Political Quotes

“Mr. President, I am deeply saddened by the recent death of my friend and colleague, Representative Louise Slaughter. We served together in the House of Representatives and on the Helsinki Commission, which monitors human rights commitments across the globe. Her time on the Commission is one of the many examples of her unwavering commitment to justice and human dignity. Louise first became interested in the Helsinki Commission's work in the early 1990s when she joined congressional efforts to address the mass rape of women and girls as a deliberate and systematic part of the ethnic cleansing campaign in Bosnia and Herzegovina. In her calls for justice, she worked to ensure that rape wouldn't be considered as unfortunate violence incidental to conflict, but as a war crime and crime against humanity to be prosecuted as such. Her commitment to peace, justice, and reconciliation in Bosnia and the Balkans extended well beyond the period of conflict. In 2009, she joined a Helsinki Commission delegation I led to Sarajevo, where she championed the efforts of university students who saw the politics of ethnicity and nationalism--and the corruption it perpetuates--as denying them opportunities for a brighter future in a more prosperous Bosnia. She also worked to ensure those guilty of war crimes in the former Yugoslavia were prosecuted and to provide humanitarian relief to victims of the conflict.…”