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HUMAN DEVELOPMENT '04: THE LACK OF “DIVERSITY” IS ALSO THE FRUIT OF WIDESPREAD PROHIBITIONS
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The 2004 Human Development Report, released by the UNDP on 16 July, has been launched as a study that is trying to make the case for Diversity and development, highlighting how international efforts accommodate “people’s growing demands for their inclusion in society, for respect of their ethnicity, religion, and language,” take more than “democracy and equitable growth.” The Report also highlights that “multicultural policies that recognize differences, champion diversity and promote cultural freedoms” are also needed, so that “all people can choose to speak their language, practice their religion, and participate in shaping their culture—so that all people can choose to be who they are.”
Statement by Marco Perduca, Executive Director of the International Antiprohibitionist League:
The UN issues its 2004 study on Human Development that endorses “diversity”, when the Economic and Social Council is starting to debate on a controversial final report adopted by its Indigenous Forum, and opposed by several countries such as Indonesia and other Asians, and on the eve of a recommendation to suspend the Transnational Radical Party at the request of Vietnam - which considers its indigenous peoples, also known as the Montagnards, dangerous terrorists with a separatist agenda. Vietnam considers the TRP to be in violation of its consultative status because it accredited Kok Ksor, President of the Montagnard Foundation to the UN Commission on Human Rights.
As in previous years, the Human Development Report provides us with elaborated arguments for devising more effective development policies; the decision to emphasize the need to allow participation in decision-making processes by “diverse” groups is certainly a welcome one, it but needs to be complemented with policies that can indeed allow individuals to “pursue their happiness”, within their cultural and traditional frameworks so long as they do not conflict with fundamental rights and civil liberties.
The UNDP’s press release says unambiguously that “there is no evidence that cultural diversity slows development”, but it falls short of suggesting that diversity is also threatened by some UN policies, such as those currently implied in by the international “drug control” regime. In fact, dozens of illicit crop eradication programs systematically attack indigenous communities in the Andes, other anti-drug initiatives have deprived thousands of peasant throughout the world of their main cash crop, which as a raw material could be used to produce goods other than narcotics. Diversity, development and the “war on drugs” are in patent contradiction, and that needs to exposed.
As noted by the Economist, “some of the world’s richest and most peaceful countries are historically multi-ethnic, such as Switzerland, Canada and Belgium”, all three countries have, over the years, adopted “relaxed” drug-policies, this is the type of diversity that should be encouraged and maybe offered as a possible example for developing countries. Such a re-investment of anti-drug money in a variety of project and programs that respect the dignity and physical integrity of humans, and do not attack the environment for the sake of destroying an “evil” substance, is what human development should be about.
Statement by Marco Perduca, Executive Director of the International Antiprohibitionist League:
The UN issues its 2004 study on Human Development that endorses “diversity”, when the Economic and Social Council is starting to debate on a controversial final report adopted by its Indigenous Forum, and opposed by several countries such as Indonesia and other Asians, and on the eve of a recommendation to suspend the Transnational Radical Party at the request of Vietnam - which considers its indigenous peoples, also known as the Montagnards, dangerous terrorists with a separatist agenda. Vietnam considers the TRP to be in violation of its consultative status because it accredited Kok Ksor, President of the Montagnard Foundation to the UN Commission on Human Rights.
As in previous years, the Human Development Report provides us with elaborated arguments for devising more effective development policies; the decision to emphasize the need to allow participation in decision-making processes by “diverse” groups is certainly a welcome one, it but needs to be complemented with policies that can indeed allow individuals to “pursue their happiness”, within their cultural and traditional frameworks so long as they do not conflict with fundamental rights and civil liberties.
The UNDP’s press release says unambiguously that “there is no evidence that cultural diversity slows development”, but it falls short of suggesting that diversity is also threatened by some UN policies, such as those currently implied in by the international “drug control” regime. In fact, dozens of illicit crop eradication programs systematically attack indigenous communities in the Andes, other anti-drug initiatives have deprived thousands of peasant throughout the world of their main cash crop, which as a raw material could be used to produce goods other than narcotics. Diversity, development and the “war on drugs” are in patent contradiction, and that needs to exposed.
As noted by the Economist, “some of the world’s richest and most peaceful countries are historically multi-ethnic, such as Switzerland, Canada and Belgium”, all three countries have, over the years, adopted “relaxed” drug-policies, this is the type of diversity that should be encouraged and maybe offered as a possible example for developing countries. Such a re-investment of anti-drug money in a variety of project and programs that respect the dignity and physical integrity of humans, and do not attack the environment for the sake of destroying an “evil” substance, is what human development should be about.
