"WHEN we focus only in our own requirements and disregard the needs and interests of others, we are likely to provoke hostility. This is especially true when we view our own happiness and needs predominantly in terms of material wealth and power. All human beings yearn for freedom, equality and dignity, and have a right to achieve them. Therefore, in today's shrinking world the acceptance of universally binding standarts of human rights is essencial.
I do not see any contradiction between the need for economic development and the need to respect human rights. The right to free speech and association is vital in promoting a country's economic development. In Tibet, for exemple, there have been instances where unsuitable economic policies have been implemented and continued long after they have failed to produce benefits, because citizens and government officials could not speak out against them. And it is the same elsewhere."

[Declarações do Dalai Lama, em The World in 2008, China special edition, da revista The Economist]