I prefer law to war under all circumstances.
Benjamin B. FerenczRead
What has happened here [aftermath of 9/11] is not war in its traditional sense. This is clearly a crime against humanity. War crimes are crimes which happen in war time. There is a confusion there. This is a crime against humanity because it is deliberate and intentional killing of large numbers of civilians for political or other purposes. That is not tolerable under the international systems. And it should be prosecuted pursuant to the existing laws.
Interpretation
What this quote means
The quote highlights the distinction between traditional warfare and acts that target civilians, labeling such acts as crimes against humanity.
In this quote, Benjamin B. Ferencz emphasizes the gravity and moral implications of intentionally harming civilians in conflict situations. By classifying these acts as crimes against humanity rather than traditional war crimes, he calls for accountability under international law, suggesting that such deliberate violence against innocent people is unacceptable and warrants prosecution.
Themes
WarCrimeHumanityCiviliansPoliticalAccountability
In practice
Example use cases
Using this quote in a speech about human rights violations.
More from Benjamin B. Ferencz
All quotes →Similar quotes
We love the old saints, missionaries, martyrs, and reformers. Our Luthers, Bunyans, Wesleys and Asburys, etc... We will write their biographies, reverence their memories, frame their epitaphs, and build their monuments. We will do anything except imitate them. We cherish the last drop of their blood, but watch carefully over the first drop of our own.
Aiden Wilson TozerRead
I believe there is something going on in a conscious being, which includes many animals, as well as ourselves, that is not a computational activity. And to be conscious at all is not a quality that a computer as such will ever possess - no matter how complicated, no matter how well it plays chess or any of these things.
Roger PenroseRead
If you are on an honest journey to find yourself, you'll find God.
Martin SheenRead
Wherever capitalism appears, in pursuit of its mission of exploitation, there will Socialism, fertilized by misery, watered by tears, and vitalized by agitation be also found, unfurling its class-struggle banner and proclaiming its mission of emancipation.
Eugene V. DebsRead
Resignation was the defining condition of Soviet life.
Masha GessenRead
I live in my house as I live inside my skin: I know more beautiful, more ample, more sturdy and more picturesque skins: but it would seem to me unnatural to exchange them for mine.
Primo LeviRead