This NGLS Development Dossier reproduces most of the key speeches made by NGOs to
governmental and non-governmental participants at the World Summit for Social Development held
in Copenhagen on 6-12 March 1995. NGOs and other groups and organizations of civil society
made a major contribution to shaping the summit's outcomes, and NGLS believes that the
viewpoints, aspirations and demands expressed by NGOs at Copenhagen should be made available
to the wider NGO and international community. NGLS also hopes that this Development Dossier
will serve as a timely reminder of the issues at stake in the social summit and of the vital role NGOs
have to play in the follow-up to the summit.
The opinions expressed in the speeches are those of the speakers and do not n ecessarily
represent those oh NGLS or any other part of the United Nations system. Given the broad language
backgrounds of participating NGOs, distinctions between American and British English in spelling
and grammar have been left untouched. Speeches are also reproduced in the language in \vhich
they were originally submitted.
The designations used do not imply the expression of any opinion whatsoever on the part of
NGLS or any other part of the United Nations system, concerning the legal status of any cou ntry,
area or territory or its authorities, or concerning the delimitation of its frontiers
.
UNCTAD/NGLS/59
Published in July 1996 by
UN Non-Governmental Liaison Service (NGLS)
Palais des Nations, CH-1211 Geneva 10
Switzerland
Room 6015, 866 UN Plaza
New Cork, N.Y. 10017
USA
1
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Foreword
4
Preface
5
Introduction
6
Baha'i International Community
8
BUSCO: Association mondiale des entrepreneurs pour le sommet social
10
Caucus Latinoamericano
12
Coalition of People of Faith
15
Commission on Global Governance
18
Confederación Mundial del Trabajo
20
Conférence on NGOs in Consultative Status with ECOSOC (CONGO)
22
The Cousteau Society
25
The Development Caucus
28
Disabled People's Organizations Umbrella Group
32
Eurostep
34
Fédération mondiale des cités unies
36
ICC/IOE High-Level Group for the WSSD
39
Independent Commission for Population and Quality of Life
42
International Center for Economic Growth
45
International Confederation of Free Trade Unions (ICFTU)
48
International Council of Women
50
International Council on Social Welfare (ICSW)
51
International Federation of Agricultural Producers (IFAP)
53
International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies
55
International Movement ATD Fourth World
58
2
International Planned Parenthood Federation
61
International Youth Consultation on Social Development
64
Inter-Parliamentary Union
66
Mouvement mondial des mères
68
National Union of Working Women
70
NGO Committee on Aging
73
ONG africaines
75
Rights of the Child Caucus
77
Rotary International
79
Small Farmers, Producers, and Microentrepreneurs Caucus
80
Soroptimist International
82
South Asia Caucus
84
L'Union nationale de la femme tunisienne
87
The Values Caucus
90
Women's Environment and Development Organization (WEDO)
94
World Council of Churches
97
APPENDICES
Inaugural Address
100
Statement on the Copenhagen Alternative Declaration
105
Copenhagen Alternative Declaration
107
The Quality Benchmark for the Social Summit
113
Did We Achieve the Quality Benchmark? An NGO Assessment
117
3
FOREWORD
"Economic activities, through which individuals express their initiative and creativity and
which enhance the wealth of communities, are a fundamental basis for social progress. But
social progress will not be realized simply through the free interaction of market forces. Public
polices are necessary to correct market failures, to complement market mechanisms, to maintain
social stability and to create a national and international economic environment that promotes
sustainable growth on a global scale. Such growth should promote equity and social justice,
tolerance, responsibility and involvement."
Programme of Action, World Summit for Social Development
(Copenhagen, March 1995)
Social progress refers to the individual in the society. It is a concept rooted in a philosophy of
human dignity and fundamental equality of all human beings. It is also a concept related to
specific historical circumstances, to obstacles that have to be overcome and to desirable
objectives.
The World Summit for Social Development and the NGO Forum '95 only represented a first step
towards placing the fundamental political questions of social development on the international
agenda, but carried the message to the peoples of the world that their right to a decent life is
taken seriously by the highest political level. We still have to implement and follow up the
political intentions.
This book illustrates in how many ways NGOs contributed ideas to the outcome of the summit. I
hope that its publication will inspire NGOs to play an equally important role in the follow up of
the summit.
The high hopes of the summit must be met. True and lasting success can only be achieved
through patient and deliberate efforts by all concerned, day after day. It will require a coalition of
all societal actors, working together towards the same objectives. Governments will need to act
in partnership. They will need to join hands with experts, parliamentarians, grass root and
religious organizations, trade unions, community associations, businesses, scientists and nongovernmental organizations, all of whose talent and enthusiasm have already added so much to
the cause of social progress.
Poul Nielson
Minister for Development Cooperation, Denmark
4
PREFACE
The landmark World Summit for Social Development (WSSD) was many things to different
groups and actors. In terms of NGO-UN relations, it was a turning point. NGOs are increasingly
involved in United Nations conferences and their follow-up. What was new in the WSSD
process and its follow-up was the major role NGOs are expected to play in the implementation of
the WSSD Programme of Action, in partnership with governments and international
organizations.
No one questions that at the national level, the main responsibility for the implementation of the
policies, actions and measures in the Programme of Action rests with the governments. Yet
NGOs are expected to be key actors in implementing government policies, identifying new
issues, advocating specific causes or groups, and pressuring public authorities to design or
implement policies. At the international level, NGOs are also expected to have an advocacy role
and to add their collective weight to increase public awareness of the objectives and
commitments agreed upon in Copenhagen.
Intergovernmental bodies are giving due recognition to the unique contributions NGOs can make
in the social development field. As a sign of the changing times, the Economic and Social
Council recently agreed to open the debates of the Commission for Social Development “to
experts and the main actors of civil society so as to enhance the exchange of information and
experience, knowledge and understanding of social development.”
The United Nations is coordinating its follow-up to the WSSD at both the headquarters and the
country levels. As it moves ahead with this coordinated response to the Programme of Action,
the Organization is recognizing that, to achieve the best result, it should work with NGOs in a
coordinated way as well. Therefore, although each United Nations entity has traditionally had its
own approach to NGOs, at the highest managerial levels of the United Nations, the system is
now developing a common strategy for working with NGOs.
These are some of the specific indications that with the WSSD, a new chapter in NGO-UN
relations has been ushered in. Other conferences will naturally make their own distinctive mark
on the NGO-UN relationship as well. Whatever challenges are faced and bridges crossed,
however, it is evident that NGOs and the United Nations have learned to listen to each other, a
vital condition to working together for a better world. An extremely busy two-way channel of
communication between NGOs and the United Nations now exists, in which this book is a most
welcome contribution.
Nitin Desai
Under-Secretary-General for Policy
Coordination and Sustainable Development
5
INTRODUCTION
“Our challenge is to establish a people-centered framework for social development to
guide us now and in the future, to build a culture of cooperation and partnership and to
respond to the immediate needs of those who are most affected by human distress... these
goals cannot be achieved by states alone... all actors of civil society need to positively
contribute their own share of efforts and resources in order to reduce inequalities among
people... We invite all people to express their personal commitment to enhancing the
human condition through concrete actions in their own fields of activities and through
assuming specific civil responsibilities.”
Declaration, World Summit for Social Development
(Copenhagen, March 1995)
These words capture the tone of the World Summit for Social Development—a meeting where
concrete commitments were adopted by more heads of state than any other in history, yet one driven
by the peoples of the United Nations.
The Summit marked a watershed: the culmination of decades of solid organizing by individuals and
groups from within civil society dedicated to issues of environment, development, human rights,
gender equity, and population, among many others. In effect, the conference process of the United
Nations has simply become one of the vehicles used by NGOs for organizing, for getting their
urgent message across—across borders to one another, and across to their governments. NGOs have
and must continue to insist upon making their voices heard.
NGOs are the ones who have struggled in the barrios and isolated hamlets where absolute poverty
still erodes the security of people. They have carried the banner of rights and justice high, even at
the risk of personal safety. They have written and researched to forge new economic paradigms and
to draft new laws. With these, they have confronted the theory that the expansion of unbridled
market logic and economic growth are the sole measure of human progress, the belief that women,
the elderly, disabled, or indigenous peoples are any less entitled to the full expression of their
development than others in society. They have sought to address the immediate needs of refugees
and migrant laborers, and have worked to change the systemic roots of inequity and discrimination.
In multiple ways, they have challenged prevailing ideas and policies.
Indeed, it is their intimate knowledge of the balance between people, environment, culture and
tradition, innovation and change that has helped us to arrive at a clearer understanding of the
security of people in a continually evolving world. It is their insistence on the permanence of
values—on personal integrity and collective solidarity, on honesty, transparency, and compassion—
that has enabled us to take stock of our words and our actions.
The summit marked a point of departure—the initiation of a global dialogue on empowerment, on
how to adjust the ‘mix’ of state, market, and society and with it, our priorities, to ensure that people
are empowered in the process of development. Indeed, the aim has been to make the visions of the
6
NGOs integral to the drafting of an agenda for progress on social development by the United
Nations into the next century.
I heartily support the publication and dissemination of this book, worldwide, as an effort to make
sure that their words stand as part of the official record. Their speeches herein offer but a glimpse of
the many ideas NGOs put forward in the context of formal debate and corridor discussion over the
course of more than a year.
The members of non-governmental organizations who played such a major role in shaping the
summit’s results, who were there from the beginning when the proposal to hold the summit
appeared far-fetched and unrealistic, deserve special credit. I particularly value the moment in
which, at the end of the work of the Main Committee in Copenhagen (responsible for the
outstanding negotiations), I gave the floor to those organizations which everyone knew had in fact
been co-producers of the final documents throughout the three meetings of the Preparatory
Committee. My hat goes off to them.
Engaging civil society throughout the last decades in the heretofore closed world of diplomatic
negotiation is a United Nations achievement of which we can all be proud; changing the content of
future debate and the course of action is our outstanding challenge. The official summit declaration
and programme of action offer valuable insights on concrete ways to strengthen an enabling
environment in which poverty can ultimately be eradicated, employment secured, and social
integration fostered in the fullest sense, with the full participation of civil society.
But the work of the summit would be incomplete without the Copenhagen Alternative Declaration. I
hope I do not see the day when the forces of civil society and people’s organizations rest fully
contented with the official negotiated documents of a UN conference. Their function is to go
beyond, to push beyond. To show changes that are necessary and possible, which prevailing
mindsets have not yet accepted. In doing so, they must honestly acknowledge the advances and the
breakthroughs in government action and be credible in terms of their proposals. The interaction
between the agenda-setting function of the United Nations and the mobilization capacity of civil
society is at the root of the most important changes of consciousness we have witnessed in the last
decades regarding human rights, environment, population, women’s rights, and indigenous people,
among other issues.
This must continue, and should increase in the future. I urge NGOs to embrace the spirit of
Copenhagen—the urgency of our call to move beyond cynicism and distrust and to embrace hope. I
encourage their efforts and remain with them in spirit.
Ambassador Juan Somavía of Chile
Chairman of the WSSD
7
Baha'i International Community
The task of creating a global development strategy that will promote the
spiritual and material well-being of all the planet's inhabitants constitutes
a challenge to reshape fundamentally the institutions of society. In the
crafting and implementation of such a strategy, the following concepts
are of critical importance.
- Development policy and programs must be based on an unconditioned
recognition of the oneness of humankind, a commitment to justice as the
organizing principle of society, and a determination to exploit to the
utmost the possibilities that a systematic dialogue between the scientific
and religious genius of the race can bring to the building of human
capacity.
- The development process must involve the generality of humankind,
members of governing institutions at all levels, persons serving in
agencies of international coordination, scientists and social thinkers, all
those endowed with artistic talents or with access to the media, and
leaders of non-governmental organizations.
- The establishment of full equality between women and men, in all
departments of life and at every level of society, must be a primary aim.
- While acknowledging the wide differences of individual capacity, a
major goal must be to make it possible for all of the earth's inhabitants
to approach on an equal basis the processes of science and technology.
- At the heart of development must be a consultative process in which
the individual participants strive to transcend their respective points of
view, in order to function as members of a body with its own interests
and goals.
- Spiritual issues facing humanity must be central. For the vast majority
of the world's population, the idea that human nature has a spiritual
dimension -- indeed that its fundamental identity is spiritual -- is a
truth requiring no demonstration.
- A new "work ethic," based on a spirit of service to humanity, will be
essential. To that end, training that can make it possible for the earth's
inhabitants to participate in the production of wealth must be illumined
by the spiritual insight that service to humankind is the purpose of both
individual life and social organization.
8
- New economic models will be required, shaped by insights that arise
from a sympathetic understanding of shared experience, from viewing
human beings in relation to others, and from a recognition of the
centrality to social well-being of the role of the family and the
community.
The principle of the oneness of humanity must be wholeheartedly
embraced by those in whose hands the responsibility for decision-making
tests, and its related tenets -including the concept of world citizenship –
must be propagated through both educational systems and the media.
- As the integration of humanity gains momentum, those who are
selected to take collective decisions on behalf of society, will
increasingly have to see all their efforts in a global perspective. Not
only at the national, but also at the local level, the elected governors of
human affairs should, in Bahá'u'llah's view, consider themselves
responsible for the welfare of all of humankind.
- It will be necessary to create laws and institutions that are universal
in both character and authority. Ultimately, the restructuring or
transformation of the United Nations system will lead to the
establishment of a world federation of nations with its own legislative,
judicial and executive bodies.
These themes and others relevant to a global development strategy are
elaborated in the concept paper entitled, The Prosperity of Humankind.
Over a century ago, Baha'u'llah issued to the peoples of the world an
appeal which is of particular significance to all of us gathered here today
at the World Summit for Social Development and the NGO Forum: "Be
anxiously concerned," He urged, "with the needs of the age ye live in,
and center your deliberations on its exigencies and requirements." "Be
united in counsel, be one in thought."
Jaime Duhart
Bahai'I International Community
866 United Nations Plaza, Suite 120, New York NY 10017, USA
Telephone:+1-212/803 2500; Fax:+1-212/803 2566
9
BUSCO - Business Association For The World Social Summit
Association Mondiale Des Entrepreneurs Pour Le Sommet Social
Dans ce sommet intergouvernemental, vous avez bien voulu accueillir les Acteurs de la sociale
civile. Nous avons apprécié tout au long de la Préparation des déclarations que vous avez
longuement discute, les consultations dont elles ont fait l'objet et qui ont permis aux
Entrepreneurs de s'exprimer.
