Communications Development Incorporated announces publication of Human Development Report 2004: Cultural Liberty in Today's Diverse World

Spring 2004
Communications Development announces the publication of Human Development Report 2004: Cultural Liberty in Today's Diverse World, a high-profile product of the United Nations Development Programme's Human Development Report Office.

Since 1990 Communications Development has worked closely with the Human Development Report Office to plan, design, edit, and produce this highly visible and influential report. The 2004 edition of the Human Development Report argues that cultural freedoms should be embraced as basic human rights and as necessities for the development of the increasingly diverse societies of the 21st century.

Accommodating people's growing demands for their inclusion in society, for respect of their ethnicity, religion, and language, takes more than democracy and equitable growth. Also needed are multicultural policies that recognize differences, champion diversity and promote cultural freedoms, 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.

The report includes an introductory chapter by Amartya Sen, winner of the 1998 Nobel Prize in Economics. It also includes special contributions by former president of South Africa Nelson Mandela; 2003 Nobel Peace Prize winner, Iranian lawyer, and human rights activist Shirin Ebadi; 1998 co-winner of the Nobel Peace Prize winner John Hume; and president of Afghanistan Hamid Karzai.

As in previous years, the report ranks 175 countries according to their level of human development as measured by the human development index.

Human Development Report 2004 can be found online at http://hdr.undp.org/reports/global/2004/.