Social Justice in an Open World: The Role of the United Nations
Even when reliable statistics are available from national sources and the muchused (and indeed indispensable) aggregates and averages for indicators such as per capita income and enrolment ratios are provided, data are generally not broken down enough to capture critical details relating the situation of specific population groups. In the present context, data on individuals in the top 5 per cent or 1 per cent in terms of income or assets could be further disaggregated in some countries to allow an examination of the situation of the very rich. Those at the other end of the socio-economic scale would also benefit from a closer look; the extremely poor are rarely the focus of regular detailed analysis. Data on social and economic conditions are often expressed in absolute numbers, percentages or ratios; indicators relying on other forms of measurement offer an added dimension to the analytical process. The use of the Gini coefficient, on which most analyses and comparisons of trends in income distribution are based, is a case in point.14 For example, an observed increase in income inequality in the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland since the beginning of the 1980s may be interpreted differently from a similar increase observed in the United States during the same period based on the countries' respective Gini scores; the United Kingdom currently has a Gini index of 32.5, which roughly corresponds to the levels in developing countries, whereas the index for the United States, at 41.4, is closer to the levels of most Latin American countries. It should be noted that the qualitative aspects of inequality are often extremely difficult to measure; current statistics and indicators are glaringly inadequate in this respect. Only very specific and detailed enquiries could, for instance, reveal the exten,t of open and covert discrimination that in most socie,ties affects people who are in any way different from the majority.
3.2 Trends in six major areas of inequality among people In spite of the complexity and scope of the subject of inequality, and in spite of the difficulties in measuring or simply assessing its dimensions, the Forum was able to state with a reasonable degree of certainty that the overall level of inequality in the world had risen since the beginning of the 1980s. The trend towards greater equality, evident in most regions following the Second World War, has to a significant extent been reversed during the past few decades, and all signs point to a continuation of this tendency. In reaching this conclusion the Forum relied on its awn observations and on the results of regional studies it had commissioned. Immense intellectual satisfaction was undoubtedly gained from the fact that the Forum's findings were in agreement with those obtained by the World Institute for Development Economics Research (WIDER) through its comprehensive investigative efforts, the results of which were published at the beginning of 2004.15 The subsections below offer evidence of the overall aggravation of inequality in different