Ceux de notre association, provenant de plus de 35 pays ont pris acte des engagements que vous
soumettez a l'approbation des Chefs d'Etat et des propositions qui tendent à favoriser une
croissance économique durable, Destinée a répondre aux besoins énormes des populations
mondiales.
Vous avez opté pour le fonctionnement dynamique de l'économie de marché - meilleure
créatrice de richesses - et pour la libéralisation du commerce mondial. Nous sommes d'accord
avec ces choix et nous sommes également d'accord pour que ce soient les besoins humains - en
emplois productifs, en logements, en alimentation, en santé, en éducation et en culture - dans un
Environnement assaini, qui soient au centre de nos objectifs communs.
L'aggravation du chômage et de la misère exige des attitudes nouvelles et des efforts sans
précédent, car les mécanismes naturels ne résolvent pas L'immensité des problèmes
contemporains. A nos yeux, les acteurs essentiels du développement économique et social
sont les entrepreneurs et le monde du travail, par leurs productions, leurs services, les progrès
techniques, les innovations qui ont déjà transformé le monde.
Dans le cadre du BUSCO, nous avons élabore 16 propositions, soit: un programme d'actions en dix
points et sa mise en oeuvre dans six domaines complémentaires.
Leurs objectifs sont:
Premièrement, de tendre au plein emploi productif que les entreprises devraient s'efforcer
d'atteindre globalement, par leurs actions de formation et par leur créativité, créant plus
d'emplois que n'en détruisent les progrès techniques et la concurrence, inévitables, bénéfiques,
mais
douloureux dans les périodes d'ajustement qu'ils exigent.
Deuxièmement, de se mobiliser et agir en entreprises citoyennes, co-responsables du bien-être
collectif, en liaison avec les pouvoirs publics, les fondations, les associations caritatives et
humanitaires, nationales et internationales.
Par le sens des priorités et une conscience de leurs responsabilités sociales et civiques. Cette
conscience exige de la rigueur et le rejet de toute forme de corruption - qui empoisonne
l'atmosphère et entraîne des coûts supplémentaires inacceptables.
10
Ce n'est pas nouveau: car dans notre histoire, de nombreux exemples ont manifesté les résultats
bénéfiques de telles attitudes. Mais ce qui devrait être nouveau, c'est une amplification, une
généralisation de ces attitudes et de ces actions dans un esprit de confiance mutuelle.
L'aspect financier ne saurait être ignoré. La baisse des charges pesant sur les salaires, une
politique de dépenses publiques plus raisonnable, et une défiscalisation des dons aux fondations
et associations à but social, Sont des mesures nécessaires.
Le BUSCO, dans mon esprit, voulait dire Business Council, mais cela veut Dire, aussi Business
Conscious. Des principes pour la conduite des Affaires - comme ceux élaborés par la Table
Ronde de Caux, alliant le Kyosei japonais, aux principes américains du Minnesota et à ceux du
respect de la dignité de l'Homme - ont montré la possibilité d'un consensus, dont des esprits
éclairés de l'Inde, d'Afrique, de Russie, pour ne citer que quelques exemples, ont trouvé
inspirants et susceptibles de servir de référence de comportement.
Ma conclusion, Mesdames et Messieurs, les représentants des Etats et des Organismes
Internationaux, est celle d'une espérance. Abolissez-les barrières de la méfiance et de
l'incompréhension, et vous trouverez parmi les entreprises, des partenaires susceptibles de mettre
en oeuvre l'immense programme d'action humanitaire pour le respect et la dignité de l'Homme
sur notre Terre.
Olivier Giscard d'Estaing
Association Mondiale des Entrepreneurs
Pour le Sommet Social (BUSCO)
Arche de la Defense, Paroi Sud
F-92055 Paris La Defense, France
Fax: +33-1/45 04 27 62
11
Caucus Latinoamericano: Cumbre Mundial Sobre Desarrollo Social
Agradecemos la oportunidad de compartir nuestras propuestas, resultado de un proceso de
discusión de organizaciones de la sociedad civil de América Latina participantes en el proceso de
la Cumbre.
En los debates sobre el desarrollo económico y social se ha enfatizado que los desajustes
macroeconómicos de nuestros países son el principal obstáculo para su desarrollo. Para
corregirlos, es urgente que los acuerdos de esta Cumbre no se conviertan en una simple
declaración. Compartimos el espíritu de la Declaración del Foro de ONG's y el consenso general
de que: "el mundo vive una profunda crisis social global".
Nuestra región no escapa de aquella situación; nuestro continente, mas que pobre, es un
continente injusto.
Esto tiene diversas causas.
Los desajustes no solo se limitan a los desequilibrios macroeconómicos y financieros, sino
fundamentalmente a las desigualdades e iniquidades económicas y sociales existentes al interior
de nuestros países.
La desigualdad en la distribución de los ingresos se expresa en que el 5 % de la población
absorbe mas del 80 % de la riqueza. Las discriminaciones por raza, etnia, genero, edad,
residencia y discapacidad, profundizan las brechas sociales. En las ultimas décadas se ha
acumulado una deuda social a expensas del desarrollo humano. Este costo es muy superior al
monto de la deuda externa de la región. Por ello es urgente una solución innovadora y definitiva
al problema de la deuda mediante su reducción o cancelación.
Las responsabilidades son de nuestros gobiernos, de los sectores dominantes en nuestros países
y del injusto orden económico y político internacional, que genera fuertes desventajas para los
países en desarrollo.
La incoherencia entre las políticas económicas, sociales y ambientales, así como el traslado de la
crisis de los países del Norte hacia los del Sur, se manifiesta claramente en:
- el crecimiento desordenado y asimétrico del mundo;
- la sobre explotación de los recursos naturales;
- la expansión de patrones de consumo y de tecnologías de los países del
Norte a costa del medio ambiente y de los recursos del Sur;
- el sobre endeudamiento que hoy afecta a los países en desarrollo;
- la acción descontrolada de las transnacionales y el flujo de capitales
de especulación financiera; y, - la disminución de la cooperación al desarrollo.
12
Los modelos económicos vigentes no son una respuesta a la pobreza, la falta de oportunidades
de empleo y la desintegración social. Es mas, el modelo neoliberal, tampoco ha dado resultados
para estabilizar las economías, tal como se ha evidenciado recientemente en la región.
Ante esta situación, consideramos que el aplicar el mismo modelo con "Rostro Humano" es
insuficiente. La equidad, la paz, la justicia, la libertad, los derechos individuales y colectivos, la
democracia y el respeto a la autodeterminación de los pueblos, son los valores centrales de un
nuevo paradigma de desarrollo al que aspiramos.
Todos los actores de la sociedad civil consideramos que debe replantearse el concepto de
desarrollo, eliminando las causas de la iniquidad social y económica. Para ello, se requiere mas
que políticas focalizadas, sectoriales o medidas compensatorias frente al ajuste.
Demandamos un cambio radical del orden económico, social y político nacional e internacional;
un Ajuste de Cuerpo y Alma Humanas. Un nuevo modelo debe considerar al ser humano como
sujeto del desarrollo integral. Debe concebirse un ámbito amplio e integral de participación, que
reconozca la diversidad cultural, étnica, genérica, etérea; como el derecho de las personas y los
pueblos al desarrollo.
Debemos promover un modelo de desarrollo que contemple un sustancial aumento de la
inversión social para mejorar la calidad de vida de nuestros pueblos, en el que la libertad
individual, la solidaridad y el respeto a los derechos humanos guíen el accionar de los gobiernos,
organismos internacionales y a la misma sociedad civil.
Por que no hablar de inversión social en vez de gasto social? Por que no impulsar compromisos
que trasciendan las simples metas que son fáciles de alcanzar? Él desafió de la Cumbre es
involucrar a nuestros Estados en mantener sus responsabilidades sociales. Ellos deben destinar
mayores recursos para la población más necesitada.
La militarización implica el desperdicio de recursos humanos, naturales y financieros, que
aumentan la desigualdad y la pauperización, la violencia social y política. Por ello, exigimos la
disminución de dichos gastos y su orientación a programas sociales.
La nueva concepción del desarrollo deberφa basarse en la cooperación entre el Mercado, el
Estado y la Sociedad Civil, sustituyendo el actual antagonismo de Estado-Mercado. Ninguno de
los dos ha dado respuesta a los problemas sociales.
Desarrollo significa por tanto:
El aporte de la sociedad civil con participación en la formulación, ejecución y evaluación de
programas y políticas. Se trata de una propuesta de corresponsabilidad y colaboración mutua a
nivel local, nacional e internacional. Demandamos que sean reconocidos los derechos
territoriales, culturales y económicos de los pueblos indígenas de América Latina, así como la
diversidad étnica dentro de nuestros Estados.
13
Deben eliminarse todas las formas de colonialismo, neocolonialismo y otras presiones, como el
bloqueo a Cuba, que aun pesan sobre países de la región. Debe hacerse una revisión profunda de
los organismos económicos y financieros internacionales, particularmente de las organizaciones
de Bretton Woods y del Sistema de Naciones Unidas, a fin de sentar las bases para un accionar
futuro transparente en sus políticas y metas. La comunicación es un derecho publico que debe
democratizarse, reconociendo la legalidad y la legitimidad de todas las expresiones
populares y comunitarias de comunicación. En suma, aspiramos a un desarrollo sustentable que
redistribuya el poder y los recursos.
No podemos retroceder en los logros acordados en las anteriores Cumbres. No debemos
desorientarnos en nuestro rumbo de búsqueda de equidad. Debemos incrementar el poder de las
mujeres; fortalecer la organización, participación y concertación ciudadanas; consolidar la
democratización cultural; garantizar la universalidad de todos los derechos humanos,
especialmente, la salud y los derechos sexuales y reproductivos de mujeres y hombres.
Finalmente, queremos expresar que el Caucus Latinoamericano se compromete a hacer un
seguimiento serio, responsable y técnico de los acuerdos de esta Cumbre conjuntamente con los
Gobiernos de nuestros países. Instamos a integrar a los ministros encargados de las políticas
económicas con el fin de vincular en la acción concreta nuevas estrategias que integren lo
Político y lo social en la búsqueda de un nuevo paradigma de paz, libertad, solidaridad y justicia.
Maria Rosa Renzi
Fundación internacional para el Desafió Económico Global
Del Hospital del Retiro, Dos cuadras al lago
Managua, Nicaragua
Tel/Fax: +505-2/668 711
14
Coalition of People of Faith
I bring greetings today to the People of the United Nations and to you who have been given the
privilege of serving them in government and civil society. I speak on behalf of a coalition of
people of faith that includes
-- Caritas Internationalis
-- CIDSE
-- The European Justice and Peace Commissions
-- The International Social Justice Secretariat of the Society of Jesus
-- and the Religious Task Force on the World Summit for Social Development
Together we represent one of the largest global networks of organizations and communities
standing with the 1.3 billion people in absolute poverty and the hundreds of millions more in
extreme poverty -- providing essential services and working for development, empowerment and
policy change. These are the women, men and children who pay in their daily lives the costs of
poverty, of diminishing access to sustainable livelihoods and of the disintegration of our societies
-- in wealthy nations as well as in poor ones.
As we have listened these last many months:
* we have heard you as official representatives of our governments commit yourselves to reduce
poverty substantially and to eradicate absolute poverty.
* We have heard you commit yourselves never again to allow debt burdens, structural
adjustment programs or other national economic strategies erode the social programs needed to
meet the basic needs of those who live in poverty and to enable them to participate fully in
society.
* We have heard you say you will ensure access to the means of production for those who live
in poverty so that they may take control of their own destinies.
We acknowledge these commitments and we make a commitment to you in return:
* We are ready to share with you The vast experience gathered through decades of committed
service. We are available to work with you in achieving these goals and will, together with the
people living in poverty, participate in shaping, implementing and evaluating your programs
and policies.
* And in addition, together with the people trapped in poverty and marginalized in every nation,
we will monitor carefully whether you are keeping your Copenhagen commitments to us -- and
how you might keep them more effectively. We commit ourselves to join our voices with theirs
to speak the truth to you.
15
-- in next year's General Assembly review of your efforts to eradicate poverty [POA 95, a]
-- at the Fourth UN World Conference on Women in Beijing and the UN Conference on Human
Settlements in Istanbul
-- at your special Assembly meeting in the year 2000 to evaluate follow-up to this Summit
[POA 95, b]
-- and at the time of your local and national elections.
We encourage you to take with the utmost seriousness your responsibility as governments to
regulate markets, making them truly transparent and accountable to all the people. We urge you
especially to "enable people living in poverty and disadvantage, especially women, to participate
fully and productively in the economy and society." [Declaration, Commitment 1, e]
This regulation is essential! There is a natural dynamic in inadequately regulated market systems
that excludes those who are poor and vulnerable. That dynamic must not be allowed to prevail.
Working together, we must confront and correct the serious failures of the contemporary global
system of markets. As currently managed, this system enriches the few. It refuses to acknowledge or
account the social and ecological costs of its policies. And it relies upon a community infrastructure
created by vast, unmeasured amounts of unpaid work, done primarily by women-work that is in
reality a great and hidden subsidy extracted from the poor for the benefit of those who profit most in
the current economy. As people deeply committed to the goals of this Summit, we are disappointed
with the lack of structural analysis and creative vision in the Declaration and Programme of Action.
* The goal of Social Development is not merely to give all people the opportunity to become
consumers and producers. It is also, more importantly, about advancing in wisdom, love,
cultural depth and variety, political skill and integrity, global vision, and openness to the
transcendent. These elements, and many more like them, must guide our planning and our
evaluation of social development.
* Indeed, as the Programme of Action acknowledges, unsustainable patterns of production and
consumption are more often considered signs of "success" in life today than the maldevelopment
that they are. The eradication of absolute poverty and the alleviation of extreme poverty -- if we
are serious about them -- will require the eradication of hyper-consumption and the alleviation of
overconsumption. And peaceful social integration will require serious redistribution of the
world's resources as a matter of basic justice.
* It is clear from our experience around the world that the true engine of authentic Social
Development is not simply economic growth or free markets; it is the broad social organization
and participation by people in society. This full participation frees massive resources of human
creativity, giving birth to a variety of development strategies and structures that display the true
riches of cultural diversity.
16
*We are saddened too at the refusal to face the immense role that both trans-national
corporations and trans-national financial speculation play in creating poverty, eliminating jobs
and preventing the adequate availability of sustainable livelihoods, and contributing to the
disintegration of our communities. Until we have the political will to create a regulatory
framework for trans-national capital which will ensure that it serves the common good of all
citizens of the earth, the commitments made here in Copenhagen will have negligible chance of
success.
