Quiet compliment for PNG

on its human freedom record

PAPUA New Guinea received a quiet but important compliment from a United Nations agency recently in recognition of its extra ordinary human freedom record.

According to a complex scale devised by the United Nations Development Program, PNG has the best human freedom record for an Eastern Hemi sphere developing nation and, among Third World nations globally, it is second only to Costa Rica in Central America.

The scale ranges from 0 for the worst human freedom record possible (only Iraq scored 0) to 40 for the best possible Sweden, with 38, was the top-ranked nation. PNG’s score was 30, one point behind Costa Rica, two behind Great Britain, and three behind the United States and Australia (at 33).

Indonesia, with whom PNG shares the island of New Guinea, came in with a dismal five, the same score secured by

such hard-line com munist nations as Cuba and North Korea.

PNG’s record, on the other hand, was better than that of several European na tions, such as Italy with 29, Ireland with

27, and Spain with 26. None of the independent island nations in the Pacific were given scores by UNDP on the Human Freedom Index.

Typically these UN rankings attract little attention, but the Human Freedom Index set off a storm of protests, all from dictatorships, mostly in Africa, who felt that no UN agency should pay attention to domestic civil and political rights of member states.

The Freedom Index is based on 40 specific rights such as freedom to travel,

lack of capital punishment, independent

court systems, and freedom of religion.

The lack of effective rights for tribal women cost PNG points, as did some concerns about the workings of the court system.

PNG’s outlawing the death penalty, at the time the data were collected, gave it a leg up on the US which executes

prisoners regularly.

At the same time that the UNDP was announcing its new Freedom Index, it

- . , TGCOrd SGCOfld only to Costa Rica in the Third World rio 4.: />rio nations Of the WOfld

also printed another ranking.

This one, called the Human Develop ment Index (HDI), considers such mat ters as life expectancy, the adult literacy rate, and the average number of years of school attendance. PNG, given the cost of providing medical and educational services to many inaccessible areas, did not do as well on this index as the other.

The rankings of nations in the Pacific can be seen in the adjoining box.

Without listing all 160 rankings sup plied by UNDP, it is possible to illustrate the HDI neighborhoods inhabited by the island nations. Fiji, for instance, has roughly the some HDI ranking as Turkey and Syria; the Solomons do not do quite as well, on this scale, as Iran, but better than wealthy Indonesia. PNG’s score is close to that of both over crowded Egypt and less-crowded Paki stan.

PNG’s relatively low score on the HDI

index relates to its low life-expectancy rate (54.9 years) compared to these rates for other Pacific nations: Fiji 64.8 years, Western Samoa 66.5 years, Sol omons 69.5 years, Vanuatu 69.5 years.

The HDI index re

lates, essentially, to how effectively a nation funds its health and education programs, and how much per capita income is available.

If two nations have the same per capita income, but one invests more than the other in better schools and better hospitals, it secures a higher HDI

ranking.

The Human Freedoms Index, men tioned earlier, relates to political ar rangements rather than financial ones.

Providing people with civil and legal rights is not necessarily expensive.

The United Nations Development Program recently released Human De velopment Index Scores for Pacific nations. Generally, the higher the rank ing (and the lower the number), the longer the life expectancy and the higher the incidence of adult literacy. UNDP issued rankings for 160 nations, with Japan getting the number one position.

Others: 2 Canada; 7 USA; 9 Australia; 15 New Zealand; 71 Fiji; 96 Solomon Islands; 101 Vanuatu; 117 PNG. See text for an explanation of the rankings. □