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International discourse on human rights sometimes degenerates into hollow ideological jostling because perceptions of civil rights and freedoms are too divergent between countries and cultures.

When one party fixates on one aspect and the other on another, we can hardly expect meaningful dialogue.

This year's human rights day theme, "Fighting poverty: A matter of obligation, not charity," however, is one all governments, regardless of culture or system, can share.

In his personal message on yesterday's International Human Rights Day, United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan describes the campaign to make poverty history "a central moral challenge of our time."

Alleviating poverty deserves such emphasis because of the simple truth that subsistence is the very precondition to all other rights and freedoms.

"Each of us should understand that the rights set out in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights are of little value to the millions of people in this world who are haunted by disease and starvation, so long as they have no effective remedies," states the UN Secretary-General. "We must all recognize that wherever entire families eke out an existence on less than a dollar a day, or children die for lack of basic yet life-saving care, the declaration has, at best, a hollow ring."

Instead of high-sounding rhetoric, and valueless finger-pointing in particular, all governments should commit themselves to down-to-earth efforts to help anguished families and individuals.

For its essential prominence on the ladder of human needs, a decent standard of living should be an outstanding priority on the agenda of all national governments.

For all the economic wonders it has worked, globalization has at the same time created or widened wealth gaps within and between countries. That is why the United Nations Development Programme, in its own observance of yesterday's human rights day, laments that "economic growth alone does not guarantee wider human development."

The unequal nature of current global growth, as the UNDP message terms it, calls for aggressive governmental actions to prevent the already wide development gaps from broadening.

The misconception of national leaders that their countries can be run largely as economic entities is harmful exactly because it neglects such essential social concerns as equality and fairness.

Growth in gross domestic product (GDP), a popular traditional yardstick of development, is meaningless unless it goes hand in hand with policies that orientate it towards human development.

In many countries, the biggest challenge is not the lack of potential for growth, but that the fruits of progress cannot be shared in a fair manner.

Even from the perspective of sustainable growth, governments must enshrine freedom from poverty as a basic human right, and make sure there is a corresponding degree of satisfaction as the country's GDP strides forward.

(China Daily December 11, 2006)