* Attention to the plight of millions of refugees, displaced persons and involuntary migrants has
been grossly inadequate. They consistently face social, political, economic, cultural and religious
intolerance and abuse, both in their home countries and in the places where they seek asylum.
* Indeed, racism, discrimination and xenophobia, which afflict minorities everywhere, corrode
the human spirit and destroy our communities. We must be more outspoken, more courageous in
eradicating them wherever they exist.
* Finally, we must ask you in all honesty -- when will you face the urgency of cutting military
spending and ending the vast global trade in arms which fuel conflict and bring death and misery
to millions every year?
Despite these disappointments, however, we are encouraged by the modest steps taken here in
Copenhagen. We want to express our profound gratitude to Ambassador Juan Somavia whose
spiritual vision, sense of global solidarity and persevering courage have brought us all to this
moment. We urge you -- and we promise to work with you -- to achieve a breakthrough to the
global vision essential to the new global era that has opened. We all must break beyond the
narrow mentality that would make national sovereignty absolute, blinding us to the new and
heavy responsibilities of this global era.
As people of faith, we believe that national sovereignty comes from the ultimate sovereignty of
God who is Mother and Father to us all. National sovereignty is and always must be subordinate
to the sovereignty of God's one human family.
It is even more urgent today than when the United Nations was formed 50 years ago that we
proclaim -- not merely in words, but through our joint actions -- that We must and we can work
together to create a world free of poverty, with sustainable livelihoods for each woman, man and
child, where we live together peacefully in all our rich diversity, governed by the broad
principles of social justice, committed in solidarity to the international common good.
James E. Hug, S.J.
Center for Concern
3700 13 Street NE, Washington DC 20017, USA
Tel:+1-202/635 2757; Fax:+1-202/ 832 9494
17
Commission on Global Governance
I am speaking on behalf of the Commission on Global Governance which under the
chairmanship of Swedish Prime Minister Ingvar Carlsson has explored new directions in
international cooperation.
The commission's report, released a few weeks ago, is called Our Global Neighbourhood - a
title which echoes one of the themes running through our efforts this week - the realization that
we now live in a global and interdependent world. The poor parts of this global neighbourhood
are no longer confined to the South and the better parts aren't only in the North. Jobs have to be
created throughout this global neighbourhood.
The benefits of economic growth have to be more evenly spread throughout the whole
neighbourhood. There have been economic miracles in parts of Asia and Latin America - but in
both regions the numbers in absolute poverty have been increasing. One fifth of humanity lives in
destitution - a growing, global underclass.
There is already broad consensus on the economic policies necessary to break the grip of
poverty: financial stability, outward looking trade policies, high rates of savings and investment,
releasing the private sector from bureaucratic controls. But it is also the other way around:
social issues have immediate economic implications, in the present global competitive economy
even more than in the past. The role of women in the work force, child labour, education levels,
female literacy infant mortality, basic wage rates - all affect a nation's competitiveness and its
ability to function in a global economy. Two policy conclusions can be drawn from this. First:
social policies should not be viewed as distinct from economic and financial policies with the
only aim to compensate negative consequences of the latter. On the contrary, the three financial, economic and social - should be integrated from the very outset. Second: social as well
as economic policies should not only be discussed at the national but also at the international
level.
There is no substitute for a sustained domestic commitment to reduce poverty. But there is also
need for action at the international level. The present lack of any effective mechanism of global
economic governance is a structural deficit in the world economy.
While such a mechanism does not exist at present, the G7 would like to provide it - but its seven
members represent just 12% of the world's people - without India and China it cannot even claim
to represent the seven major economies. The lack of any framework for developing and
implementing social and economic policy at the international level has consequences for every
region. For example - the worst of Mexico's problems might be over but we have not seen any
moves towards reconciling the capital needs in emerging economies, their over-indebtedness and
the practices of financial markets. We have provided aid but not found ways to bring
sub-Saharan Africa into the world economy. We are stumbling in efforts to assist the transition to
market economies across the former Soviet Union.
18
To fill this structural deficit, the Carlsson Commission proposes the establishment of an
Economic Security Council This should include the existing major economies as well as
representatives from the regional economic groupings. As we envisage it, this Economic
Security Council would be representative enough to gain the necessary consensus for setting
effective, long term policy directions. It would meet at the ministerial level (e.g. Ministers of
Finance) twice or more a year with annual meetings at the heads of government level. With real
political commitment it will be possible to develop a forum which provides leadership in
economic, social and environmental issues leadership needed throughout the world.
We believe that such an Economic Security Council would be a suitable response to the demand
of this Summit's Draft Programme of Action for the creation of 'a framework of sustained
economic growth and sustainable development'. To this end we further propose an overall and
integrated package of reforms of the UN system and its affiliates, including those parts of the
system which deal with social and economic policy-making.
In our report, we endorse some of the new thinking on aid, both in terms of quantities and in
terms of impact. There is a need for more resources applied less selfishly. Only a few countries
have ever met the target of 0.7% of their GDP for development assistance. Far too many
countries give aid to promote exports or their own priorities, rather than those of the recipients.
A redirection of aid both in terms of quantity, quality and composition should be based in
particular on social objectives.
We make a case for combining strong domestic policy reform with radical debt reduction - even
for a package of measures somewhat similar to corporate bankruptcy. The alternative is to
condemn whole countries and their people to indefinite misery. That would be the opposite of a
social policy in our global neighbourhood.
The declaration drafted for this summit puts people at the centre of its concerns and their
entitlement to a healthy and productive life in harmony with the environment. This is not a
utopian dream - it recognises that the era of contending nation states is passing and that we have
a chance to address the economic and social security of people and not just the financial and
political security of states. It requires leadership to link the two.
Minister Jan Pronk
Commission on Global Governance
11 Avenue Joli-Mont, Caisse Postale 184
CH-1211 Geneva 28, Switzerland
19
Confederaciòn Mundial del Trabajo
La Conferederaciòn Mundial del Trabajo—CMT—ha estado estrechamente ligada a la
preparaciòn de esta Cumbre Mundial, y nos comprometemos—junto con nuestras organizaciones
miembros de 108 paìses, a realizar los esfuerzos necesarios para la continuidad de esta Cumbre.
En el dìa de ayer, dirigentes sindicales de todo el mundo, de diversas orientaciones y regiones,
que representan más de 300 millones de trabajadores organizados, hemos aprobado una
Declaración Sindical, donde especialmente—además de denunciar la incompatibilidad de la
miseria, de la desocupación y de la exclusión con la democracía—subrayamos que las
diferencias se agravan (recordamos que el 19% de la población mundial acapara el 83% de la
riqueza), pero que es imposible terminar con estos flegelos:
a) sin cuestionar el actual modelo económico que excluye una visión racional y social;
b) sin cambiar las reglas desiguales del Comercio Internacional;
c) sin anular los efectos nefastos de la Deuda Externa;
d) sin poner un orden democrático y un control político a los organismos económicos y
financieros internacionales;
e)y, finalmente, sin poner un control racional a los flujos de capitales y la infame especulación
financiera internacional.
Para nosotros, el hombre—y su desarrollo integral—son el objetivo central de todo proceso
democrático y de un verdadero desarrollo, y particularmente el esfuerzo debemos relizarlo en
favor de los más pobres y más desfavorecidos. Reconocemos la importancia del mercado y de las
leyes económicas, pero en favor del hombre, y no para aumentar las diferencias y las
desigualdades.
Pero la que más nos importa ahora, Señor Presidente, es la puesta en marcha de la continuidad de
la Cumbre, lo que haremos a partir del próximo lunes.
Nosotros solicitamos que para la continuidad de la Cumbre, se tengan en cuenta particularmente
4 aspectos:
1. A nivel nacional, la constitución de una Comisión tripartita, compuesta por los interlocutores
sociales (Empleadores y Sindicatos), sin ignorar la importancia de las ONGs;
2. Coordinar los organismos económicos y financieros internacionales, junto con la OIT, que por
lo demás, acaba de presentar un excelente informe y programa sobre el empleo.
3. Impulsar una verdadera legislación internacional, especialmente en el campo:
-social
-económico
-financiero y
-ecológico.
20
Y en el terreno social, consideramos fundamental las más importantes convenciones
internacionales de la OIT.
4. Consideramos muy importante que la propia Asamblea General de las Naciones Unidas tenga
en cuenta y supervise la aplicación y la continuidad de la Cumbre.
Finalmente, Señor Presidente, nos comprometemos por nuestra parte a -trabajar a nivel nacional
con nuestras organizaciones;
-comprometimos, con todos las instituciones y sectores interesados, a concretizar la continuidad
de la Cumbre;
-insistir, con la OIT, y a partir de su Grupo de Trabajadores, en el rol que debe cumplir esta
institución internacional.
Son propuestas concretas para que nuestra Cumbre no quede en palabras.
Muchas gracias, Señor Presidente.
Carlos Custer
Confederación Mundial del Trabajo
Case Postale 122, CH-1211 Geneva 20, Switzerland
Tel:+41-22/733 6688 Fax:+41-22/733 4785
21
Conference of Non-governmental Organizations in Consultative Status with the United
Nations Economic and Social Council (CONGO)
As the governments of the world gather at this Summit, so do the representatives of
non-governmental and peoples' organizations.
I speak on behalf of the Conference of non-governmental organizations in consultative status
with the United Nations Economic and Social Council. The many thousands of NGO
representatives gathered here in Copenhagen reflect the enormous diversity of the civil societies
of our communities. The social worker and the environmental activist, the health worker and
the trade unionist, the businessman or woman and the Médecins sans Frontières, the teacher, the
human rights advocate, the peasant representative, the Nobel Prize winner; those representing
women, youth, the aged, the handicapped, indigenous peoples - all are increasingly organized to
act - and to make their voices heard.
During this week, you hear the voices of the organizations and the caucuses which have
contributed to the preparatory process. With all our diversity, there is a striking convergence - a
convergence of concern and, yes, a convergence of ideas. For the voices of the people are
carrying a message to the Summit. That message is a warning. It is an appeal. And it is a
proposal.
The Warning
First, I speak of the warning. This is the year of all the anniversaries. The 50th Anniversary of
the adoption of the United Nations Charter is also the 50th Anniversary of the end to six years of
terrible folly. The historian Barbara Tuchman described the march of folly in human affairs. She
defined folly as the pursuit of a policy which leads to disaster, despite clear warnings. Today,
the warnings could not be louder or clearer, from the Earth Summit of Rio to the Human Rights
Conference of Vienna to the Population Conference of Cairo and now the Social Summit here.
Yet the policies which have neglected or even exacerbated these problems during the last two
decades are still being pursued. Indeed they account largely for the remaining difficulties in
reaching agreement here in Copenhagen. We must recognize the folly of economic and social
policies which continue to take their toll and to lead us on a path towards renewed chaos and
upheaval.
When a single individual can bet on financial markets, in three weeks, more than the annual
gross domestic product of many nations, that is also a warning. The man who broke Britain's
oldest Bank is portrayed in the media as a "rogue trader". Similar things were said of the
individuals whose speculations caused great losses for one of the wealthiest counties in the
United States, and for a series of major international companies.
22
It must be recognized that these were more than the acts of individuals who had miscalculated.
They were warnings that the system is in deep trouble. They were the consequences of policies
of deregulation, of edifying greed, and of placing free market forces on such a pedestal of
economic theory, that no place is left for principles of solidarity.
This is a Summit about more than noble aspirations. This is a Summit about hard realities. For
just as the economic folly of the 1930's led to the folly of World War II, so the policies of the
free market, pushed to an extreme, now threaten human security and could lead again to folly on
the
scale of those horrendous events of fifty years ago.
The warning is this: many communities around the globe are becoming social bombs, primed to
explode with increasing frequency and with unpredictable consequences.
The Appeal
This is the appeal. Let us not step backwards from the universal aspirations which nations and
peoples articulated when they adopted the Charter of the United Nations fifty years ago.
Let us not undo our global neighborhood's recognition, already in l946, that certain rights are
universal, founded in our very being, in our common humanity. Let us not turn away from
respect for basic freedoms - freedom of association, freedom of expression and the right to
organize. Let us work for an end to discrimination and for elimination of such scourges as the
cruel exploitation of little children.
It is important for the summit to make a commitment to education, which has a vital role to play
in relation to each of the three themes. As the Plan of Action states, education is an investment in
human resources, one of the keys to productive employment and development. Universal access
to quality education plays a crucial role in the achievement of greater equity and social justice, as
does the struggle against illiteracy, and the elimination of gender disparities. But more than
anything else, education, education for all, provides one of the vital underpinnings of democracy.
There is no more serious danger in today's world than a sense of helplessness and alienation from
political institutions.
So the appeal is this: Let not communities slide back into a kind of obscurantism, based on the
ignorance of the masses. And our appeal is also for action. From the outset, the Chairman of the
Preparatory Committee has said the follow-up will be more important than the Summit itself. We
agree. The adoption of this document is but the beginning.
The Proposal
Lastly, the message of the people to the Summit is a proposal. The implementation of the Plan
of Action will depend on the peoples of the world. People are searching for ways of having an
impact on events, of being actors rather than mere spectators, if not victims. The organizations
23
of civil society give people that capacity. Chapter V of the Plan of Action recognizes their role.
Sometimes, during the preparatory process, we felt like the Chorus in one of the plays of ancient
Greece - alternatively lamenting and applauding the actors. But today, you must recognize
organizations of people, as actors. Chapter V provides you with an opportunity to do that.
Our proposal is this: that governments and the inter-governmental agencies work together with
non-governmental and peoples' organizations in a true partnership for action. A true partnership
requires more than observation. It requires more than consultation. A true partnership requires
participation. Another way of saying it is to speak of empowerment. This is a word you have
heard often this week - empowerment of those who have until this day suffered discrimination,
deprivation, and degradation.
Our proposal is that you, the governments, open the way to such a partnership, and to such
empowerment.
Robert Harris
CONGO
Education International
Chemin Moise-Duboule 57
CH-1209 Geneva, Switzerland
Tel:+41-22/788 7300; Fax:+41-22/788 7330
24
The Cousteau Society
I stand before you at this great gathering, what is called a "summit of hope, commitment and
action." I pray it will be so. I remember such feelings of hope before--in the passions of the
corridors at Rio, in the unprecedented gathering of heads of state, in the tangible excitement that
something momentous was being achieved. I heard hope in the voices of the people. I even felt it
physically in the black-and-blue marks on my own arms from the crowds, as they pressed
together in a surging parade, shouting their expectation of change. I myself wrote that a "great
hope,
fragile but immense, had been born at Rio." there, too, commitments were made. I did everything
I could to help propagate my hope--I even signed all my letters, "in the spirit of Rio."
