Human rights are what make us human. They are the principles by which we create the sacred home for human dignity. When we speak of the right to life, or development, or to dissent and diversity, we are speaking of tolerance. Without it, we can be certain of none. Human rights are the expression of those traditions of tolerance in all religions and cultures that are the basis of peace and progress.
Human rights are foreign to no culture and native to all nations.
Tolerance and mercy have always and in all cultures been ideals of government rule and human behaviour. Today, we call these ideals human rights. It is the universality of human rights that gives them their strength. It endows them with the power to cross any border, climb any wall, defy any force. It is nothing less and nothing different today.