Emily Thornberry Quotes

Our laws must protect victims.

For centuries, the courts took the view that preserving the discretion of the authorities trumped the rights of victims to hold them to account. It was because of the Human Rights Act that this began to change.

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

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

Delay in justice is injustice.

Where there is a right, there is a remedy. Ubu jus, ibi remedium.

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

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

For the common man the justice meted out in the lower courts is much more important than that meted out in the Supreme Court.

All victims deserve justice.

As a lawyer, I've dealt with really serious offences, and the public rarely hear what the true impact is on the victims' families. When you hear it from the mouths of victims, your entire approach changes, because it could happen to anybody, and they articulate that in such a powerful way.

The framework for everything I've done has been human rights. That is about protecting the vulnerable and giving people access to courts where they wouldn't otherwise have access to courts.

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

It is essential to institute a legal framework that would ensure justice and improve the quality of life in Burma immediately, because the greatest suffering among the people at the moment is caused by lack of justice and lack of the rule of law.

Victims have a right to be heard and be involved in the process … Traditional Navajo law gives them the right to be made whole.

Human rights and due process of law transcend all boundaries.

No free man shall be taken, imprisoned, disseised, (killed) outlawed, banished, or in any way destroyed, nor will We proceed against or prosecute him except by the lawful judgment of his peers and by the law of the land.

Every man who comes to England is entitled to the protection of the English law, whatever oppression he may heretofore have suffered, and whatever may be the colour of his skin, whether it is black or whether it is white.

The very essence of civil liberty, is the right of every individual to claim the protection of the laws, whenever he receives an injury.

Any delay in action protecting constitutional rights is justice denied.

We should give full and efficient protection to the rights of all classes of citizens, whether native or naturalized, both at home and abroad.

And let no one apply to the king in any suit, unless he at home may not be worthy of law, or cannot obtain law.

Justice belongs to the people!

Every subject of the Commonwealth ought to find a certain remedy, by having recourse to the laws, for all injuries or wrongs which he may receive in his person, property, or character. He ought to obtain right and justice freely, and without being obliged to purchase it; completely, and without any denial; promptly, and without delay;

One of the problems that we have in the human rights community is that special interests often forget the interests of other victims, and there’s competition among victims expressions that are unnecessary.