I carried my feelings to Cairo, where against the odds, a remarkable consensus was forged that
recognized human dignity, education and equality between men and women were the ingredients
needed to stabilize population growth. But, in the meantime, with billions of people inevitably
joining the world, I asked, "how shall we greet them?"
Never did I imagine what the answers would be. Never did I imagine that I would live to hear, in
the post-Rio world, foreign assistance referred to as "pouring money down a rathole". Never did
I imagine that the very basis of funding the United Nations would be called into question in the
50th anniversary of its birth. Never did I imagine that the richest countries in the world would, in
effect, turn their backs on the poorest.
In a world awash in luxury items, bombarded with advertising for Hollywood living standards,
and nearly a trillion dollars a year available to spend on military matters, only four countries
have reached the UN target of 0.7% of GNP, despite promises made at Rio. These four should
be
Congratulated. But, in the absence of other nations following suit, they are, with the exception of
Denmark, our host, reducing their contributions. Can we blame them, if we condemn the most
generous nations to be generous alone? Only six countries have exceeded 0.35 percent of GNP.
Eleven countries are below 0.35 percent.
In a world rushing to free trade and free capital to flow in the freest market in modern history, I
say the overseas development assistance statistics are a shame, even a disgrace.
Of course, even the 0.7% target does not represent all the money needed to eradicate poverty
and achieve the goals of this summit, let alone the Rio goals, or the goals of the world summit
for children, or Cairo, or any number of other important commitments already made and still
unfulfilled. But overseas assistance is vital to the most poor countries, and important to all.
Recently, in a most important speech, it was declared that the huge help to Mexico by the united
states was not only in the interest of Mexico, but in fact also in the interest of the united states.
this was probably inspired by the vicinity of Mexico and the united states. But all the nations of
the world are neighbors today.
25
Sharing also transcends the dollar amounts--help from the rich to the poor is proof that we are a
community of nations, and that people finally understand that security of the world is only as
strong as that of each human being, no matter where that person lives.
But even in rich countries, citizens feel insecure, fearing crime in their streets, the loss of their
jobs, pensions and health benefits. They fear they no longer matter and, frankly, often they don't
matter at all. People who are otherwise generous retrench, stifling their instincts to compassion.
only strong visionary leadership can rekindle these instincts and, to avoid a generalization of
violence, it is an obligation of leaders in rich countries to do so.
Leaders in poor countries must also re-examine their priorities, and shift their budgets toward
meeting human needs, mainly to develop education and reduce military expenditures. Otherwise,
they succumb to a useless game of waiting for the rich to act, while their own people languish.
The social development summit contains magnificent ideas, commitments to inspire the soul of
the human race. There is reference to many principles i hold dear and have worked for. There is
progressive language on debt relief, social safety nets, equality for women, even hard-to-promote
admission that military expenditures must be reduced. Dedicated delegates worked until two or
three in the morning for many days to prepare papers that will be signed here. But why?
Why prepare this summit, if its outcome cannot be insured? Why prepare this summit, if its fate
is left to drift on a sea of political emptiness? As long as people cannot be inspired to share, as
long as nations cling stubbornly to a narrow view of sovereignty and an obsolete view of national
security, we exist in a state of peril.
When I first explored the oceans, and literally gasped at the beauty before my eyes, none of the
thoughts I have today would have seemed possible to me. for I believed then that in a natural
world as magnificent as ours, surely the motivation of the human being would be as magnificent.
I could never have predicted my own pessimism and near despair, just as I could never have
predicted the environmental degradation and economic inequities we have come to take for
granted, or as normal and acceptable, in just my lifetime.
I beg the leaders of the world to have the courage to lead their people toward the realities of a
post-Rio world--a world where natural resources decrease while human numbers increase; a
world where wealth accumulates for the rich, but the poor are left further behind.
I beg the leaders of the world to remember their promises at Rio, as they sign new promises at
Copenhagen. I beg the leaders of the world not to negate the hope they ignited in 1992, for to do
so is to feed the cynicism and distrust of government that is already starting to poison the well of
democracy.
26
Let this summit, perhaps our last chance in this decisive century, prove that the united nations
can catalyze truly global actions for global betterment. let this summit generate results, as if it
were taking place in the very presence of the future generations whose interests it claims to
protect. And let this summit, finally, be truly the people's summit so that this decade may be
remembered as the one that indeed rescued the world.
Jacques-Yves Cousteau
The Cousteau Society
7 Rue de l'Amiral d'Estaing, F-75016 Paris, France
Tel:+33-1/53 67 77 77; Fax:+33-1/53 67 77 71
27
The Development Caucus
The Quality Benchmark for the Social Summit was conceived during the Second Session of the
Preparatory Committee in August 1994.It grew from the fear of NGOs in the Women's and
Development Caucuses that the Social Summit would not be addressing the economic and
political environment necessary to allow social development, nor the ways in which the
implementation of the Declaration and Programme of Action could be ensured.
Following the appeal by the NGOs the Draft Declaration was expanded to include an enabling
economic and political environment, structural adjustment programmes, and implementation
with specific attention given to women and Africa.
The Quality Benchmark has served since that time as an instrument for measuring progress made
in the Summit's preparations. It was also used as a tool for generating debate at the national
level,
engaging domestic groups in the substance of the Summit. More than 1,000 organisations have
endorsed the document and used it in their national campaigns for the Social Summit.
Now is the time to measure to what extent the Heads of State will sign a document that meets the
standards set by the Quality Benchmark. This is, therefore, the assessment of the Declaration
and Programme of Action against the criteria developed by non-governmental organisations that
have been engaged in the Summit's preparations.
The Declaration and Programme of Action encourages the ratification and avoidance of
reservations and acknowledges the importance of the Declaration of the Right to
Development, although interpreted as for individual and not collective rights; the Convention on
Economic, Social and Cultural Rights; the Convention on the Elimination of the
Discrimination of Women; the Rights of the Child; the relevant international instruments on
migrant workers; the Convention to Combat Desertification; the Declaration on Friendly
Relations between States and the ILO Conventions. No actions are included to further strengthen
the Human Rights framework in relation to social development beyond the Vienna Declaration
on Human Rights.
The Declaration and Programme of Action states that Structural adjustment programmes agreed
should include social development goals and protect people living in poverty and vulnerable
segments of society from budget reductions on social programmes and expenditure, while
increasing the quality and effectiveness of those expenditures. It is also agreed that the impact of
structural adjustment programmes on social development must be reviewed, including by means
of gender sensitive assessments.
A very first step is taken to create closer connections between the International Financial
Institutions and the Economic and Social Council of the United Nations with the request for
consideration of joint meetings of ECOSOC, the Development Committee of the World Bank
and the IMF.
28
In order to increase coordination of the implementation of the Summit's programme joint
meetings are proposed between the Secretary General and the Heads of the IMF, the World
Bank, ILO, and other UN agencies.
While the role of the WTO and its activities is not considered, the document recognises the
required support and cooperation of regional and international organisations, the United Nations
system - which includes the Bretton Woods institutions - in the implementation of the Social
Summit programme. The creation of instruments to make the International Financial Institutions
accountable is optional to interested countries.
The Summit's final documents re-affirm that poverty is aggravated by unsustainable patterns
of consumption and production causing a continued deterioration of the global environment. It
should be ensured that in accordance with Agenda 21 and other agreements sustained economic
growth and sustainable development respects the need to protect the environment and the
interests of future generations. In the document the full implementation of the Final Act of the
Uruguay Round is emphasised. It is agreed that assistance, and not compensation, should be
given to low income countries, particularly in Africa, which are not currently in a position to
benefit from the implementation of the Final Act. It is recognized that small and micro
enterprises must be supported, particularly in rural areas, as well as subsistence economies, to
secure their safe interaction with larger economies.
No mechanisms have been established to examine the implications of the new trade regime or
the operations of the World Trade Organisation through UN expert bodies or independent
reviews. The impact of the patenting of life forms on social development is not mentioned.
However coordination between the United Nations, the Bretton Woods Institutions and the
World Trade Organisation is promoted through reports to and meetings in coordination with
ECOSOC.
The right to food is recognised as well as the need to support the domestic efforts of Africa and
the least developed countries to increase food security. However, if protectionism is to be
avoided as the document outlines it remains unclear as to how these sectors can be protected.
The Declaration and Programme of Action promotes dynamic, open free markets, while
recognising the importance to intervene in markets to the extent necessary in order to harmonize
economic and social development. It also recognized that public polices are necessary to
correct market failures and promote social progress and stability. The call for the code of
conduct for transnational corporations is not included; they are requested to apply policies
conducive to social policies.
No new initiatives are proposed on debt. However, it appears as an important element of the
Social Summit agreements. These do not go beyond previous agreements reached in the Paris
Club, G7 and the General Assembly of the UN. The need to find solutions to multilateral debts
is explicitly recognised. The focus is on low income highly indebted countries whereas the
problems of middle income countries are not properly addressed. It is agreed to develop
29
techniques of debt conversion applied to social development programmes in conformity with
Summit priorities.
The target date of 2000 for achieving 0.7% of GDP for development assistance is not included
and no specific time frame has been presented in the documents for reaching this
internationally agreed standard. However, the Summit does call for new and additional
resources with reservations of the United States. The inclusion of the 20:20 compact is the only
qualitative criterion in the documents. However, it is optional to interested countries, the
priority social areas are not defined and the measurement is to be done on the basis of an
average of total ODA expenditure.
The documents states that the negative effects of excessive military expenditures, trade in arms,
especially those that are particularly injurious or have discriminatory effects, and an excessive
investment for arms production and aquisition should be recognised and addressed.
Throughout the document the involvement of civil society is encouraged. The Summit
encourages the creation and development of community organisations and no profit, nongovernmental organisations and the establishment of legislative frameworks, institutional
arrangements and consultative mechanisms for involving these organizations in the design,
implementation and evaluation of social development strategies and programmes. Other sectors
such as business enterprises, trade unions, farmers representative organisations and academic
and educational institutions are encouraged to contribute to the implementation of the
Programme of Action.
The importance of women in social development and the need for gender specific approaches
are recognised throughout the document, both in legal and policy terms. The inequality of
power relations between men and women and the unequal access to resources and employment is
addressed. First steps are taken to initiate the measurements of un-remunerative labour in
economic indicators. The importance of cultural diversity is acknowledged as are the
traditional rights to land - but not territories - and other resources of indigenous people. The
documents call for the formulation and strengthening of the protection of the human rights of
migrants. It also calls of the creation of the appropriate legal and political environment to
address the root causes of movements of refugees, to allow their voluntary return in safety and
dignity, also of internally displaced persons and enhance humanitarian and financial assistance
to refugees. The documents also recognise the need to avoid the displacement of people in
development programmes.
The Declaration and Programme of Action encompass a comprehensive set of parameters to
define poverty which can be used as a basis for the development of indicators to measure the
eradication of poverty. The Summit agrees to strengthen the United Nations system's capacity
for gathering and analyzing information and developing indicators for social development taking
into account the work carried out by different countries, in particular developing countries. The
document includes that within the ECOSOC Coordination Segment of 1995 a common
framework should be developed for the implementation of the outcome of UN conferences in
the economic and social fields with consideration to the role of Bretton Woods Institutions, as
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well as the regional Commissions and Banks. The document calls for an integrated
implementation, follow up and assessment of the outcome of the Summit together with the
results of other conferences. The General Assembly should review the effectiveness of the steps
taken to implement the outcome of the Summit with regard to poverty eradication in the
International Year for the Eradication of Poverty in 1996 and should hold a special session in the
year 200 for an overall review. ECOSOC has been given the task to oversee system-wide
coordination in the implementation and monitoring of the Summit outcome.
Assessment and Follow Up
The areas proposed by the Quality Benchmark for inclusion in the Social Summit Declaration
and Programme of Action are integrated in the final document. They have been given high
profile in the structure of the declaration. However, even though the agreements reached are
comprehensive, new and innovative steps for solving the problems described have been avoided.
The Summit re-affirms agreements reached earlier at a high political level and therefore it creates
an even larger obligation to implement the Declaration and Programme of Action.
The contribution of NGOs has been recognised through the access created in the preparatory
process. The recognition now needs to be translated in the follow up process at the national
level. The Quality Benchmark for the Social Summit continues to be an important instrument for
NGOs to measure the implementation of the Declaration and Programme of Action both at a
national and at international level.
Roberto Bissio
Instituto del Tercer Mundo
Casilla de Correo 1539, Montevideo, Uruguay
Tel:+598-2/496192; Fax:+598-2/419222
31
Disabled People's Organizations Umbrella Group
According to the United Nations, one person in ten has a disability and all of us will be affected
by disability for a shorter or longer period at some time in our lives.
Today, I am speaking on behalf of all organizations of disabled people represented at this global
event. We are people first, and only secondly do we have a disability. We reject the label of
'vulnerable' as it appears in the documents of the Summit; we are fellow citizens, with equal
rights and responsibilities. What makes us disadvantaged, are the obstacles we face in society
and its physical, social, economic, cultural and political structures. We look to this Summit to
break down the barriers to our full participation and equality.
All the themes of this Summit are highly relevant to us. We are the poorest of the poor in most
societies. Disability increases poverty and poverty increases disability. It is women who bear a
particular burden of poverty, both as carers and as disabled persons.
Two thirds of disabled people are estimated to be without employment. Social exclusion and
isolation are the day to day experiences of disabled persons. Too many must live in institutions.
We cannot and we will not tolerate such conditions any longer. Disabled people must be
included in the decisions, and above all, in the follow-up of the implementation of the plan of
action of this Summit.
Every paragraph and every sentence of International Human Rights Conventions and other legal
instruments apply to disabled people as well as to non-disabled people. But now we also have the
United Nations Standard Rules on the Equalization of Opportunities for Persons with
Disabilities.
The Special Rapporteur, Mr. Bengt Lindqvist, has written to all Governments asking some basic
questions about their policy towards the Standard Rules. So far, only 15 Governments have
responded. The disability NGOs call on every Government representative here to support the full
implementation of the Standard Rules in their country.
Governments need their national NGOs in working for a better future for disabled people.
Governments also need to ensure that a percentage of their development funding goes to
grassroots projects empowering disabled people. The UN needs the international NGOs. It is the
NGOs who work at the grassroots, with people, with public authorities and with the UN to create
a better life for disabled people and to realize the goals of this Summit. We disabled people
ourselves need to be empowered to combat poverty, unemployment and social exclusion.
