Human rights are not collateral or subsidiary values but match the core concern of religions for human dignity. Religions have found and continue to find common ground in work together with other religions and with all people of good will to bring about a more just and peaceful world where the dignity of all is protected. Even the strongest felt differences in belief and religion are often put aside when the protection of human beings is at stake. Religions often find the way to peace and mutual tolerance in common endeavors of this type. The best witness to the horrors of using religion to foment violence is the common actions of people of different religious backgrounds to bring about peace with justice.
Religions recognize and foster human dignity and the inter-relationship of all life on earth.
The good of all humankind as it is expressed in religions, however it is understood, includes human dignity in a life of harmony with all other beings. At the heart of reverence for the Author of life and being is the good of fellow human beings and of all the world. However religions define this good, it includes respect for the dignity of human beings. Religions are the best source of understanding how human beings are to be seen in the context of all the earth and of all the world, living harmoniously with it in peace. Ecology and human rights are at one in the vision of religions.