Human Rights Enforcement Quotes

Global human rights law prescribes global norms of conduct. It leaves the question of how to enforce these norms to the countries themselves.

It seems clear to me that the Obama Administration has no human rights policy. That is, while in some inchoate sense they would like respect for human rights to grow around the world, as all Americans would, they have no actual policy to achieve that goal - and they subordinate it to all their other policy goals.

We cannot speak of human rights in other countries unless we are going to do our utmost to protect the rights of our own people here at home.

The core of human rights work is naming and shaming those who commit abuses, and pressuring governments to put the screws to abusing states. As a result, human rights conventions are unique among international law instruments in depending for their enforcement mostly on the activism of a global civil society movement.

We expect them [Salvadoran officials] to work toward the elimination of human rights.

The West's post-Holocaust pledge that genocide would never again be tolerated proved to be hollow, and for all the fine sentiments inspired by the memory of Auschwitz, the problem remains that denouncing evil is a far cry from doing good.

Having strong human rights laws is important, but they must be effectively enforced.

Human rights enforcement at the international level needs to be handled in a manner similar to the treatment of military aggression under a collective security regime. The violation of human rights in one state must be considered the concern of all, and enforcement mechanisms must provide for a unified response on the part of the entire international community.

Democratic elections by themselves do not assure that human rights will be enforced but they can put a country on the path to reform.