Power of Inclusion and the Benefits of Diversity

Side-event organized by the Government of Canada
Deputy High Commissioner for Human Rights remarks

6 March 2017

I would like to thank the government of Canada for organizing this event – an important opportunity to affirm the power of inclusion and the benefits of diversity.

Ethnic, linguistic, religious and other forms of diversity are the inviolable threads from which is woven the broader human tapestry.  A feature of every single society, diversity strengthens us every day, enriching our lives, culturally, socially, economically and otherwise.

In this diversity, all people, as the UDHR affirms, are born free and equal in dignity and rights, and all are entitled to a social and international order in which their equality can be fully realized.
People in all their diversity and in all their commonality.  People – born in dignity and rights – rights inseparable, inalienable – those inherent qualities that are the content of humanness – qualities that no one may grant us and of which none may relieve us.

Indeed the UN Charter, to which member States freely accede, puts human rights first – above even peace, security and development.  Human rights - principles that do not prevent our diversity – they protect it.  Principles that do not limit our diverse expression – they ensure it.  Principles that do not restrict our access to culture or belief or opinion – they guarantee those things and what’s more, they set out the terms and conditions under which we may exercise our rights without cost to the exercise of any other person’s rights.

And, the opposite of these human rights upheld?  Selfishness, bullying, bigotry, injustice, tyranny and oppression – toxic stepping stones – a perverse paving of pathways to privation, suffering, conflict and, ultimately, atrocity. 

Contempt for the “other”; hatred of the foreigner; distrust of those who look or love or worship differently … aided and abetted today by clampdowns on freedom of the press; stepped-up surveillance in cyber space; encroachment on public movement; closure of national borders to people fleeing persecution; gagging of activists and the deprivation even of life saving services such as those essential for sexual and reproductive health: The pounding of these malicious fists grows louder and louder on the doors of our dignity, of our privacy, of our mental and physical integrity and against our freedom.  And this must be resisted.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                           
After all, we know too well this toxic path - humanity has travelled far down this path before.  We know where it leads … to a dead end – to death-ridden ends.  Small, mundane acts of every day contempt, inflating into brutal discrimination against the “other”, flourishing into common garden variety intimidation, fuelling persecution under whose clouds we then so casually – caustically – descend into conflict's callous catastrophe.

Friends,

The period of the MDGs saw extraordinary progress towards dignity for all – this we must acknowledge.  But, gapping disparities were left unchallenged, along the fault lines of bigotry, discrimination and exclusion - stalling access to dignity for millions of people. 

By gender, sexual orientation, ethnicity, indigeneity, disability, age and other stratifying identities, inequality and the associated ignorance of hatreds for the “other”, exact from millions a high price, paid in currencies that none of us can afford: at cost to social cohesion, to public health, to human rights and thus ultimately to hope.  

Unless and until discrimination and the inequalities it flourishes are tackled directly, adolescent girls, persons living with disabilities, indigenous peoples, those living with HIV, displaced persons, migrants, the refugee, the elderly - will continue to be denied equal access to development fruits. And people will not wait for us to act.

From Venezuela to Tunis to Cairo to Hong Kong, against the backdrop too of Bangui, Juba, Gaza and Damascus – people are acting in and on their worlds – worlds marred by poverty, and inequality, by exclusion and by alienation, by claim and counter claim.   And they are doing so also often beyond the immediate reach of their formal political representatives or more standard channels of civic discourse.  Amplifying their voices through social media and social organizing, telling their own stories about what matters and what is happening; about what is right and wrong, intervening sometimes creatively and sometimes destructively, to assert, to express, to discover, to rebuild, acting for good and, in some instances, acting for hate. 

If in this more interconnected, yet somehow far more fragmented, world, we are to keep stepping onwards to a future world that is sustainably different from that which so troubles us today, then we must disentangle this toxic intertwining of diversity with inequality.

The 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development goals demands of us a shift in development’s centre of gravity – from the traditional focus on the “developing world’s poverty” to a universal tackling of “global and local inequality”.  This resetting of power’s balance in favor of a rebalance of power, stands on a stool of four legs – the state, multilaterals, private actors and civil society – in the interests of citizens, not just consumers; of communities, not just of markets; of people not only of elites….

In this transformation, we must not continue to confuse our distance from one another with difference nor our difference from one another with indifference to each other.   Yes, in all our diversity there is distinctiveness – differences that we must no longer just respect but rather celebrate. But this distinctiveness cannot be purchased at costs that are unsustainable. 
The price of a distinctive culture cannot be paid in the mutilation of the girl child’s genitalia – that is not sustainable and nor can the price of a distinctive culture’s comfort be the practices of a hyper consumption that sees the planet’s resources consumed at 1.5 times the rate that nature can replace them.

