Human rights are inscribed in the hearts of people; they were there long before lawmakers drafted their first proclamation.
Mary RobinsonThe term 'human rights' has been too often associated with conditionality, and with concerns of developing countries that in order to benefit from open trade they would be required to implement immediately labour and environmental standards of a comparable level to those applied in industrialised countries. At the same time, debates about the primacy of trade as against human rights legal codes have contributed to maintaining the unfortunate impression that the two bodies of law are pursuing incompatible aims.
Mary RobinsonSymbols give us our identity, our self image, our way of explaining ourselves to ourselves and to others. Symbols in turn determine the kinds of stories we tell, and the stories we tell determine the kind of history we make and remake.
Mary RobinsonIt's only after their death that people are truly appreciated. It's because they are true to values.
Mary Robinson