PRESS BRIEFING ON 2004 HUMAN DEVELOPMENT REPORT

PRESS BRIEFING ON 2004 HUMAN DEVELOPMENT REPORT

Enormous advances in cultural freedoms and individual rights were perhaps unprecedented in human history, but the struggle for human identity in many cultures was still leading to conflict in today’s integrated yet divided world, Hafiz Pasha, Assistant Secretary-General and Director of the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) Regional Bureau for Asia and the Pacific told correspondents today.

Launching the Human Development Report 2004, entitled “Cultural Liberty in Today’s Diverse World”, Mr. Pasha said the report had aptly summarized the importance of cultural liberty for human development, when it stated that human development required more than just health, education, a decent living standard and even political freedom.  People’s cultural identities must be recognized and accommodated by the State and people must be free to express those identities without being discriminated against in other aspects of their lives.

The themes of the report are:  how to manage aspects of multiculturalism, namely race, religion and ethnicity; how to encourage and benefit from diversity; and how to promote inclusion, democratic values and economic progress.  An integral part of the report is the Human Development Index, which ranks 177 countries according to their level of human development, specifically health and life expectancy, adult literacy, and living standards.  This year, the ranking reveals what the UNDP has called “stunning setbacks” in income and life expectancy caused by HIV/AIDS, particularly in sub-Saharan Africa.

Quoting from the report, he said that “cultural liberty is a human right and an important aspect of human development, and thus worthy of State action and attention”.  The report highlighted that, while the process had indeed come a long way, a great number of struggles remained.  As the peoples of the world became closer, they were also becoming more aware of their differences.  In some societies, some dominant groups did not want a new cultural arrangement that accepted the equality of its partners.

The report sought an expansion of cultural identity, conditioned on the recognition that any group’s cultural freedoms must respect the human rights of all individuals, he continued.  Hence, cultural practices that discriminated against women, for example, were not defensible.  The human development approach of the report revolved around the pursuit of multicultural policies, which were described in detail in the latter chapters.  Those policies should explicitly recognize and accommodate differences and rights of minorities, and include a number of interventions in at least three important areas:  creation of political institutions; implementation of socio-economic policies; and response to global identify–related issues.

He said that the report had been greatly enriched by some truly exceptional contributions.  They had included:  the former South African President, Nelson Mandela; the 2003 Nobel Peace Prize winner, Shrin Ebadi, an Iranian lawyer and human rights activist; 1998 co-winner of the Nobel Peace Prize for forging peace in his native Northern Ireland, John Hume; and Afghanistan’s President, Hamid Karzai.  The media should publicize the timely and thought provoking report.

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