QUOTATIONS ABOUT HUMAN RIGHTS BY ELEANOR ROOSEVELT

“During my years at the U.N. it was my work on the Human rights Commission that I considered my most important task...”  (ER)

“Where after all, do human rights begin?   In small places, close to home---so close and so small that they cannot be seen on any map of the world.   Yet, they ‘are’ the world of individual persons:  the neighborhood he lives in; the school or college he attends; the factory, farm, or office where he works.   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.    Without concerned citizen action to uphold them close to home, we shall look in vain for progress in the larger world.”  (ER in a speech before the UN, 1958)

“...long job finished.”   (ER on eve of final vote of UDHR by General Assembly)

“What I hope to leave behind me [would be to be able] to live in a community where every individual had an income adequate to provide his family with the ordinary comforts and pleasures of life, but no individual had an income so large that he did not have to think about his expenditures.   Such a community would have the germs of a really new deal for the race.”  (Lash quoting ER)

“As I look back at the work thus far of our Human rights Commission, I realize that its importance is twofold.   In the first place, we have put into words some inherent rights.    Beyond that, we have found that the conditions of our contemporary world require the enumeration of certain protections, which the individual must have if he is to acquire a sense of security and dignity in his own person.  The effect of this is frankly educational.   Indeed, I like to think that the Declaration will help forward very largely the education of the peoples of the world.    It seems to me most important that the Declaration be accepted by all member nations, not because they will immediately live up to all of its provisions, but because they ought to support the standards toward which the nations must henceforward aim.    Since the objectives have been clearly stated, men of good will everywhere will strive to attain them with more energy and, I trust, with better hope of success.”

"As the Convention is adhered to by one country after another, it will actually bring into being rights, which are tangible and can be invoked before the law of the ratifying countries.    Everywhere many people will feel more secure.   And as the Great Powers tie themselves down by their ratifications, the smaller nations which fear that the great may abuse their strength will acquire a sense of greater assurance.”

“The work of the Commission has been of outstanding value in setting before men’s eyes the ideals which they must strive to reach.   Men cannot live by bread alone.”    (ER, Behind, p. 558)

“It is a tragic commentary on the status of civilization in the middle of the twentieth century that the systematic and deliberate denials of human rights by some governments are so widespread in certain areas of the world that they are almost taken for granted.    The kind of callous brutality which would have shocked the conscience of mankind a century ago is now unfortunately a commonplace occurrence in those areas.... All members of the United Nations have a responsibility, individually and collectively, to see that the lights of freedom are not further extinguished throughout the world...Every member has a responsibility to see that the rights of men are safeguarded, for no country is perfect in protecting the individual rights of its citizens.”  (in What I Hope to Leave Behind, p. 585)

“If democracy---and the blessings of it both as a way of government and a way of life---are going to win this contest for the support of the peoples of the world, we must have moral conviction and spiritual leadership.   That is the challenge to America today.    That is the challenge that we face in strengthening and making the United Nations work as a whole.    Those are the standards that we set ourselves and, in the interest of the future, those are the standards by which we must live.” (ER, Behind, p. 579)

QUOTATIONS MADE  BY ELEANOR ROOSEVELT CONCERNING WORLD LEADERS

John F. Kennedy 

  " I came more and more to believe that he [Kennedy] has the power to engender the sense of identification with him which is so important.  If a man has this quality he can call out the best that is  in people.  Today the United States needs to be reminded of its greatness, and the greatness of a nation can never be more than the greatness of its people.” AUTOB.

 Nikita Khrushchev

      Mr. Khrushchev’s objective was nothing less than the complete destruction of the United Nations, which he would have achieved if his suggestions that Mr. Hammarskjold be ousted, that the UN be moved to another part of the world, and that a three-man governing board be set up, had been accepted.    If he had been successful, the only machinery the world has through which it can work for peace would have been made impotent.” AUTOB.

 Marshal Tito

      “It occurred to me that we at home were inclined to think of Communism anywhere as an international movement trying to spread  its domination everywhere by any means at its disposal.   whatever the attitude of the Yugoslav leaders toward this program was in the past,  I found during my visit not the slightest evidence that anyone from Marshal Tito on down intends to return to world communism.   They were concentrating on rebuilding their own country and improving the standard of living and they keenly realized that peace was necessary for this purpose.    Their attitude toward the United States at that time was warmer than in any other country I visited.    This, of course, does not mean that we will always agree with them on methods.    They are a socialist state and we are a capitalist state, but if the Yugoslav brand of Communism were the only kind we had to face in the world   we would probably revise our attitude toward it.” OMO, p. 156.

 Queen Juliana

      “I have a very special feeling about Queen Juliana because, like Princess Marta of Norway, she came a number of times to stay with us at Hyde Park with her husband and children.   Franklin was godfather to their third daughter.   She and her husband have brought up their children  in a democratic way and part of the time they have attended public schools....As queen, Juliana has worked vigorously to help develop understanding among Europeans.    She has sought with other continental powers to awaken the peoples of Europe to their responsibilities.   Her government has been influential in the Council of Europe and she has led in the humanitarian efforts of her country to help refugees. The pages of history will record that she was a woman who loved her fellow human beings.”.