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Alfred de Zayas Quotes
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It would be preferable to teach that honour and glory can also be won through civil courage and working for social justice.
Alfred de Zayas
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Representative democracy betrays the electorate when laws have no roots in the people but in oligarchies. Studies on the concept and modalities of direct democracy are therefore becoming more topical
Alfred de Zayas
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Representative democracy deserves the predicate democratic only if and when parliamentarians genuinely represent their constituents.
Alfred de Zayas
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Participation is a hallmark of democratic governance.
Alfred de Zayas
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In a world where millions of human beings live in extreme poverty, die of malnutrition and lack medical care, where pandemics continue to kill, it is imperative to pursue good faith disarmament negotiations and to shift budgets away from weapons production, war-mongering, surveillance of private persons and devote available resources to address global challenges including humanitarian relief, environmental protection, climate change mitigation and adaptation, prevention of pandemics, and the development of a green economy.
Alfred de Zayas
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In totalitarian States citizen have no voice. In democratic countries, however, citizens bear responsibility for the decisions taken by their democratically elected officials. If crimes are committed in their name, it is their responsibility to demand accountability.
Alfred de Zayas
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There is no lack of diagnoses of the manifold ills that beset the international order, coherent and even convincing diagnoses by foremost think tanks, universities and outstanding individual researchers all over the world. Obstacles to an improved world order are evident, but remedies do not materialize. Is it because the real power no longer resides in States and Governments but rather in the economy, the intelligence community, the military-industrial and financial-industrial complexes, which are neither democratic nor transparent and operate impervious to reasons other than power or profit? The answers are complex and require further research, which may contribute to future reports on the vast menu of General Assembly resolution 67/175.
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A government that compromises its competence to defend and protect the interests of the persons living under its jurisdiction betrays its raison d'être and loses its democratic legitimacy
Alfred de Zayas
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Peace is what today's world needs most urgently, in Egypt, in Syria, in the Middle East, in Africa. Peace and reconciliation. Peace with rehabilitation of victims. Peace with understanding of causes. Peace with a plan for reconstruction – but not only material reconstruction. Moral reconstruction, value reconstruction, commitment to human dignity, faith in the future – this is essential to achieve peace with justice.
Alfred de Zayas
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This new declaration which emphasizes the necessity of global disarmament is based on the purposes and principles of the United Nations, in particular the prohibition of the threat and use of force, and on the obligation to negotiate disputes in conformity with the UN Charter. It is a strong and positive example for the entire world.
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Respect for human rights requires transparent and accountable institutions and governance as well as the effective participation of all individuals and civil society, who are an essential part of realizing social and people-centred sustainable development.
Alfred de Zayas
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The right of self-determination must be implemented through specific measures.
Alfred de Zayas
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Attention must be given to the penal consequences of violations of the right to peace, including the punishment by domestic courts or in due time by the International Criminal Court of those who have engaged in aggression and propaganda for war.
Alfred de Zayas
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The Independent Expert is persuaded that recognition of peace as a human right will promote a democratic and equitable international order and that national and international democratization will reduce conflict, since peoples want peace. It is Governments that stumble into war.
Alfred de Zayas
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You should not be subjected to the pressures, the intimidation, whether by Government or by the private sector, which would force you into self-censorship.
Alfred de Zayas
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States should practice multilateralism and abandon unilateral actions that adversely affect a democratic and equitable international order, refraining from the threat or use of force. They should apply international law uniformly, abandon overreliance on positivism and efforts to circumvent treaty obligations or invent loopholes. As nature abhors a vacuum (Spinoza, Ethics), human rights law abhors legal black holes
Alfred de Zayas
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We don't want a dystopian future in which corporations and not democratically elected governments call the shots. We don't want an international order akin to post-democracy or post-law.
Alfred de Zayas
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I would call the human right to peace an ultimate or end right, in that the state of peace is the result of the promotion and protection of human rights. Indeed, a society where human rights are upheld is a society that is free of the kind of structural violence that leads to armed conflict. Now, as it has been said many times, peace is not the mere absence of war. Peace in a holistic sense, peace in its individual and collective dimension, entails a state of internal and external harmony.
Alfred de Zayas
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Those who sell or facilitate weapons to individuals that will commit human rights violations know that they have responsibility for the death and misery caused by those weapons and at some stage may be liable to face the International Criminal Court for complicity in war crimes and crimes against humanity.
Alfred de Zayas
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A truly democratic country must proactively inform the public so that the public can decide on spending priorities.
Alfred de Zayas
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The diagnosis is clear, but changing the status quo has proven difficult, because often those who are elected do not govern, and those who do govern are not elected.
Alfred de Zayas
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Democracy and self-determination serve the overall goal of enabling human security and human rights.
Alfred de Zayas
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Specific protection must be granted to human rights defenders and whistleblowers who have in some contexts been accused of being unpatriotic, whereas they perform, in reality, a democratic service to their countries and to the enjoyment of human rights of their compatriots.
Alfred de Zayas
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Article 103 of the UN charter says that if there is a conflict between the provisions of the charter and any other treaty, it is the charter that prevails.
Alfred de Zayas
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Budget and fiscal transparency are necessary tools to prevent the hijacking of the international order by the international military-industrial complex.
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Quote of the day
Autumn burned brightly, a running flame through the mountains, a torch flung to the trees.
Faith Baldwin
Alfred de Zayas
Creative Commons
Born:
May 31, 1947
(age 76)
Bio:
Alfred-Maurice de Zayas is an American lawyer, writer, historian, a leading expert in the field of human rights and international law and retired high-ranking United Nations official. Since 2012, he has been Special Rapporteur.
Known for:
Nemesis at Potsdam (1989)
A Terrible Revenge (2006)
The Wehrmacht War Crimes Bureau, 1939-1945 (1989)
The German expellees (1993)
Die Wehrmacht-Untersuchungsstelle (1980)
Most used words:
human
rights
international
peace
democracy
military
states
democratic
order
assembly
social
united
charter
nations
people
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