2. Efforts to formulate a pattern of global ethics are based on the assumption that basic moral or ethical concepts are identical in all religions and cultures. Dissent may occur on exact wording and priorities, but there is basic agreement that one should "do unto your neighbour as you would have done to yourself". This precept contains an interdiction of all overt or hidden mechanisms of exploitation of human beings and nature.
3. Claims as to the non-universality of human rights are often an ill-disguised attempt to escape international scrutiny of human rights abuses. The forces of repression often cloak wrongdoing in claims of exceptionalism. But the people themselves repeatedly make it clear that they seek and need universality. Human dignity within one's culture requires fundamental standards of universality across the lines of faith, culture and state.
4. Although economic, social and cultural development patterns vary from country to country, human rights standards must be absolute, subject only to very narrowly circumscribed exceptions, limitations and conditions permitting derogation. When relative, they lead states into temptation and encourage justification of the means by the end.