John Blair Quotes

There are thousands of Palestinians in prison virtually for no reason.

The Church insists on the need of humane attitude towards suspects, persons under investigation and those caught in criminal intent. The crude and improper treatment of these people can either fortify them on the wrong track or push them on it. For this reason, those awaiting a verdict should not be disfranchised even in custody. They should be guaranteed advocacy and impartial justice. The Church condemns torture and indignities towards persons under investigation

Much of my work strikes me as pretty unified: as a lawyer, working in several areas, I have thought about how to promote freedom of speech broadly for everyone.

I think I was the healthiest prisoner of conscience in the world.

I'm a civil rights attorney. I'm a victim rights attorney.

Free and civilized societies do not hold prisoners incommunicado.

Hundreds of political prisoners still suffer in Tibetan prisons. Freedom of speech is not allowed in any sense. It is illegal to possess a photo of the Dalai Lama.

I have been to Guantanamo. It's a model prison. Is it ideal? No. But we live in a very un-ideal world.

Protecting the rights of service members was an important part of my work as Assistant Attorney General for Civil Rights.

I mean, The New York Times actually had an interesting case recently where they described a detainee who was afraid of the dark, and so he was purposely kept very much in the dark.

It is time for the government of China to stop holding innocent religious figures in captivity merely for peacefully protesting China's occupation of Tibet.

We opposed unlimited detention without trial. We stood up for trial by jury as well. And of course we spoke up for asylum seekers and for the most vulnerable in our society.

There are no 'political prisoners' as such in Bahrain. People are not arrested because they express their views, we only have criminals.

When men are arrested without any legal basis and for political reasons, it's merely a routine, everyday occurrence in Russia, and hardly anyone has any sympathy.

What made Guantanamo such a travesty - and what still makes it such - is that it is a system of indefinite detention whereby human beings are put in cages for years and years without ever being charged with a crime.

To me, that means getting back to the point where our Constitution means that you don't tap people's phones and poke into their e-mail and you don't arrest people and keep them hidden for a year and a half without charging them.

What I have experienced is nothing compared to what political prisoners in prisons suffer.

The United States is holding hundreds of suspected terrorists in prisons at Guantanamo and elsewhere. Many are locked up indefinitely. They have not been tried or even charged with any crime.

Before I became Attorney General, I won’t say that I stayed up at night worrying about civil rights

We all require equal access to the justice system.

It's common knowledge that most of the guys at Guantanamo are nobodies. Many were turned in by bounty hunters.

We've got to pass legislation which will allow people to have access to competent counsel no matter who they are.

Detention cells in Hong Kong are not pleasant. In Thailand they are even worse. In Hong Kong you are at least allowed to see your lawyers.

The Human Rights Act has not just given a voice to victims, but to the families who have to fight for the victim where the victim has died.

Legal aid... is fundamental to giving everybody in this country access to justice.