Curbing coercive identities

There is an unfortunate but fashionable view today that differences in culture in themselves bear the roots of conflict. This Report proposes exactly the reverse: the multiplicity of cultures in the world enhances our human experience, and cultures also enrich each other. The HDR viewpoint is based on a central tenet: that humanity advances not only by the progressive implementation of the whole range of human rights (which includes the right to culture), but also by the expansion of its choices and opportunities. The expansion of cultural choice and freedom is part and parcel of human development. But it remains a fact that, in the name of culture, views have been propounded and actions undertaken which have brought about precisely the opposite: the limitation of choice, the closure of opportunities, the promotion of exclusiveness, the imposition of viewpoints, the coercion of people and, in the extreme case, conflict, violence and brutality. This paper discusses some of these coercive uses of culture, and their implications for policy makers.