The UN itself must set a better example: it could employ many more qualified disabled people; it
could provide better access to UN meetings; it could provide documentation in Braille or tape; it
could recognize Sign Language as one official UN language.
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Only as equals can we disabled people contribute our full potential to social development. Equal
opportunities can only be realized if society adapts itself to the diversity of its members. A
society good for disabled people is a better society for all.
Claus Lachwitz
International League of Societies for Persons with Mental Handicap/
Inclusion International on behalf of the World Federation of the Deaf, World Blind Union,
International League of Societies for Persons with Mental handicap/Inclusion International,
Rehabiliation International, and Disabled Peoples' International
International League of Societies for Persons with Mental Handicap
248 Avenue Louise, Bte 17, B-1050 Brussels, Belgium
Tel:+32-2/502 7734
World Federation of the Deaf
P.O. Box 65, SF-00401 Helsinki, Finland
Tel:+358-0/580 31; Fax:+358-0/580 3770
World Blind Union
58 Avenue Bosquet, F-75007 Paris, France
Rehabilitation International
25 East 21 Street, New York, N.Y. 10010, USA
Tel:+1-212/420 1500; Fax: +1-212/505 0781
st
Disabled Peoples' International
101-7 Evergreen Place, Winnipeg Manitoba R3L 2T3, Canada
33
Eurostep
In January 1994 we were able to address you during the first preparatory committee meeting.
“We still have a long road to go,” was our conclusion at that time.We would like to congratulate
you on the results from the process we went through. It has been a process full of discoveries for
many of us, and we are grateful for the opportunity at this final stage to mention a few highlights.
As non-governmental organisations we have discovered how difficult it is to change the political
reality of the world we live in. Yet, as you may remember, during the second PrepCom, quite
desperately, we launched the Ten Points to Save the Social Summit. Urgently the NGOs in the
women’s and development caucuses pulled together their ten priorities, which, in our views were
vital to the success of the summit.
Since then the agenda of the summit changed. Structural adjustment was included in the
commitments, so was debt, and more serious proposals on aid came into the negotiations. Space
was made for the fundamental frameworks that help create accountability between governments and
international organizations. Specific attention was given to women and to Africa. We were happy
with the documents presented to us after PrepCom III.
The last week has shown us that reality is harsh. In the final negotiations for a document that our
government leaders will sign, many of the innovative and further reaching commitments have
disappeared. We are disappointed, since our hope was raised. The question we have to answer
now is, was it worth the investment?
In this process of preparing in cooperation with you for this summit we have discovered both the
space, the strength and the capacity of the civil organisations we represent. Together with our
Southern partners we found that we did have a common agenda, and that we did have the
arguments that helped to influence the outcome of the summit. However, we have also
experienced that often governments feel threatened by our offer to cooperate in finding ways to
solve the problems of poverty around the world. Some of our friends were threatened not to
leave the country to attend the summit. It shows, Mr. President, that many of our governments
are not committed to serve their country in the way they claim to do.
We feel that with the results of the summit, even if they are not as concrete and specific as we
had wished, we have a programme and a tool in hand that will make a beginning of addressing
poverty. It does address the roots of the increase in poverty, it does define poverty in a much
more comprehensive way and it does acknowledge that basic services, but also the self
organisation of people, are priorities for social development.
We now have a Declaration which is signed by our governments’ leaders. We will hold them
accountable to their signatures and we will do it in the cooperative fashion of non-governmental
organisations from many different countries. We learned so much from each other, from the
interactions between people living in very different realities, from the debates between men and
women, and the meeting between civil society and governments. In this spirit we intend to stay
alert, to develop activities with which we can hold our governments, both in the North and in the
34
South, accountable to the implementation of the Declaration. We offered our cooperation in the
preparatory process of this summit and now we offer our cooperation in ensuring the
implementation of the summit’s agreements.
NOVIB and EUROSTEP will regard the Social Summit Declaration as a standard for policy
setting and implementation both at the national and the regional level. In this summit women
were identified as key actors for social development. Not far ahead of us is the Women’s
Conference to be held in Beijing. We will seek the further specification of the summit’s
Declaration and we will work in the 180 days campaign to ensure that the results of the summit
will be implemented. Likewise, at the international level, we expect ECOSOC, the World Bank,
the IMF, the WTO and TNCs to implement the request put upon them. Likewise, back at home,
we are determined to ensure that the declaration is implemented by our governments.
Once we warned Chairman Somavía that the summit would become a lion which could roar but
had not teeth. Tonight, at the eve of the summit, we feel being the teeth of a very large lion
laying before us. The lion, which is called the Social Summit, is full of royalty and highness, it
looks beautiful and important, but its only strength in reality is its teeth. That is what we will be,
that is both an offer and a promise.
Max Van Den Berg
Eurostep
115 Rue Stevin, B-1040 Brussels, Belgium
Tel:+32-2/231 1709; Fax:+32-2/230 0348
35
Fédération Mondiale des Cite Unies
Pour la première fois de notre histoire, la population urbaine dépassera à la fin de ce siècle la
population rurale. Réceptacles de la croissance démographique et des phénomènes migratoires,
les villes sont des témoins de l'émergence de conditions d'inégalités sociales qui engendrent des
dysfonctionnements de toute nature, qui conduisent à la marginalisation de plus en plus rapide de
couches de plus en plus larges de la population et portent en eux le germe d'une dégradation
inacceptable des conditions de cohésion indispensable a toute organisation humaine tournée vers
le Développement et le bien être.
L'accès au logement, à la santé, a l'éducation, les opportunités d'emploi sont de plus en plus
inaccessibles à beaucoup d'habitants et entraînent nos villes dans une spirale de pauvreté,
d'exclusion, de violence et d'insécurité.
Cette évolution que connaît la plupart des villes et aires métropolitaines atteint son paroxysme
lorsque les Etats ne peuvent plus assurer les moyens nécessaires à la mise en oeuvre de
mécanismes de redistribution et de solidarité. C'est le cas dans de nombreuses régions du monde
ou règnent la guerre, des nationalismes belligérants, les luttes ethniques ou religieuses. C'est le
cas également dans de nombreuses régions où la démocratie est en régression.
Mais la ville, c'est aussi le lieu où se concentrent les rêves, l'accès a la culture, aux services d'une
manière générale; ce sont des espaces complexes propices à la création industrielle, artisanale; ce
sont des espaces ou se forgent progressivement de nouveaux rapports humains, où se revendique
une nouvelle citoyenneté. Ainsi, les maires, les élus locaux, leurs équipes administratives et
techniques, les responsables de communautés de base sont comptables au jour le jour de cette
confrontation des inquiétudes et des espoirs des populations.
Elles ne le sont pas de manière abstraite, elles sont le niveau le plus proche de la population et
des espoirs qu'elle forge: assurer un accès équitable aux services et aux équipements, assurer un
accès équitable a l'emploi et finalement assurer un développement et une cohésion sociale.
Confrontes aux problèmes concrets, capables de réunir toutes les parties prenantes dans la
définition de stratégies de développement local partagé, les autorités locales sont porteuses d'une
dynamique de "gouvernance locale" sans laquelle les politiques sectorielles ou les approches
compartimentées sont rarement pertinentes face à la globalité des problèmes d'exclusion.
Une partie importante du défi développement social se joue donc dans les villes et il faut d'abord
que la communauté internationale et les autorités nationales le reconnaissent et élaborent
progressivement les réformes des systèmes institutionnels permettant de développer et de
renforcer la décentralisation qui articule de manière différente l'exercice des responsabilités.
Cette décentralisation ne doit pas être qu'un exercice de transfert de responsabilités mais leur
organisation et l'affectation de moyens correspondants aux niveaux les plus adaptent suivant un
principe de subsidiarité active.
36
Les maires du monde entier doivent aussi reconnaître que le traitement de l'exclusion suppose de
faire une place réelle à la parole et a l'initiative des exclus eux mêmes ou de ceux qui sont en
passe de le devenir.
Nous devons en tant que réseaux internationaux de villes ou autorités locales appeler les maires
du monde a initier un diagnostic de leurs situations locales, à accorder une priorité au
développement social et à la mise en oeuvre de stratégies négocies pour le promouvoir, à
accorder enfin une attention prioritaire aux couches les plus démunies de la population.
C'est ce constat général et cette ambition commune qui animent les principales organisations
internationales de villes et autorités locales depuis la conférence sur l'environnement durable qui
s'est tenue à Rio en 1992.Regroupées dans le cadre du Groupe 4, les principales associations
internationales conduisent depuis lors un dialogue et une coopération soutenue avec le système
des Nations Unies pour faire reconnaître et partager ces orientations.
La convocation a New York, en août dernier, d'une Conférence des Maires sur le Développement
Social organisée par le Programme des Nations Unies pour le Développement a constitué un pas
important dans cette voie qui me permet aujourd'hui au nom du Groupe des 4 de présenter ici trés
brièvement la contribution du mouvement mondial des villes.
La prochaine Conférence Habitat II devrait permettre aux villes et autorités locales du monde
d'etre au centre des débats sur le développement et l'environnement durable et d'être, nous
l'espérons, reconnue comme partenaire essentiel de l'élaboration des stratégies et programmes
d'aide au développement.
Parce que les villes sont un niveau de reconstruction de cohésion sociale et de solidarité au
niveau local, leur mouvement est un facteur de démocratisation des relations internationales qui
couvrent maintenant toutes les dimensions de la vie économique, sociale et culturelle et excède
largement le cadre des compétences et des possibilités des seuls gouvernements.
Un projet global a caractère universaliste qui s'appuie sur le progrès économique, le respect de
l'environnement, sur les libertés publiques et les droits fondamentaux de l'homme, sur une
citoyenneté locale solidaire du monde, doit aujourd'hui constituer un fondement de la ville et de
sa présence internationale.
Les villes et autorités locales croient à la possibilité de mettre en oeuvre ce projet.
Pour cela, elles revendiquent que les recommandations de la présente Conférence prennent en
compte les déclarations antérieures du Sommet de la Terre à Rio, du Colloque des Maires de
New York et sollicitent de la présente Conférence:
- que l'Organisation des Nations Unies accorde aux autorités locales et a leurs associations un
statut propre qui leur permette de faire entendre leurs voix et d'influencer concrètement les
débats et décisions qui les Concernent ainsi que les citoyens qui vivent dans les villes;
37
- qu'elle incite les gouvernements respectifs à reconnaître le rôle essentiel des collectivités
locales dans la mise en oeuvre de stratégie de développement social et dans la participation des
collectivités locales a l'édification de nouvelles solidarités mondiales;
- qu'elle incite ces mêmes gouvernements a reformer leur système institutionnel pour accroître
leur rôle des autorités locales sans pour autant abandonner leurs responsabilités qui sont d'assurer
à chacun le respect des droits fondamentaux de l'être humain;
- qu'elle demande aux maires et responsables du monde entier de considérer la reconquête d'une
cohésion sociale au niveau local comme une priorité de leur fonction et de leur mandat;
- qu'elle affirme que l'echange et la coopération directe entre les villes et autorités locales du
monde constituent à la fois un facteur d'accélération d'une doctrine et de pratiques à capitaliser et
à diffuser au niveau mondial et un champ de solidarité indispensable à la recomposition d'un
équilibre mondial prenant mieux en compte l'homme et son bien être;
- qu'elle demande que des programmes spécifiques de coopération tant bilatéraux que
multilatéraux soient directement accessibles aux autorités locales et qu'une part plus importante
de cette aide au développement soit orientée vers le milieu urbain.
Les associations de villes sont conscientes des difficultés, des changements de comportement et
même des a priori auxquels une telle évolution peut etre confrontée. Elles sont déterminées à
d'abord s'organiser entre elles, à renforcer leur coordination et leur coopération, mais elles savent
que leur mouvement est irréversible, qu'il est déjà pris en compte dans le cycle de préparation de
la plupart des grandes conférences des Nations Unies, qu'il est un des facteurs retenus dans les
réflexions sur la finalité et les modalités de l'aide au développement.
Cette évolution tout à fait positive a d'ores et déjà permis une concertation entre les Nations
Unies et le mouvement des villes pour convoquer dans le cadre de la Conférence Habitat II la
première assemblée mondiale des villes et autorités locales qui permettra de consolider ce
mouvement des villes, d'évaluer les progrès accomplis et de formaliser une structure unifiée de
représentations internationales des autorités locales. Je vous remercie.
Jorge Sampaio
Fédération Mondiale des Cités Unies
22 rue d'Alsace, F-92532 Levallois Perrett Cedex, France
Tel:+33-1/47 39 36 86, Fax:+33-1/47 39 36 85
38
ICC/IOE High-Level Group for the WSSD
The international business community, represented by the International Chamber of Commerce
(ICC) and the International Organisation of Employers (IOE), welcomes the attention being
given by this important gathering to the questions of poverty, employment and social integration.
Without visible progress in dealing with all three of these basic aspects of social life, we will not
establish the foundation for the stable societies necessary for sustained economic growth and
development and the accompanying creation of wealth, which are the recognised prerequisites
for social development on any meaningful scale.
The Declaration and Programme of Action, to which Heads of State and Government are being
called upon to subscribe, underline the crucial contribution which the private sector is expected
to make toward achieving the social goals which the international community has set out during
the preparations for this Summit. As global business organisations, it is natural that our attention
should be focussed on job creation, particularly because, as we have indicated previously, we
believe that employment creation is the principal mechanism through which we can attack the
other two main concerns of the Social Summit - poverty and social integration.
We appreciate that, with countries around the world placing increasing reliance on the market
system for the functioning of their economies, people are looking to the private sector as the
primary source of employment creation. Some go so far as to assert that the level of employment
maintained by companies should be a main criterion of their social performance and that
business should abide by this particular measure of good social behaviour.
Business generally certainly accepts that it must be a responsible partner in the social order in
which it operates. To do this, however, it must be able, first of all, to perform its basic function
of providing consumers with desired goods and services of high quality in what is often today an
intensely competitive market. To the extent that an enterprise is able to carry out this role
effectively, it will be able to generate new jobs and thus respond to its central social
responsibility.
In the context in which it must operate, an enterprise cannot make job creation its principal
objective, to the subordination of other pertinent considerations. The generation of employment
opportunities must inevitably flow from the success of an enterprise in maintaining its
commercial viability in an often harsh market place. If it were compelled to maintain an
artificially high level of employment, or even if it attempted to do so of its own volition without
regard to the long-term effect on its operations, its competitiveness would be put at risk and its
potential to maintain any level of employment would be endangered. In short, it is commercial
success which permits and encourages a high degree of entrepreneurial social responsibility,
which often goes well beyond job creation.
