass a resolution against Israel!

All war aims for impunity.

There are laws for peace as well as war.

The United Nations will be at the heart of our international activities. France will assume its full responsibilities at the Security Council by putting its status at the service of peace, respect for human rights and development.

War should be made a crime, and those who instigate it should be punished as criminals.

As long as there is rape... there is not going to be any peace or justice or equality or freedom. You are not going to become what you want to become or who you want to become. You are not going to live in the world you want to live in.

So I've gone in and out of the U.N., working on counter-terrorism, on U.N. reform, on peacekeeping, peace and security issues, many things through the years but always with a strong interest in humanitarian issues, and human rights issues as well.

The serious crimes by the Sudanese government and the government-supported militias must be met with serious consequences. We must work for tough international economic sanctions on the Sudanese government.

The NATO forces will, to the extent that they have capacity, assist the war crimes tribunal.