UN warned of widening social gaps

Egypt delivered a statement to a UN human rights council, stressing the importance of maintaining cultural and economic diversity throughout the development process.

"Social development requires persistent efforts to bridge the gap in the distribution of wealth among all people," Ahmed Abul- Gheit, Egypt's permanent delegate to the UN, told the Human Rights and Social Affairs Council at the UN General Assembly.

He warned that despite a UN social development summit in Copenhagen six years ago, social gaps at the national and international level were getting wider.

"The close link between the economies of developed and developing nations had created more problems than benefits for the latter," he said.

Abul- Gheit said the inability of developing countries to keep up with technological advances or cope with trade liberalization had hindered their social and economic development, adding that the right to self-determination was essential to development.