Justice

Child labour is one of the worst violations of human rights, it's an affirmation that we don't respect the freedom and dignity of children in our society.

Nobel Peace Prize Winner & Child Rights Activist Against Child Labor

In a world where we have 168 million full-time child labourers, we have just over 200 million adults who are jobless. Studies have shown empirically that there is a parallel between child labour and adult unemployment.

Nobel Peace Prize Winner & Child Rights Activist Against Child Labor

Children are bought and sold like animals, sometimes at a lower price than animals. 168 million children work as child labourers, more than 200 million children who should be in education are not at school.

Nobel Peace Prize Winner & Child Rights Activist Against Child Labor

We have come to consider children as either being exploited or subject to charity; we hardly ever consider them as the equal human beings they are, born with certain inalienable rights.

Nobel Peace Prize Winner & Child Rights Activist Against Child Labor

We must fundamentally change how we see children - not as objects of charity, but as individuals with rights, with potential, with the power to transform our world.

Founder of Lumos, global children's rights and deinstitutionalization advocate

The Convention on the Rights of the Child is not just a document - it's a promise we made to every child on this planet that they matter, that their voices count.

UN expert on child rights and protection, former Swiss judge

Children are the future of humanity. If we cannot protect our children, if we cannot ensure their rights, their education, their protection from exploitation, then we are failing humanity itself.

Nobel Peace Prize Winner & Child Rights Activist Against Child Labor

Racism, like sexism and any other form of discrimination, is an utterly futile exercise… nobody benefits. Societies are better for diversity in all forms, and time and time again we've seen that the more homogenous people become, the less they are able to flourish.

More girls have been killed in the past fifty years, precisely because they were girls, than men were killed in all the battles of the twentieth century.

Pulitzer Prize Winner & Co-Author of Half the Sky

Our contemporary society uses this statistically insignificant variation to support the 'reasoning' behind cultural, social, economic and political practices that cause hundreds of millions of people, every day, to face discrimination.

History is full of changes that were only made because of direct action. In the US context, you need look no further than the civil rights movement. Racial segregation would not have been dismantled the way that it was, to the extent that it was without the work of grass roots movements who were prepared to take risks and break the law.

I believe that working towards women's economic empowerment at the global level is the single most important battle we will fight in our lifetime, and that's because harnessing the incredible talents and potential of women is not only the right thing to do – it will also create stronger economies and a fairer society for all.

Wife of former UK Prime Minister Tony Blair & Human rights lawyer

Sometimes it's hard to shake the feeling that we are slipping backwards, but I'm an optimist at heart. We have a long way to go, but if history has taught us anything, it's that women rarely win anything without a fight!

Wife of former UK Prime Minister Tony Blair & Human rights lawyer

It shocks me that our society has not caught up with the fact that mental illnesses should be treated like any other disease, and not relegated to the justice system. We have so many different therapies and medicines, and people can make significant recoveries.

Wife of NYC Mayor Bill de Blasio; Mental Health Advocate & Poet

Of the 1.4 million people in this country who have learning difficulties, only 6% are in work. That's insane! There are over a million people with disabilities looking for work, who can't find work because they're discriminated against.

British TV Presenter, Diversity Advocate & Commonwealth Games Federation Official

Rather than politicising our cultural challenges, we have to allow people to feel comfortable about their culture and about who they are, and to accept each other as equals.

Mayor of San Francisco (2011-2018) & First Asian-American Mayor