The Russian Church urges human rights advocates to prefer ordinary citizens to PR actions

30 May 2008, 16:00

Khanty-Mansiisk, May 30, Interfax - It's time Russia had a new type of human rights advocacy, the Moscow Patriarchate believes.

"Today philosophy of human rights advocacy in Russia needs to be renewed. Today people seek effective mechanisms of advocating their rights and dignity as never before. Though many of them don't consider human rights work as the way to achieve this goal," acting secretary of the Moscow Patriarchate Department for External Church Relations Rev. Georgy Ryabykh said at the human rights conference in Khanty-Mansiisk.

According to him, "for the recent decades some prominent human rights advocates have created appalling image of this sort of social work."

"Many people consider human rights advocates as enemies of national spiritual and moral culture, anti-state elements, carriers of foreign interests and tendentious political forces," the priest noted.

According to him, Russia requires human rights activities that will "protect ordinary citizens rather than perform PR actions, negotiate with the state, base on spiritual and moral principles of this country's people, contribute in creating a legal culture, promote positive experience of settling the problems and not only criticize faults."

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