July 2004

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UN HUMAN DEVELOPMENT REPORT 2004 CENTRES ON CULTURAL DIVERSITY

July 2004 – The United Nations calls for the respect of cultural diversity in the Human Development report 2004, recently published. The report, elaborated by the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), together with some independent experts, claims that “cultural differences necessarily lead to social, economic and political conflict or that inherent cultural rights should supersede political and economic ones”. The report aims at being an independent study intended to stimulate debate and discussion around an important issue, not a statement of United Nations or UNDP policy, and it focuses on cultural liberty and the role of diversity for human development, on religion, cultural democracies and linguistic rights of minorities, taking into account the policies on legal pluralism and on the recognition of cultural difference. In accordance with this, the report stresses that “succeeding is not simply a question of legislative and policy changes, necessary though they be. Constitutions and legislation that provide protections and guarantees for minorities, indigenous people and other groups are a critical foundation for broader freedoms”. Regarding the legal aspects to be borne in mind, the report recalls that “certain religious and ethnic minorities and indigenous groups feel alienated from the larger legal system, for a number of reasons. As for minority languages and policies on the use of multiple languages the report points out that “language conflicts can be managed by providing some spheres in which minority languages are used freely and by giving incentives to learn other languages, especially a national or official language”. Moreover, the UNDP report contains special contributions by the Nobel Peace Prize winners Shirin Ebadi, Nelson Mandela and John Hume, among others, where they urge governments to recognise and protect all identities in order to get sustainable societies. The report concludes that “the building of humane and just societies demands adequate recognition of the importance of freedoms in general, which include cultural liberty”.