Ghana’s Minister for Foreign Affairs, Regional Integration and NEPAD, Hon. Akwasi Osei-Adjei has stressed the need for a collective commitment to universal human rights by all nations. Co-chairing and addressing the Non-Aligned Ministerial Meeting on Human Rights and Cultural Diversity, in Tehran, the Foreign Minister noted that Universal Human rights represents the hard-won consensus of the international community and that all States have the responsibility to ensure its respect and fundamental freedoms for all without distinction.

In his opening address, Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad called on member states of the Non-Aligned Movement (NAM) to define and promote real human rights based on spirituality and justice in the world. He underlined the need for the international community to respect human rights, and said that both human rights and cultural diversity have divine roots. He emphasized that no one religion should have the dominance on others and from ignoring human rights under any kind of condition.

More than 100 delegations of NAM member countries are attending the conference with 56 participating at the ministerial level. The main purpose of the conference is to address the question of how different cultures can attain mutual understanding in the modern world and thereby lay the foundation for universal definition of human rights.

Participants at the 14th summit of NAM, held in Havana, Cuba, in September 2006, approved Iran's offer to hold the movement's ministerial meeting on human rights and cultural diversity in Tehran.