This is not to say that all enterprises will respond in the same way to competitive pressures to
reduce operational costs and otherwise improve efficiency. There are all kinds of examples of
companies which have moved to a reduction of staff and work force only reluctantly and perhaps
as a last resort.
39
It is one thing to accept that a determination of how best to organise its assets, human and
otherwise, must be left to the decision of the enterprise; however, it is another to suggest that,
unless its maintains some notional level of employment, it is not being socially responsible.
We have stressed during the discussions in the Preparatory Committee that an essential
prerequisite - if the private sector as a whole is to make Hs full contribution to the achievement
of the broad social goals which concern this Summit - is a sound policy framework, both at the
national and international levels, which will promote and encourage growth and development.
More specifically, a sound policy framework must include:
- stable and consistent macroeconomic policy management, free of budgetary excesses and lax
monetary policy;
- policies which encourage the expansion of international trade and investment;
- an institutional and policy environment that allows entrepreneurial initiative at all levels of
business; and
- a flexible regulatory framework that enables adaptation to economic
change.
Without these conditions, an effective, overarching strategy for the long-term creation of
employment will not be in place. If, in a market economy, the private sector is to be looked to as
the main engine for achieving that goal - and rightly so - then it is equally appropriate to look to
government to provide a conducive enabling environment.
We, therefore, welcome the emphasis given in the Draft Declaration and Programme of Action
on the importance of:
- an open, equitable and mutually beneficial economic environment;
- sound and stable macroeconomic policies to encourage broadbased, sustained economic growth
and development;
- promotion of enterprise and productive investment;
- expanded access to open and dynamic markets through full implementation of the Uruguay
Round agreements;
- active policies for full, productive and freely-chosen employment;
- the removal of structural constraints to economic growth and employment creation;
40
- the easing of regulations that discourage private initiative and the removal of obstacles faced by
small- and medium-sized enterprises;
- better access to general education, vocational training and retraining
programmes for displaced workers.
All of these are important elements of any coherent approach to the problem of employment
creation. If poverty, unemployment and social disintegration are to be successfully addressed,
continued discipline in their application will be required. At the same time, in order to maintain
social cohesion, a minimum level of social protection will have to be ensured for those who
suffer from economic adjustment and assistance extended to them to find new jobs in the
productive sector. The Social Summit has a unique role to play in raising public awareness and
moving society to make the efforts necessary to this end.
Within the limits of the economic realities in which it must operate, business intends to make its full
contribution to the practical implementation of the general goals of the Summit. This has been our
position at the Preparatory Committee. The ICC/IOE appreciate this opportunity to reiterate this
commitment.
Hari Shankar Singhania
ICC/IOE High-Level Group for the WSSD
International Chamber of Commerce
38 Cours Albert Ier, F-75008 Paris, France
Tel:+33-1/49 53 28 18; Fax:+33-1/49 53 2835
41
The Independent Commission for Population and Quality of Life
The Independent Commission on Population and Quality of Life shares the core vision for social
development conveyed by this Conference. And it does so with a tremendous sense of urgency and
responsibility towards the future.
Indeed, if the international community is not able to cope with the social development of all the
people on this planet today; if it has in its midst 1.3 billion people living in absolute poverty and
millions, portrayed in a poignant way in the NGO Forum, with an undue share of suffering; if it has
generated in the very hub of the rich countries decline in work opportunities and marginalization of
growing sectors of the population; how can it cope with the expected increase in population during
the coming decades - from 2.5 billion according to the low estimates (equivalent to 2 more Chinas)
to 4.1 billion, according to the medium estimate (the equivalent of the whole world of 75 on top of
today's world ?
The Rio and the Cairo Conference have clearly shown that the factors that create threats for
human life on the planet, that shake human security and may endanger collective survival and
security, are the result of the combined effect of population growth and poverty with wasteful
patterns of consumption and with damaging technologies.Social development cannot ignore
those factors. On the contrary. A realistic programme of action for social development has to go
to the roots of the problems at stake.The Independent Commission on Population and Quality of
Life is unanimously convinced that this is only possible if the international community is ready
to challenge the unspoken and implicit social contract underlying such problems. We welcome
the reference made by the Secretary General to a new social contract.
We believe firmly that the social contract in societies where people will be empowered, free and
participative will find a new dynamic balance between different social groups, very specially
between men and women; and will give a more humane face to the system of production.
Such a new social contract will provide the coherent frame within which poverty, unemployment
and exclusion can be effectively fought.
A decisive element of this new social contract is, in the eyes of the Commission, a reshaped gender
contract. New possibilities of participation both in family responsibilities and in professional and
civic responsibilities will then be open to men and women alike.If discrimination against women
42
does not end and if women do not assume an active role at all levels of decision-making, the
problems confronting humankind today won't be solved.
Only a social contract where women and men will be freed from the patriarchal distribution of roles
and power between the sexes will allow women to contribute fully to an improved quality of life for
all, and will empower women in such a way that we can then realistically plan for the eradication of
poverty.
-
In this context, we consider:
that specific strategies against poverty, worked out with concrete targets at the national
level, must aim, without hesitation, at women as their central focus;
that social policies answering the basic needs of women, and, particularly, addressing their
unmet needs in health and education, should be the cornerstone of social development in the
coming decade. In this context, the Commission strongly supports the 20/20 proposal as a
decisive tool for progress on this path.
The social contract must also be transformed in the assumptions underlying its production and
consumption scheme. Most of all, it must include a radical shift in what has been already called
the natural contract.This is what the women's movement, represented in hundreds of NGOs has
been saying during these days at the Forum and at this tribune.New costs deriving from choice of
technologies, production of wastes, requirements of marketing have to be internalized.
The consequences of such a process of clarification will be far fetched. Policies concerning priceformation and fiscal charges will arise. Patterns of consumption will change and will move nearer
to conditions of a dignified quality of life for all. Trade, which is blind to the needs of humans and
of nature, will be regulated and its gains redistributed with equity.Likewise the nature and number
of work opportunities will change and be enriched. It is an urgent task to draw up a new
understanding and definition of work, as it evolves specially from women's manifold experiences ranging from the meaning and conditions of the informal sector in so many countries of the South to
the consequences of the concept of active society evolving in the industrialized countries of the
North.
As a consequence of the changes in social contract, economy will have to redirect its goals. From
the current dominant approach, it will have to evolve towards an economy always geared to people's
quality of life.This is why the Commission considers that the appraisal of decisions made at the
international level and concerning directly the basis of the social contract needs to be channelled
into a new international agreement and put into open discussion and negotiation between
governments and civil society.The social contract, seen in these different dimensions, is not a far
away optional scenario or even less an utopian dream. It is an imperative of ethical responsibility if
we want to reach a minimum level of equity and justice at a global scale.
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To make all this effective, the Independent Commission on Population and Quality of Life is
convinced that there is a strong need for an all-encompassing concept and attitude to respond to the
urgency of the steps to be made. We "borrow" from the women's movement the concept of the
politics of care as the frame for the political decision-making required at this stage of humankind's
history.
In this way, responsible attentiveness will be created. Commitment will go beyond words and will
be channelled into concerned, competent and compassionate action.The politics of care, we are
firmly convinced, will help to create "the enabling environment" by which life can be sustained,
nourished and strengthened.
Maria Lourdes Pintasilgo
Independent Commission for Population and Quality of Life
187 Vaugirard, F-75015 Paris, France
Tel:+33-1/40 56 00 79; Fax:+33-1/45 66 02 63
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International Center for Economic Growth
It is a significant privilege to speak in this forum... and on Women's Day. After listening to a
group of illustrious and outstanding ladies, I complement the messages given here with some
concepts about targeting and delivering results.
I speak on behalf of 340 public Policy research institutes from 117 countries from all continents.
Those institutes (NGO's), affiliated in our international network, work efficiently in their
countries to improve public policies for sustainable growth and human development. They know
that to combat poverty, generate employment and improve social integration, we need both
human development and economic growth. They have to be consistently defined and achieved
through integral and coherent policies and active programs. They need the participation of the
poor in an enabling environment.
First we too highlight the fundamental role of women in development and social integration. In
full equality with men, they can make the difference for integral development and poverty
eradication in this and the next generation.
In this outstanding World Summit we have gathered to raise awareness, to awaken the
consciousness of humanity, to define a guideline for action, to set standards, to gather technical
experience about what effectively works, to cement consensus and to unite international political
will to address the problem everywhere. We do it because nothing short of the incorporation
of the poor to development everywhere can secure lasting peace.
The results of this Summit have to be carried to every corner of the earth, to every activity in
every region of our countries. ICEG and the network of institutes have contributed to the
outstanding work of Ambassador Somavia and the U.N. Preparatory Committee concrete
information about programs that produce results in countries from every continent. The network
of institutes will contribute further, communicating the results of the Summit through Seminars
in their countries. We thank the Ford Foundation for their generous support of this effort.
As we think and dialogue about our objectives, let's remember that the key to concrete results is
the participation of the poor, in the empowerment of those people, in their communities, in their
countries, with policies and programs that enable them to participate, responsibly, fully, gainfully
and constructively.
I highlight then two sets of issues: One the production and evaluation of results. And two, the
basis for combating poverty, generating employment and improving social integration.
Production and evaluation of Results
-programs need to be defined working together with the poor, where they
are, who they are, what they need, to be empowered, to be incorporated;
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-program execution need to be evaluated. Do they have sufficient budget, are they cost effective,
are they competently staffed and organized, do they relate to the clients of the services, are they
sufficiently decentralized, do both public and private entities participate in their implementation.
-program results need to be evaluated. Indicators showing concrete improvements in the human
condition need to be established and gathered periodically. They should be based on full samples
of people served, differentiated and related to specific aspects of projects. The benefits and the
cost need to be measured and recorded.
That work is needed in every country, for every program, and the international community can
make a most effective contribution providing technical assistance, training and finance.
The basics for action:
Empowerment of people in an enabling environment that fosters
participation in sustainable growth and development. That is,
-imbedding people with human capital. The young comprise the majority of human kind.
Effective nutrition, health, water and sanitation, education and training, family and community,
are the key to empowerment.
-given that, then employment generation and support for production activities with credit,
property rights, technical assistance, information are the key;
-physical infrastructure, including feeder roads, housing, electricity,
communications, are indispensable complements;
- strengthening of community values that foster mutuality of interest and
human solidarity;
-but in many cases, outright temporary subsidies are critical, as long as they move people to
empowerment and participation;
-dynamic and sustainable economic growth that expands income and opportunity and that gives
meaning to empowerment and participation.
That requires the enabling environment of economic and social policies that provides the basic
needs with the full participation of the poor, and that improves the quality of economic growth
by estimulating the incorporation of the poor: growth that incorporates, not growth that
isolates, the poor.
In a world moving toward more effective democratic political systems and dynamic market
economies, there is no room for a struggle of the market vs the state. All sides need to
complement each other, in a consistent way that produces results for those that now participate
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gainfully and for those that are our central concern, today and tomorrow, the poor and the
marginalized.
Participation, empowering programs, enabling policy environment established by governments,
dynamic growth and participation by the private market economy, implementation of programs
by civil society (which by definition is non-public) and evaluation, is the structure and the
agenda.
It has to occur at the local level within the national culture. We can learn from each other's
experiences internationally.The international community should set the standards, create the
consensus, spread the word and stimulate political will.
Let all people know that, with God's help and with strong moral values and shared convictions,
it can truly be a win-win journey. Let's commit ourselves to that noblest of causes.
Nicolás Ardito Barletta
International Center for Economic Growith (ICEG)
Calle Ricardo Arias y Calle 50, 1er Piso
P.O. Box 7737, Panama, Zona 9, Panama
Tel/Fax: +507/640040
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The International Confederation Of Free Trade Unions
First of all, let me say I am pleased and honoured to have been invited to address this gathering
on behalf of the International Confederation of Free Trade Unions. There is no doubt that the
Summit has captured the world's attention, and focused it on issues of global concern: issues that
lie at the heart of trade unionism, and on the lessons that we have all learnt - or should have
learnt over recent years.
The first lesson is that the free market system is a supremely efficient wealth-creating machine.
The second lesson is that the market will not share that wealth out. How could it? And why
should it? All over the world, the gap between rich and poor is becoming a chasm. Left to its
own devices, the system breeds gross inequalities that are clearly unsustainable. The recently
published ILO report spells out the startling scale of the world's biggest scandal - chronic and
growing unemployment. And remember the ILO figures are more than points on a graph. Every
one of them represents a shameful waste of our most precious resource: people What they need
are jobs in conditions which release their creative potential.
And then there are the millions of people in the informal sector; the women and girls toiling
away in export processing zones; and the world's 200 million child laborers. All are working in
degrading and unacceptable conditions.
Is this the New World Order we were promised after the collapse of communism? Is it
acceptable in the age of the information superhighway, that armies of citizens have to scavenge
on rubbish tips to earn enough to live on? Is it acceptable that one bank can gamble away the
equivalent of twice the annual education budget of India?
The answer from Copenhagen has to be a resounding no. We are here because we all know that
the global economic system is not working efficiently or fairly. The proponents of unregulated
free markets do not have answers to the global social crisis that their philosophy is creating, or to
the lingering malaise of the debt crisis. Governments determined to tackle this waste and
exploitation of humanity should try looking at the world's most successful companies, rather than
at the most rapacious. Almost without exception, those companies have built their success on
teamwork, and participation, and decent pay and conditions. This is the message that should
come from this Summit - that for companies and countries, co-operation and justice are
productive.
Our message is clear. And the actions we propose must show the world that we mean to tackle
the problem. The Declaration and Programme of Action have not quantified the Summit's
ambitions. But the political will they do express will have to be translated into tangible targets at
national and international levels. We will need precise objectives around which resources and
ideas can be focused and made coherent through new mechanisms for international and
interagency co-operation.
We believe we can play a part in building an effective and co-ordinated response to the
Summit's commitments Ninety-five per cent of trade union's actions end in agreement. We know
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that it pays to co-operate And we believe that our presence -- from Copenhagen to the
workplace -- in the follow-up to the summit can help governments to realise the value of
co-operation. But we cannot take up this responsibility fully if basic workplace rights are not
respected throughout the world. Let me be specific: I'm talking about freedom of association;
freedom to organise; freedom from discrimination in employment; and freedom from forced
labour, especially for children.
