A United Nation Development Programme's study on the human development advocates an approach that respects and promotes cultural diversity while keeping countries open to global flows of capital, goods and people. A detailed report spanning 284 pages opposes investments that disregard indigenous people's rights to land and its cultural significance as well as its value as an economic resource.
It pleads for recognition of people's right over knowledge and land, their voice in the national affairs and sharing of national profits.
The report made available here by the UNDP office on Saturday concedes the threat globalisation may pose to national and local identities but stresses that the solution was not to retreat to "conservatism and isolationism but to design multi-cultural policies to promote diversity and pluralism".
On the contrary, it can bring recognition to indigenous people, who have developed their resources for centuries.
This year's human development report by the UNDP is different from the preceding ones published so far as it lays more stress on the role cultural liberty, political pluralism, religious tolerance and judicial norms necessary for development of a society as whole instead of diagrams and figures on the material gains or failures of nations.
It recalls sectarian conflicts in Asia and Europe and the tribal clashes in the African continent, the civil war in Sri Lanka and the Northern Ireland and the economic imbalance those have caused in those countries.
The Report also has a graph showing the ups-and-downs of killings by supporters of Sipah-e-Sahaba, Lashkar Jhangvi and Tehreek-e-Jafariya in Pakistan that erupted in 1989 and was at its peak in 1997 with 193 killed and 219 wounded in mutual conflicts.
The graph for 2003 spoke of 102 fatalities with 103 wounded. The highest killings were reported in the year 2001 when 261 people had lost their lives and 495 were left injured in the firings and bomb attacks.
It also noted that despite its secular posture, India has experienced "considerable communal violence. In passing it also refers to increased "organised violent attacks on Christian churches and missions".
But reveals a lesser-known or almost forgotten factor in the sectarian conflict that simmers Northern Ireland. The Reports identifies its cause to inequalities between groups like the Roman Catholics and Protestants.
Reviewing the situation, the researches of the UNDP noted that the Catholics in Ulster had suffered economic and political deprivations since the 16th century.
The establishment of Northern Ireland as part of the United Kingdom in the 1920's ensured that Protestants would enjoy "permanent political and economic dominance - fuelling demands by northern Catholics to become part of the adjacent and predominantly Catholic Republic of Ireland (with its capital at Dublin). Violent conflict started in the late 1960's and began to ease in 90's following systematic efforts to reduce these inequities.
It also reviews the communal or tribal tensions in Malaysia, Indonesia, Sri Lanka, Uganda, Mexico, South Africa, Fiji and Guatemala and winds up with the current Maoist insurgency in Nepal that was based on "systematic marginalisation and exclusion of certain ethnic groups, casts and women".
After discussing several examples from around the world, the researchers observed that human development was not confined to health, education, a decent standard of living or political freedom.
It required recognition and accommodation by the state of people's cultural identity and their freedom to express those with getting discriminated against in other aspects.
In short they say cultural liberty was a "human right and important aspect of human development and thus worthy of state action and attention". At the same time they have laid stress on need for "legal pluralism, recognition of judicial norms and institutions of the communities in different ways".
Comments
Comments are closed.