Security, Development and Human Rights

Q: Some critics say that human rights need to be seen in the context of security needs, the threat of terrorism and other challenges. What are your views on that?

A: At the 2005 summit of world leaders, Kofi Annan said that you can’t have peace without sustainable development and you can’t have sustainable development without peace and you can’t have either without human rights. These are the legs of the UN’s Charter and the core of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. Very often if you look at the causes of terrorism, you find the same issues. When you go back to the root causes, you find human rights are being abused, people are living in extreme poverty or natural resources are being degraded.

─Salil Shetty, Secretary General of Amnesty International via The Wire, June/July 2010. Vol. 40, issue 003