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UN report says cultural diversity vital for human development
NAIROBI, 15 July (IRIN) - A UN human development report launched on Thursday argues that respecting cultural diversity could prevent conflict and enhance development.
It urges states to adopt policies allowing people to choose their own identities without fear of discrimination.
"Cultural liberty is about allowing people the freedom to choose their identities - and to lead the lives they value - without being excluded from other choices important to them (such as those for education, health or job opportunities)," says the Human Development Report 2004 launched by the UN Development Programme (UNDP).
The report, entitled "Cultural Liberty in Today's Diverse World", stressed that cultural liberty was a human right and an important aspect of human development worthy of state attention and action.
It identified two forms of cultural exclusion. In the first - "mode exclusion" - groups of people are denied recognition and accommodation of a lifestyle that a group chooses to have, and an insistence that individuals must live exactly like all others in society. Examples of this kind of exclusion include religious oppression or the insistence that immigrants must drop their cultural practices and language.
In the second - "participation exclusion" - people are subjected to discrimination or suffer disadvantage in social, political and economic opportunities because of their cultural identity.
The report noted that both forms of cultural exclusion could lead to conflict or the suppression of cultural liberties, including the use of ethnic cleansing, and formal restrictions on the practice of religion, language and citizenship.
"Policies recognising cultural identities and encouraging diversity to flourish do not result in fragmentation, conflict, weak development and authoritarian rule. Such policies are both viable, and necessary, for it is often the suppression of culturally identified groups that leads to tensions," the report said.
"Individuals do have multiple identities, and those identities are complementary, they do not have to be competing; you can have the identity of being a Kenyan on the one hand, and yet at the same time have the identity of belonging to a linguistic group, an ethnic group or religious group," said Santosh Mehrotra, a co-author of the report, when he briefed reporters in the Kenyan capital, Nairobi, on Tuesday.
According to the report, cultural differences are not in themselves causes for violent conflict. "It is not the identity itself, it is the politicisation of one's cultural identity," said Mehrotra.
"If states were to take into account of what we call the three Rs - Recognition [of cultural or religious identity], [political] Representation and Redistribution [of economic resources]- then it is possible for states to build multicultural democracies," he added.
The report argued that conflicts in Liberia, Sri Lanka, Sudan and Sierra Leone were not necessarily conflicts of identity, but had resulted from the politicisation of ethnic identity.
It also said culture did not require the defending of traditional practices. "Cultural liberty is about expanding individual choices and not about defending tradition," said Mehrotra.
The report also sought to debunk the myth that ethnically diverse countries had less ability to develop, and gave the examples of Malaysia and Mauritius, two multiethnic states that had achieved considerable economic growth in recent decades. It also said there was no evidence that some cultures were more amenable to economic development or democracy than others.
The UNDP report called for policies that promoted equitable growth to achieve socio-economic inclusion of all groups, noting that in many African countries, state-based control and distribution of mineral resources became a key source of ethno-regional wealth disparities and conflict.
In Sudan, for example, the discovery and distribution of oil became the major source of post-independence conflict, with the government annexing oil-bearing land in the south," the report noted.
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