“Today the understanding and application of human rights bear the cultural hallmark of the West, a fact that is felt a great deal in the East, in Asia, Latin America and Africa”, remarked Metropolitan Kirill of Smolensk and Kaliningrad, head of the Department of External Relations of the Patriarchate of Moscow, speaking in recent days at a seminar in Strasbourg promoted by the Commission for Human Rights of the Council of Europe and by the Council for the Development of the Institutions of Civil Society and Human Rights within the Presidency of the Russian Federation, with the participation of the Representation of the Russian Orthodox Church in Brussels. The theme of the meeting was: “Evolution of ethical principles and human rights in today’s multicultural society”. If “it is still too early to say whether a universal view of human rights exists – continued Kirill – we are beginning to give it form”; and this is an enterprise to which “each culture can make its own contribution”. With reference to the decision of the Holy Synod last April to draft a document on human rights and their protection, the Metropolitan commented: “I don’t deny that the West has made and continues to make significant contributions to this process, but it’s also essential to listen to other voices”. “At the centre of human rights is the value of the person, whose well-being ought to constitute the main objective of the social order”. But it’s not just a question of material well-being: “I am convinced that a concern for spiritual needs ought to return to the public sphere and that moral formation ought to be a social objective”. To this end, concluded Kirill, “mechanisms of dialogue between the civil and religious institutions, and forms of interaction between society and religion, need to be established”.