These workplace values are the principles on which on which we can build the Global Solidarity
Pact the Secretary-General called for in his opening address. They are the values of a free
society, and a free world. They ought to be the values of a free market. A global system that
ignores them -- that fails to grasp the difference between liberty and licence -- will never marry
growth to social justice.
Bill Jordan
International Confederation of Free Trade Unions (ICFTU)
Bvd Emile Jacqmain, 155, 1210 Brussels
Tel: +32-2/224 0211 Fax: 32-2/201 5815
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International Council of Women
I am past president of ICW and speaking on behalf of the current president Kuraisin Sumhadi
who has been unavoidably detained. But, our organization does not want to lose the opportunity
to address the Social Summit especially on such an important day as the international women's'
day.
Priorities of ICW include the girl child, women in economies, women in development. ICW is
convinced that the girl child is the women of tomorrow and we think that it is the task of a
women's organization, which has worked for women since 1888 to take on the responsibility for
the women of tomorrow. First priority in doing so is to see that her nutritional needs are
provided; her education includes education for life, reproductive education for choice and
responsible parenthood. Women in economics includes empowerment of women in decision
making, financial training and opportunities which include equal access to credit and marketing.
In the field of employment women must have improved access to the labour marked.
Discrimination and exclusion for health reasons, especially HIV must be eliminated.
In rural areas and poor urban areas and in countries with economies in transition women's small
business initiatives are the backbone of the economy of their family and community. ICW has
always followed the leading ideas of World Summits and World Conferences organized during
this 50 years of the UN. We have also initiated programs and projects which have resulted
in new proposals for the UN and which have been taken into consideration by various UN
organizations through our Permanent Reps.
One of these is the responsibility of the father for his offspring not only financially but also in the
caring and nuturing for the children. Looking forward to the Beijing Conference and its eleven
priorities, ICW will continue to work towards the elimination of violence against women in
society and in the family.
Violence and crime within the privacy of the home must be addressed by the civil society. The
state must take responsibility regarding the defense of the integrity of the person and of the
human rights. There is no difference in violence perpetrated by state agents or private persons.
Where ever violence is perpetrated e.g. in prison, in the street or in the home, everywhere it is
violence. I want to conclude here because there has not been time to prepare a more detailed
statement after the desistement of her President.
In conclusion I am sure to summarize the feelings of our membership by saying that to develop
the full potential of a women generates more economic and social possibilities for the
community and the civil society.
Lily Boeykens
International Council of Women
13 Rue Caumartin, F-75009 Paris, France
Tel:+33-1/47 42 19 40
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International Council On Social Welfare
The International Council on Social Welfare, of which I have the honour to be the president, is a
truly global non-governmental membership organisation which represents a wide range of
national and international organisations that seek to advance social welfare, social justice and
social development. The well-being of people has been the central concern of the Council since
its establishment more than 65 years ago.
Our basic mission is to promote forms of social and economic development which aim to reduce
poverty, hardship and vulnerability throughout the world, especially amongst disadvantaged
people. We strive for recognition and protection of fundamental rights to food, shelters
education, health care and security because we believe that these rights are essential foundations
for freedom, justice and peace. Consequently, we also seek to advance equality of opportunity,
freedom of self-expression, participation and access to human services.
The UN World Summit on Social Development is a unique opportunity for the world
community to open a new chapter in global social development. The International Council on
Social Welfare calls upon the world community, represented in this Summit, to recognise and act
upon the insight that poverty and social injustice are not only intolerable from ethical and
humanistic points of view. but also retard the pursuit of peace, security and sustainable economic
development throughout the world.
But it is not enough to just oppose the most extreme cases of injustice, impoverishment,
discrimination and violence on an ad hoc basis and through short-term social and developmental
policies. The Summit should raise the worlds consciousness on the global context of social
development and its interrelation with prevailing economic ideologies and political orientations.
It should be the starting point of the development of a new framework of ethics based on the
universal recognition of indivisible human rights - in their social, economic, cultural, civil and
political dimensions. This obviously requires a new understanding of human need and a new
culture of sharing the resources and the opportunities of this fragile and endangered world.
An essential precondition for this kind of change is that the signatories of the Declaration and
Program of Action of this Summit quickly and effectively implement their commitments so that
the expectations of people all over the world will not be deceived but that the promises become
relative in their daily lives. Only if governments live up to their words over the next years will
they keep their credibility and their raison d'être.
The International Council on Social Welfare has been actively and constructively involved in
every phase of the preparatory process leading to the Summit. We have mobilized our global
resources - in personal, intellectual, organizational and financial terms - to inform NGOs about
the Summit and to motivate them to participate in the endeavour, to contribute ourselves directly
to the Summit's content and to give support to the process itself. We have advocated, and will
continue to advocate five major priorities for action.
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First, a concerted effort should be made to achieve universal ratification of all human rights
agreements - especially the Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights - be the year
2000. The resources and mechanisms for monitoring and enforcing these agreements should be
strengthened.
Second, the Economic and Social Council should be strengthened to play the central role
envisaged for it in the United Nations Charter. This should include greater involvement in
international considerations of key economic issues, and the regular conduct of public hearings
with active involvement of civil society. Third, vigorous and coordinated action should be taken
to improve the flow of private business investments in ways which will enhance social
development. This will require, among other things, reform of the international financial system
and of the tax systems.
Fourth, urgent action should be taken to cancel the debt of severely-indebted low-income
countries, and to announce specific timetables for raising official development assistance to the
agreed target of 0.7% of GNP. Fifth, high-level regional reviews should be conducted every two
years to facilitate and evaluate implementation of the Summit agreements. These reviews should
provide substantial opportunities for input by NGOs
Today we cannot be entirely satisfied with the results of the political negotiations. We had hoped
for more - for more advanced concepts, for stronger commitments and for more concrete target
lines and dates. But we recognize that a first and decisive step has been done by the political
leaders of the world. For the first time in human history they have dealt with the basic questions
of humanity and they have tried to come to a common perception of the problems and create a
new understanding of the needs of people. With all the good will of the actors, the effort has
certainly shown great imperfections. However, it seems to me that at least a new language
translates the shared concerns and the common preoccupations. And this is very important
indeed.
Next Monday the International Council on Social Welfare will start the second phase of its
strong involvement in the Summit progress. As a global network which is rooted in local and
national organizations dealing with people's needs, their misery and hopes, but also using their
imagination and their capacities, we will closely monitor the follow-up of the Summit, the
implementation of the commitments and the plan of action. We will acknowledge and strongly
support progress made and equally strongly denounce failures and lack of action. In partnership
with other NGO networks and civil society at large we will make sure that the drive created by
the Summit will not be forgotten and keep the pressure high so that the issues of social
development and human security will not be scrapped from the political agenda.
Dirk Jarré
International Council on Social Welfare
380 St. Antoine W, Suite 3200
Montreal QH2Y 3XY, Canada
Tel:+1-514/287 3280; Fax: +1-514/987 1567
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International Federation of Agricultural Producers (IFAP)
As the international organization representing the world's farmers, we have been with you during
the course of this Summit and its preparatory committees. We are happy to see this process
arrive at its satisfactory and successful outcome here in Denmark today.
During the course of this Summit, IFAP emphasized the importance of the farmer and his
organisation, especially the small-scale farmer, in social development. We shall do so again. The
majority of the world's 1 billion poor are in the rural areas of the developing countries - they are
mostly small-scale farmers. By the year 2010, the world's population will grow by an additional
1.9 billion. If the world neglects agriculture and small-scale farmers, then there will only be
poverty, chronic malnutrition and environmental degradation. This Summit would have then
failed in its mission, irrespective of the text agreed here today.
IFAP, during the course of this Summit emphasized the importance of farmers' organizations organizations owned and governed by farmers, which work for farmers' interests. We shall do so
again. Because of its very nature, this Summit officially marks the end of top-down agriculture
and hails the beginning of farmer-centred development. In practice, farmer-centred agricultural
development means greater recognition of farmers' representative organizations. It means regular
dialogue and consultation with them, from grassroots to the national level.
If this Summit is to succeed in this important mission, governments, rich and poor, must enable
and encourage farmers' representative organizations to play their rightful role in the formulation
and implementation of sustainable agricultural and rural development policies and programmes.
Today, as a result of the Structural Adjustment Programmes, many an agricultural institution
serving the small-scale sector has been dismantled. Small-scale farmers are faced with a vacuum,
which they can only fill if they are able to organise themselves. Today, the strengthening
of true farmers' organizations in developing countries, and transfer of the necessary know-how is
an urgency, for farmers and governments alike.
We, as the world organization of farmers, are willing to put our skills and know-how together
with that of governments, in order to ensure the emergence and consolidation of strong and
representative farmers' organizations, in developing countries and -economies in transition. For
this purpose, IFAP has launched the Worldwide Action for the Strengthening of Farmers'
Organizations, which is based on partnerships with governments and intergovernmental
organizations.
History tells us that policy makers who forget about farmers and agriculture, end up eating their
words. As farmers' organizations, it is our duty to ensure that, at the end of the day, policy
makers have more on their plates than just words. With this duty in mind, I have to remind this
assembly that development assistance for agriculture in developing countries has been sharply
reduced during the last decade, from 18% to 6.7% of the total commitments. This is a dramatic
decline, which cancels out all self-help efforts which may be expected of the farmer.
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Development assistance for agriculture is essential especially for building up the rural
infrastructures and institutions in the widest sense of the word, in order to enable small scale
farmers access to education, research and extension, credit and to markets, as well as for
strengthening their own organisations. This is all the more important now, especially as rural
poverty could increase in the remote areas.
Do not believe that farmers will automatically feed the world. Farmers for too long have been
taken for granted. For governments to do so now in both developed and developing countries
invites calamity. Farmers are tired of declining incomes, they are tired of unfair taxation and
costs imposed by governments, they are tired of the redistribution of resources and services back
to the urban electorate and they are tired of being unfairly blamed for environmental problems
and burdened with carrying environmental costs.
Show me a government which has a comprehensive sustainable rural policy and I'll show you a
government with vision. Sadly, we have too few such visionary governments around the world.
So be warned - ignore agriculture at your peril and invite tragedy. Too many people reclining in
middle-class comfortable armchairs with ample food on the table take food and social
development for granted. They should quickly reconsider this position.
To meet our share of the challenge ahead in rural social development, farmers of the world need:
- Access to technology
- Government help to fund R & D
- Improved access to education
- Better marketing to increase returns
- Available credit at a reasonable cost
- Better access to land tenure
- Policies to maintain the family farm unit
Social development cannot be addressed without seriously addressing rural community issues
and profitable sustainable agriculture.
Last but not least, it is our hope, as farmers, that next time, "People" will not be mere observers
to their own "Summit", but actual signatories. We therefore propose to this Assembly that, by the
next "People's Summit" at the latest, at least those people's organizations which have a Category
1 Consultative Status with the Economic and Social Committee, should be negotiators and
signatories to any future Declaration and Programme of Action.
This Summit's focus has been people's participation. A good starting point for it is right here.
Graham Blight
International Federation of Agricultural Producers (IFAP)
21 rue Chapatal, F-75007 Paris, France
Tel:+33-1/45 26 05 53; Fax:+33-1/45 74 72 12
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International Federation Of Red Cross And Red Crescent Societies
I welcome the opportunity to address the World Summit for Social Development on behalf of the
163 National Societies that comprise the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent
Societies and are united in the mission of improving the situation of humankind's most
vulnerable.
The International Federation co-ordinates and implements world-wide disaster relief and
development programmes which include health, social welfare, women and youth activities.
Through these programmes we deal with a number of the key issues with which this Summit is
concerned. In our work to prevent and alleviate suffering we are acutely aware of both the
causes and consequences of grinding poverty. Millions of women and children are denied
opportunity to fulfil themselves and are forced to live in denigration and subjection.
Increasingly the current trend of violence and the devaluation of human life sets a stage for more
violence, civil conflict and the maiming of countless lives that is likely to affect succeeding
generations. Far too many refugees and displaced persons are driven from their homes, often to
become wanderers for years in their own and other lands. In fact, thirty-four percent of the 19.4
million people we served world-wide last year were refugees and displaced persons, and caring
for them absorbed some 61 percent of resources sought. Already this year we are finding that 71
percent of our required resources must be dedicated to care of refugees and displaced persons.
As the United Nations Secretary General has said in his opening statement on this event, the
World Summit for Social Development offers humanity a unique opportunity. The Summit can
focus global attention on the social dimension of development. It can set down a framework for
action and gain commitment to it. It can stand as a base point of reference for measuring
practical progress in the years ahead.
The challenge of social development today, Secretary General Boutros-Ghali continues, is for
human societies to establish a new basis for long-term social balance. This means creating the
conditions for social progress, pursuing an effective strategy for social justice, and establishing
the foundations of social peace. It is an undertaking in which all persons must be involved -- at
every level.
We in the Red Cross/Red Crescent know that the realisation of high ideals and objectives takes
time, commitment, resources, hard work and a shared sense of purpose. If the ideals and
objectives of this Summit are to be realised, all of us gathered here -governments, international
organisations, non-governmental organisations and communities -- must be prepared for a long
application of untiring effort.
The International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies wholeheartedly supports
the overall goals of the Declaration and Programme of Action which will be adopted by this
summit. We further propose that every party to this Summit choose those proposed actions that
are practicably realisable within its own field of action and work in a co-ordinated and
complementary way to accomplish them.
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It is important to recall that this Summit is part of a series of international conferences convened
by the United Nations to address pressing global issues. These issues need concerted action by
the global society and therefore cannot be considered in isolation of other conferences preceding
or following it. The Programme of Action of the World Summit for Social Development should
reflect decisions adopted, for example, at the Summit on Children, UNCED and the recent Cairo
Conference on Population and Development. It should also relate to the proposed Platform for
Action to be dealt with at the Fourth World Conference on Women and Development to be held
in Beijing.
The International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies is already at work on
those goals that directly relate to our mission of improving the situation of the most vulnerable.
We particularly seek, with you, practical solutions to six of the major identified needs: the
promotion of non-discrimination, tolerance and mutual respect for and value of diversity; equity
and equality of opportunity and social mobility; gender equality and equity and empowerment of
women; giving special attention to health, including family planning and reproductive health, as
a fundamental right in humanitarian assistance and a factor of development; recognising and
addressing the dangers to society of armed conflict; and elimination of all forms of violence.
Thus, we support and seek to join with all interested partners in the several objectives before this
Summit that call for removing obstacles to equality and equity for women, particularly in the
areas of literacy, income and health.