The nature of the challenges faced by this world, are such that we simply cannot afford bigotry’s toxic charge – we cannot afford to deprive ourselves of any of the available talent that can be put to the task of sustainability. And further while the deeper creativity and the broader efforts that are required for global scale solutions may be coordinated by the state, they it cannot be confined by.  After all sustainable development is a peopled project – a project from which no one can be excluded legitimately – a matter inexorably therefore of human rights and rights upheld.  Human rights, which cannot be granted to us, because they cannot be taken from us – human rights for the best of us and the for the worst of us ...

The urgency with which we must move the better to embrace and include is on the rise.  For change is indeed changing – accelerating and intensifying – greater numbers of young people, greater numbers of older people, more people on the move within and across borders, more people pushed out of rural communities to live in urban settings; if communications technology is diluting and dissolving distances but perhaps entrenching differences, then what are to be the terms and conditions under which people are to organize and relate, express and create, to produce and procreate?

Human rights frames for us in this era thus both a principled and practical project.  Discrimination and exclusion in this is wrong in principle and dumb in practice. To ascend the transformative shifts envisioned by the new development agenda we must waste not - we must waste not human dignity, talent or capacity or contribution - neither through bigotry nor exclusion; nor by neglect or design.  To the contrary, through realization of the human rights for each of us, to the exclusion of none of us, we can more surely act in the interests of all of us.

Time to stand up ‘Stand Up for Someone’s Else’s Rights Today’ #standup

At the same time, navigating such diversity can also involve challenges, including for policy makers. In many countries, the search for effective policies to address ethnic, cultural, linguistic and religious diversity has gained in urgency with demographic changes, and the surge in hate speech and violent extremism.

Several countries have embarked on the elaboration of such policies, but only a few have extensive experience of comprehensive and coherent legal and institutional frameworks and policies in support of diversity and cohesion. Together, we need to collect those examples and help other countries to draw from them, demonstrating the power of inclusion and benefits of diversity. We need to replicate such practices to counter misguided suggestions that the “solution” for challenges inherent in our diverse societies is to exclude the “other” and to wipe out diversity, suggestions that ignore human rights, lessons of history and contributions of diversity to our societies.

Both experience and human rights standards, including the UN Declaration on Minorities, teach us that integrated societies can, and must, be built on inclusion and recognition of diversity.
Yet, in our search for ways to build inclusive societies, a false dichotomy has at times been perceived between work to ensure integration and efforts to advance minority rights: On the one hand, the promotion of minority rights is claimed to increase distance between linguistic, religious, ethnic groups in societies, and, on the other hand, integration has at times been portrayed as a Trojan horse for forced assimilation, undercutting minority rights. 

In reality, however, minority rights and integration efforts, instead of being opposing forces, can be mutually reinforcing processes, provided that integration 1) is interpreted and implemented in a manner that rejects forced assimilation, involves efforts by both minorities and majorities to enhance interaction and build bridges, and 2) is grounded in full respect for majority and majority cultures and their manifestations that are compatible with human rights. 

Smart integration policies encourage mutual accommodation by majorities and minorities alike, recognizing diversity and true inclusion as an asset rather than a threat.

In contrast, “integration processes” perceived as one-way streets, where minorities are the only ones to make an effort and where the imposition of the dominant culture on all is the main goal, easily lead to forced assimilation and undermines rather than facilitate true integration. For example, teaching a state language to minorities can be a valuable catalyst of integration, but this must be done so that it leaves enough space and resources also for minority language education. 

Good integration can only be built and implemented with the power of inclusion. It requires mutual engagement and shared responsibilities, engagement of men and women, ethnic, linguistic and religious communities, indigenous peoples, community leaders, civil society, business and media representatives, local authorities, the youth and others. It requires inclusive education, ensuring employment opportunities and permanent, open channels of participation in the creation of a vision of a common society, a society in which all are equal but differences are not erased.  You exclude or separate one segment of the population, and the whole project is undermined.

Unfortunately, we still have cases where, at times in parallel with declared integration policies and stated commitment to inclusion and diversity, de facto segregationist practices, in direct violation of non-discrimination and other human rights standards, are pursued in areas such as health, employment, education, and housing in respect of Roma, Afro-descendants, and other minorities. Such practices must be dismantled. Commitment to inclusion must in itself be truly inclusive.

It is clear that integration policies involving evidence-based analysis and measures in key policy areas, such as education, employment, sustenance and health care, housing, law enforcement respectful of diversity and political participation can play an important role in strengthening the resilience of societies, including the resistance to radicalization at the community level. 

Participation and  inclusion of all is not only smart policy and also a human rights obligation. It is also essential to live up to the SDG commitment of leaving no one behind, and to reach specific goals such as goal 16 on peaceful and inclusive societies, goal 11 on inclusive, safe, resilient and sustainable cities and 10 reducing inequality.

Finally, let me stress that while we urge governments and others to embrace the power of inclusion and the benefits of diversity, we must ensure that we practice what we preach. With this in mind, we at the UN need to promote diversity also in our ranks and ensure that our partners in action include women, indigenous peoples, minorities, LGBTI people, youth, persons with disabilities and others whose inclusion is all too often limited.