Life must be lived and curiosity kept alive. One must never, for whatever reason, turn his back on life.
Eleanor RooseveltRead
Where, after all, do universal human rights begin? In small places, close to home - so close and so small that they cannot be seen on any maps of the world ... Such are the places where every man, woman and child seeks equal justice, equal opportunity, equal dignity without discrimination. Unless these rights have meaning there, they have little meaning anywhere.
Interpretation
Universal human rights start in small, personal spaces where individuals seek equality and dignity.
Eleanor Roosevelt emphasizes that the concept of universal human rights is not just a grand ideal but must begin in the everyday lives of individuals. True justice, opportunity, and dignity arise in the small, often overlooked places close to home, highlighting the importance of grassroots activism for the rights of every person. If these rights do not hold significance in these intimate spaces, they lack true value on a larger scale.
In practice
This quote can be used in a speech on social justice to highlight the importance of local advocacy.
Life must be lived and curiosity kept alive. One must never, for whatever reason, turn his back on life.
Great minds discuss ideas; average minds discuss events; small minds discuss people.
You have to accept whatever comes and the only important thing is that you meet it with courage and with the best that you have to give.
Our children should learn the general framework of their government and then they should know where they come in contact with the government, where it touches their daily lives and where their influence is exerted on the government. It must not be a distant thing, someone else's business, but they must see how every cog in the wheel of a democracy is important and bears its share of responsibility for the smooth running of the entire machine.
It takes courage to love, but pain through love is the purifying fire which those who love generously know.
I believe that anyone can conquer fear by doing the things he fears to do.
All that I can tell you is, that I used my humble powers to the uttermost, and raised my voice in behalf of Human Rights in general, and the elevation and Rights of Woman in particular, nearly all my life.
From the Balkans to Africa, from Asia to the Middle East, we have witnessed the weakening or absence of effective governance leading to the ravaging of human rights and the abandonment of longstanding humanitarian principles. We need competent and responsible states to meet the needs of "we the peoples" for whom the UN was created. And the world's peoples will not be fully served unless peace, development and human rights, the three pillars of the UN, are advanced together with equal vigour.
Yes, I am very unhappy, extremely anguished at human rights violations against Kashmiris in India or against Rohingyas in Burma or, for that matter, Christians in Orissa; but obviously, I am going to be more concerned of violations taking place in my own house because I am closer to the people who I live with. I have more passion for them.
If resources become scarce, people tend to fight for them. This is increasing the number of people on the move and the number of people forced to move. They're not refugees, according to the legal definition, but they represent a major humanitarian and human rights challenge, as well as a major challenge for world politics.
The human rights community has focused very narrowly on political and civil rights for many decades, and with reason, but now we have to ask how can we broaden the view.
Human rights, human freedoms... and human dignity have their deepest roots somewhere outside the perceptible world... while the state is a human creation, human beings are the creation of God.
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