A/50/476 English Page 20 a hierarchy of cultures and their fundamental incommunicability, their incompatibility, or absolute separateness. In this way, as was stated in paragraph 24 of the previous report, "those who advocate such a hierarchy are unaware of or deliberately misconstrue the latest scholarly and scientific literature, particularly that produced by UNESCO, on race and culture, the principles of equal dignity of the human individual, the affirmation of cultural identities and cultural diversity, values universally recognized at the World Conference on Cultural Policies, organized by UNESCO at Mexico City in 1982, and enshrined in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and the UNESCO Constitution. One might also mention here, once again, article 1 of the 1966 Declaration of the Principles of International Cultural Cooperation, which proclaims that each culture has a dignity and value which must be respected and preserved, that every people has the right and the duty to develop its culture, and that, in their rich variety and diversity, and in the reciprocal influences they exert on one another, all cultures form part of the common heritage belonging to all mankind." In the place of the principle of the equal dignity of cultures - since culture is the product, the achievement of humanity, and humanity is culture - the neo-racists substitute the principles of "cultural difference" and "national identity". This new argument, which is manifestly in conflict with the work of UNESCO and the Declarations and Convention mentioned above, tends to consider cultures as airtight categories, impervious to outside influences and to interaction. Ideological or religious differences are often to be found at the core of this perverted form of "cultural relativism". 46. These arguments, dressed up to appear democratic and used by the extreme right-wing parties, whose influence is dangerously on the increase, have acquired a certain pedigree, or at least a degree of respectability, enabling many people to subscribe to them. Thus it becomes natural to reject, to exclude, to discriminate against a group or ethnic minority on the basis of its culture or religion, in the name of some sacrosanct "inability to assimilate". Implicit in such forms of exclusion is a latent and unavowed feeling of superiority on the part of the majority; they subtly revive racism in its biological and intellectual form. The race which considers itself superior naturally has a superior culture while others have only subcultures or secondrate cultures; the question of cultural values remains unasked. 47. In order to combat racism and racial discrimination, such arguments must be decoded, the realities engendered by them must be boldly confronted, and the mechanism common to racism and to one of its mutations, the abuse of cultural relativism for racist purposes, must be dismantled. 48. It is important that the antiracist movement should be aware of the abrupt change which has occurred in the complex racist interpretations and arguments, namely the shift away from biological inequality towards making cultural differences absolute. 3. Exclusion - an expression of racism, or a euphemism? 49. The modern term and concept of exclusion should not be dressed up or serve as an alibi to conceal a reality which touches upon the central theme of this report. The origin of social exclusion is often to be found in racism and /...