Sergei Lavrov Quotes

It's up to any government to decide how to react to the denial of basic human rights anywhere in the world, including Egypt.

Amnesty International continues to report that extra judicial tortures and murders continue. This is not democracy that we are exporting to Mexico, and this is certainly not what the Mexican workers signed up for.

The Iranian government is undoubtedly a severe danger to its own population, but not beyond that.

It is good that the Canadians are raising the flag among Western countries to raise the issue of human rights abuse throughout the Middle East.

Human rights in China should absolutely play a role in broader U.S. policy toward China. When we look the other way on fundamental issues of human rights, we are also responsible.

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.

Two presidents pursued human rights policies that were serious and effective: Reagan and George W. Bush. They understood that American support for human rights activists is a moral imperative for us and also makes the world safer for us.

Despite the increase in world attention toward Sudan in the past months, the genocide in Darfur has continued without any serious attempt by the Sudanese government to do what governments primarily exist to do, protect their citizens.

Saddam has committed many crimes against humanity and against his own people.

Open your newspaper - any day of the week - and you will find a report from somewhere in the world of someone being imprisoned, tortured or executed because his opinions or religion are unacceptable to his government.

I never blamed Pinochet, or my torturers, or external circumstances.

I refer to calls for humanitarian intervention in the affairs of another state - a new idea, this - even when they are made under the pretext of defending human rights and freedoms.

I have nothing but contempt for Gadhafi. I'm not a Gadhafi supporter in any way. However, it's not clear to me that it's a vital and compelling national security objective of the United States that we ought to use military force to remove him from power. He's not the only unpleasant and unsavory dictator in the world.

This happened within the politics of national security implemented by the Guatemalan army in which the people were considered an internal enemy. If the Guatemalan army was guilty here it was at the instruction of the United States, so the government of the United States should be seated here [along with the army defendants.]

There is no military government on earth that does not have human rights abuses.

The Times and the Guardian accuse us of operating a police-state. The BBC Persian programme has made similar allegations, saying that countries such as Iran and Saudi Arabia should be denied access to Western military technology. What are the bloody fools on about? Do they seriously regard Iraq, or Algeria, or Libya as liberal regimes?.

A rising economic power that violates human rights is a threat to peace.

I have been made stateless and hounded for my act of political expression.

It is both wrong and short-sighted to believe that we can better protect our national security interests by ignoring or sidelining human rights.

Frankly, I would never accept an award from Vladimir Putin because then you kind of give some credence and credibility to this butcher, this KGB agent, which is what he is.

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.

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

Our expectation is that the Russian Federation does its part to protect its own citizens in full respect of human rights principles.

I am absolutely certain that my unlawful detention by the Thai authorities was motivated by their fear of youth movements around the world.

Countries often prioritise economic interests over human rights - hence all the kowtowing to China.