““Since 2001, the U.S. government has abandoned its role as a champion of human rights and has perpetrated terrible and illegal abuses in prisons in Abu Ghraib and Guantanamo, sent prisoners secretly to other nations to be tortured, denied the applicability of the Geneva Convention restraints, and severely restricted time-honored civil liberties within our own country. Certain political leaders of other nations, who are inclined to perpetrate human rights abuses to quiet dissenting voices and were previously restrained by positive influence from Washington, now feel free to emulate or exceed the abuses approved by American leaders.””
![“One of the saddest and most damaging legacies of the [George W.] Bush administration is the increased assertion of the "state secrets" privilege, which kept organizations like the ACLU - which had cases of people who had actually been tortured and held in indefinite detention - from getting their…” quote by Edward Snowden](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/img-quotes/800/edward-snowden-555_administration_one-of-the-saddest-and-most-damaging-leg_190850.jpg)
![“[T]here are some human rights that are so deep that we can't negotiate them away. I mean people do heinous, terrible things. But there are basic human rights I believe that every human being has. The Universal Declaration of Human Rights in the United Nations says it for me. And it says there are…” quote by Sister Helen Prejean](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/img-quotes/5c4/sister-helen-prejean-94083_an-eye-for-an-eye_t-here-are-some-human-rights-that-are-so_222080.jpg)
