Discovering witnesses is just as important as catching criminals.
Justice for crimes against humanity must have no limitations.
Interpretation
What this quote means
Justice for crimes against humanity should be pursued without time limits or barriers.
This quote highlights the belief that accountability for serious injustices, especially those affecting humanity at large, should not be constrained by time. It emphasizes that individuals and systems responsible for crimes against humanity must be held accountable regardless of when the crimes occurred, as the pursuit of justice is a continuous obligation of society to ensure that such atrocities do not repeat themselves.
Themes
In practice
Example use cases
In a speech advocating for human rights, one might use this quote to emphasize the importance of holding perpetrators accountable regardless of the passage of time.
More from Simon Wiesenthal
All quotes βMy cause was justice, not vengeance. My work is for a better tomorrow and a more secure future for our children and grandchildren.
The schools would fail through their silence, the Church through its forgiveness, and the home through the denial and silence of the parents. The new generation has to hear what the older generation refuses to tell it.
We know that we are not collectively guilty, so how can we accuse any other nation, no matter what some of its people have done, of being collectively guilty?
Human rights is the only ideology that deserves to survive
You're a religious man, ... You believe in God and life after death. I also believe. When we come to the other world and meet the millions of Jews who died in the camps and they ask us, 'What have you done?' there will be many answers. You will say, 'I became a jeweler.' Another will say, 'I smuggled coffee and American cigarettes.' Another will say, 'I built houses.' But I will say, 'I didn't forget you.'
Similar quotes
The success of any legal system is measured by its fidelity to the universal ideal of justice.
Charity is no substitute for justice. If we never challenge a social order that allows some to accumulate wealth--even if they decide to help the less fortunate--while others are short-changed, then even acts of kindness end up supporting unjust arrangements. We must never ignore the injustices that make charity necessary, or the inequalities that make it possible.
Although our rules and laws are now officially colorblind, they operate to discriminate in a grossly disproportionate fashion.
Uninformed and yet open to appeals for justice as they are, Americans are capable of reacting as they did to the ANC campaign against apartheid, which finally changed the balance of forces inside South Africa.
Swift justice demands more than just swiftness.
We ask justice, we ask equality, we ask that all the civil and political rights that belong to citizens of the United States, be guaranteed to us and our daughters forever.