Peter Maurer Quotes
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Torture and other forms of cruel or humiliating treatment are an affront to humanity, and the physical and psychological scars can last a lifetime.
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Ensuring the respect of international humanitarian law and principles is one of the key areas necessary to establish accountability chains.
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The International Committee of the Red Cross visits roughly half a million detainees in nearly 100 countries each year. It's our job to try to prevent and put an end to torture and ill-treatment.
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It has always been clear that any use of nuclear weapons would have catastrophic humanitarian consequences.
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We believe that settlement expansion policies pursued in recent decades by successive Israeli governments have facilitated the process of de-facto annexation. It has complicated the dialogue between the different communities.
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We see a transformation of warfare from the big armies and battlefields in open spaces to a fragmentation of armed groups and smaller armies, which move into city centres, which increasingly become the theatre of warfare.
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We must understand the factors that cause fragility, violence, and conflict in order to develop solutions that will meaningfully reduce instability at its roots rather than merely addressing the symptoms.
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The ICRC did not see Nazi Germany for what it was. Instead, the organization maintained the illusion that the Third Reich was a 'regular partner,' a state that occasionally violates laws, not unlike any army during World War II, occasionally using illegal means and methods of warfare.
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Torture can destroy the social fabric of communities, degrade a society's institutions, and undermine the integrity of its political systems.
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If private-sector capital can be harnessed for social good, the potential to scale humanitarian solutions is vast.
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Conflicts are not temporary interruptions: they are structural, socio-economic catastrophes, and funding must be allocated accordingly.
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Where you are born, your parent's beliefs, or your ethnic background should not make you a target.
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Conflicts are increasingly causing devastation in densely populated urban centres rather than open battlefields, creating a host of new problems through the cumulative impact from the destruction of vital services like water and electricity.
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Trust into leadership evaporates with communities when they see that their problems are not adequately addressed, neither at the national level nor at the international arena.
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Local businesses and communities must be included from the very start in developing solutions to fragility, violence, and conflict.
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We demonize our enemies at our own peril.
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Until the last nuclear weapon is eliminated, more must also be done to reduce the risk of a detonation. Nuclear-armed states should reduce the number of warheads on high alert and be clearer about the actions they are taking to prevent accidents.
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Economic activity can help repair war-torn societies, but if it's not conducted responsibly, it can also create or prolong violence. Companies and international organisations must help strengthen communities and overcome the trauma of violence.
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There is great potential for investments that are built around improving social, environmental, and economic conditions.
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Can you really send back people to where they are fleeing from?
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Each day that passes without kids being able to go to school is an enormous burden on the future.
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The relatively unpredictable flow of funds to humanitarian organizations, and the bureaucratic strings often attached to them, can have a highly negative impact on an organization's ability to plan and execute programmes effectively. We need to be able to rely on predictable income flows to plan sustainable programmes.
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Suffering does not change its face.
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The sad fact is that horrendous human conflict is nothing new.