We support improving the situation and protecting the rights of children in improving
circumstances as street children and children in and affected by armed conflicts. In this context I
draw special attention to those living in a country under sanctions. We are also concerned about
protection and assistance for vulnerable groups such as the displaced, refugees and immigrants,
the homeless, older persons and people with disabilities.
We support empowerment of people living in poverty, with special emphasis placed on
capacity-building and community-based management. We seek, with you, the protection and full
integration into economies and societies of disadvantaged and vulnerable groups and persons.
This aim is part of our Red Cross/Red Crescent mission, and it is given shape and direction
through the tasks of our world-wide Strategic Work Plan for the Nineties.
We will also continue to work for the promotion of peace and reconciliation, and respect for
human rights, based on the Fundamental Principles of the International Red Cross and Red
Crescent Movement. In this connection, I join with the International Committee of the Red Cross
in alerting you to the 26th International Conference of the Red Cross and Red Crescent, which
will take place in Geneva 4 to 7 December 1995. At this conference the States party to the
Geneva Conventions and the members of the Red Cross and Red Crescent world-wide will
address key issues in the conceptualisation and practise of international humanitarian law and
other major humanitarian issues the world faces today.
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In conclusion let me focus on the critical issue of follow-up to this Summit. This will require an
effective partnership and co-ordination among governments and all organisations involved in
social development activities. We stand prepared to collaborate in such a vital and challenging
task for the benefit of all humanity.
George Weber
International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies
17 Chemin des Crêts, CH-1211 Geneva 19, Switzerland
Tel:+41-22/730 4222; Fax:+41-22/733 0995
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International Movement ATD Fourth World
Poverty as a matter of responsibilities and rights.
The final Declaration of this Summit affirms: "We are gathered here to commit ourselves .…
to enhancing social development... so that all men and women especially those living in poverty,
may exercise the riots, utilize the resources and share the responsibilities which enable them to
contribute to the well-being of.….humankind."
A crucial passage indeed, in that it affirms that poverty represents a situation in which people,
families, entire populations are deprived of the means to exercise the rights and to assume the
responsibilities enabling them - and I quote the Declaration again --- "to maximize their
capacities, resources and opportunities." The gist of this paragraph is that poverty is to be defined
in the terms voted by the Economic and Social Council in France in 1987, when it stated that
poverty, at worst, leads to exclusion, since it deprives individuals ans peoples of the means "to
take on their responsibilities and to take possession of their lights on their own strength, in a
foreseeable future.
Poverty is a matter of being denied the right to command the means enabling a person to take on
responsibilities.
Poverty as a negation of the right to freely contribute to humanity's
Riches.
From this same passage, we can logically infer that the key question raised by this Summit is
how to restore in particular to the very poor the right to participate in the creation of material and
immaterial assets. essential for the well-being of humanity.
Poverty, which is the opposite of partnership, requires the demand on social development to
grant priority to the poorest.
As the final Declaration indicates from the very start, our attempts to restore this right to
participation are faced with situations of extreme inequality. From this state of things we can
logically infer that social development. in order to serve social justice and equal opportunities.
must invest the best means primarily with individuals and peoples who otherwise will have no
chance of even getting up to the starting line, from where we hope to set out toward an
international community based on a spirit of partnership as advocated by the final Declaration.
Unemployment, poverty and exclusion, as we now all agree. are the very opposite of partnership,
and therefore of democracy. .And democracy requires that priority be granted without delay to
the poorest populations around the world.
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Partnership as a matter of sharing knowledge and culture.
But what is the essential condition of a partnership that would put an end to the exclusion of the
very poor? Father Joseph Wresinski, founder of the International ATD Fourth World Movement,
a priest born into extreme poverty himself, made it clear to us even back in the 1960's. In order to
become full partners, the very poor must of course have equal opportunities to work. But this
cannot mean that we may resort merely to offering them menial odd jobs, leading in no way to a
professional career, poorly paid and involving at best low-quality training through miserly
funded programs.
To become equal partners, presently excluded workers must have access to culture. Access to
the means to bring out their own knowledge, to enrich it through access to other forms of
knowledge, to take part in the cultural riches of surrounding society, and to become creators,
along with their fellow citizens, of a culture for times to come.
Father Joseph made it clear to us that without sharing cultural creativity, there was no use in
speaking about sharing economic creativity. In a market economy which may well be unable. in
a forseeable future, to offer to all people the means of taking part in economic production, we
shall seek in vain a just redistribution of work, unless we seek at the same time a just
redistribution of all other human activities, and especially of cultural creativity. Equal
opportunities will exist only to the extent to which we promote them in the entire realm of
human endeavour to ensure the progress of our peoples.
Reconsidering all human activity.
This is what lead Father Joseph Wresinski to suggest that the international community
"reconsider human activity." And his first proposal in this respect was to abolish the periods of
unemployment of the most disadvantaged among workers, by transforming them into sabbaticals
times geared to human and cultural progress, times of widely-scoped training, including political
and religious participation, as well as artistic creation."
Father Joseph's combat is three-fold:
- a combat for the right of all people to have access to the labor market,
and to be useful there for consistent periods, under conditions worthy of
the human person;
- a combat also for the right of all people to be creative and useful
during the periods in which they may not be active in the labor market;
- and a combat finally for a just redistribution, throughout each person's
active years, of time spent within and time spent outside the labor market
of a market economy.
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The International ATD Fourth World Movement is confident that the Heads of State, with this
perspective in mind, will decide to suit governmental action to their words, so that people in
deepest poverty may indeed "exercise the rights ...and share the responsibilities which enable
them...to contribute to the well-being of...humankind." Is it not in choosing to fulfill the essential
condition of full partnership of the poorest throughout the world, that the Summit in Copenhagen
will actually contribute to ensuring justice, democracy and peace to the generations to come?
Alwine de Vos Van Steenwijk
International Movement ATD Fourth World
107 Avenue du General Leclerc, F-95480 Pierrelaye, France
Tel:+33-1/34 21 69 69; Fax:+33-1/34 21 69 70
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International Planned Parenthood Federation
On behalf of the International Planned Parenthood Federation permit me to thank you sincerely
for the opportunity to address this first Social Summit.
A significant variable in the poverty problematique is the unmet need and demand of hundreds of
millions of the poorest individuals, notably women, in developing countries for access to
reproductive health and family planning services. How much of this demand for smaller families
is a cry of despair for mere survival in misery and how much a cry of hope for a better quality of
life is a painful question mark! Governments once more declared a few months ago at ICPD,
Cairo, that meeting this demand was politically a moral imperative and socially a human right.
However, let us not overlook that in the next two to three decades the global population will
grow with a staggering 50%, largely independent of our successes in voluntary fertility
regulation. It is, indeed, in this next quarter of a century that a magicians wand has to produce
sustained socio-economic growth within the severe constraints of sustainable development and
within an ethical framework of global and local equity. A rapid reduction of extreme poverty is
an indispensable precondition for a rapid increase in the realization of the human right to fertility
regulation.
With this backdrop, IPPF and its 140 national affiliates strongly support, as a conscience and
advocate of the reproductive rights movement, all policies that promote elimination of poverty
through gainful work, social solidarity, health, education, food, housing, water and sanitation,
because such policies are not merely a commitment to social justice, but they all have real
impacts on the daily wellbeing and productivity of hundreds of millions of individuals, families
and communities that are deprived of these vital necessities in todays amoral world.
For individuals and collectives to realize the meaning of human rights and the related
responsibilities, empowerment at all levels is a must! IPPF has for some time been concerned
with moving beyond the rhetoric of community involvement and participation towards testing for
ourselves what it will take for us to do so. The reason we are concerned about this is that our
mission in these domains has fundamentally changed in recent years.
This is clearly spelt out in IPPF's strategy: "Vision 2000", adopted in 1992 and now reinforced
by the ICPD Cairo Programme of Action.The rapid growth in concern over women's rights and
gender issues; the social pressures against women having the methods of fertility regulation
they would like to have; the debates about abortion and female genital mutilation; the epidemics
of HIV; all of these show the weaknesses in our approaches to development, to the types of
people we work with, and to the ways in which we work with them.
As a Federation we have realised that we must address these areas of weakness if we are to
improve our relevance to the lives of ordinary people. To do this we have embarked on a number
of programmes that stress the importance of, firstly, learning from the people themselves, and,
secondly, supporting them through services or education in the actions they themselves
determine. I shall exemplify this in two ways in the field of reproductive health promotion:
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First, the expression and identification of needs. An area of need that has so far been badly
neglected is sexual health. As this is so culturally specific and sensitive, we are approaching this
by helping people to define and articulate for themselves their concerns in this area. We have
already found that concerns about sexual and gender interaction are common throughout the
world, and have a profound influence on many of the issues I mentioned earlier. Once
articulated, people are very ready to relate these concerns to their social and economic
environments. This area is also a key starting point for improving the social relevance of sexual
and reproductive health services. In this context, communities served by our FPAs are supported
in looking at why people do "not" use the existing services for STDs. After such exploration the
communities are developing with the FPAs approaches that allow for better recognition,
diagnosis, treatment and prevention of STDs, including AIDS.
Next, the approach to gender. We are struggling to come to terms with the programmatic and
practical implications of a truly gender-oriented approach to reproductive health. In other words,
we know that while women and men have different needs which must be addressed by
reproductive health care services, these sex-differentiated needs cannot be considered in a
gender-isolated manner. Women are affected by the way in which men's needs are met, and the
reverse is also true. Thus we now increasingly approach gender equity by working with both
women and men, separately and together.
These examples show that we truthfully believe in the power of people to help us in the analysis
of problems and services as well as to determine the future courses of action for themselves. This
belief is itself the first stage on the road to true empowerment of people and thereby to
accelerated social development.
There are two groups, youth and women that are singled out by IPPF's Vision 2000 strategy for
priority investment.
There are currently more than 500 million young women and men between the ages of 15 and
19, and their numbers will keep mounting for a long time to come. Society as a whole has not
been very sensitive or responsive to its young people, who become sexually active without
proper access to sexual health information, education or services. Most adults have been
reluctant to address this issue. But ignoring it has not made it go away. Instead there are rising
incidence of adolescent pregnancy, abortion, and sexually transmitted disease. IPPF and its
associations have vowed to help young people understand and realize their sexuality in a positive
and responsible manner by ensuring their access to sexual and reproductive health care and by
making young people key participants in the design and implementation of such programmes.
Unless we act now, not only will teenage pregnancy and abortion continue to soar, but also
society will sorely neglect a golden opportunity for investing in the quality of human resources
for tomorrow's social and economic productivity.
Above all other priorities, and as a matter of utmost urgency, IPPF and its national affiliates are
committed to women's full and equal participation in all aspects of local and global development.
One of the major barriers to the improvement of women's sexual and reproductive health is their
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appalling lack of decision-making power at all socio-economic levels. Without the formidable
resource of womenpower, all plans we make and steps we take to improve the local and global
community will largely be in vain. Women will only gain equal status through equitable social,
economic and political participation and through aggressive promotion and protection of their
human rights, including their sexual and reproductive rights. IPPF and its associations, through
Vision 2000 are committed to this objective.
We are working actively at the national and international levels as advocates for the
establishment of equal rights for women. We are making special efforts in the field of sexual and
reproductive health to ensure that women's perspectives are taken fully into account from
research to application. We are fighting the boy preference syndrome and all its manifestations
wherever it exists. We are working to increase men' s commitment and joint responsibility in all
areas of sexual and reproductive health and to sensitize men to gender issues at home and in the
work place. We shall advocate for independent, national and international monitoring of all
governments' performance related to women's human rights.
In conclusion, if we support men, women and youth in learning how to realize their sexuality in a
loving and responsible manner, coercive and discriminatory sex can be largely eliminated in the
coming decades, and if we provide high quality reproductive health care and family planning to
all needing and demanding it we shall be able to prevent tens of millions of coercive pregnancies
and motherhoods each year. Since these are perfectly doable social propositions, we trust they
will receive proper support by this first Social Summit.
Through realizing these and other related challenges IPPF will make its contribution towards
promoting social and economic development, including eradicating both absolute poverty and
social exclusion in the near future.
Dr. Halfdan Mahler
International Planned Parenthood Federation
Regents College, Inner Circle, Regent's Square
London NW1 4NS, UK
Tel:+44-171/486 0741
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International Youth Consultation on Social Development
Young people constitute over half of the world's population, and so it is imperative that young
people's views are included in all programmes, actions and policies which effect every aspect of
our lives. We are not just the citizens of tomorrow, but also the participants of societies
today.
Over the last couple of days, 200 young people from all regions of the world, representing a wide
diversity of youth organisations met in Copenhagen to take advantage of the gathering of World
Leaders and Heads of State for the World Summit on Social Development.
As a representative of those young people, I would like to thank you for this opportunity to
address this Plenary Session. Issues of importance which were discussed at the youth
consultation include; sustainable development which focuses on people, with the aim to enable
people to take control of their own destiny; Youth Policy at national, regional and global levels;
Young Women; Health and many others. Main areas of concern however were Employment and
Education.
The effects of unemployment are straining the world community as never before. This is
affecting the Youth more than other social groups. We are deeply concerned about the alarming
rate of unemployment among young people in all corners of the world. Special attention must be
paid to job creation for young people and continued support and training. The right to a job and a
secure income for young people must be guaranteed by governments.
At the same time, we expect you to abolish child slavery, commonly referred to as child labour,
sooner rather than later, and definitely before the end of this century.
We are concerned with the fact that many developing countries are trapped in the production of
just one export commodity. This, linked with unjust trade barriers in the developed countries,
puts serious constraints on the possibilities of third world countries to develop. The victims of
this situation are young people - particularly unemployed young people. We therefore charge you
to remove trade barrier in the North and encourage diverse industrial development in the South.
Mr. President, Education is crucial in enabling the Youth to become effective agents of social
development. Young people should have equal access to quality education irrespective of gender,
race, class, religion, politics and ethnicity. Financial aid must be available to enable young
people to study. This significant learning process should be carried out in an atmosphere free
from economic, social, religious and political pressures. It must help to stimulate all individuals
to recognise their inner potential and make them responsible for their lives and the future of
Humankind.
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In conclusion, we often hear that young people are the leaders of tomorrow. You can
demonstrate this belief by showing recognition and respect for our potential. My dear Heads of
State, by addressing these issues, and following up with clear, concise and urgent action, in the
areas of the Eradication of Poverty, Job Creation, and the promotion of Social Integration, we
come closer to providing solutions today, giving young people a realistic hope for a better
tomorrow.
Kauna Nghinaunye
International Youth Consultation on Social Development
P/Bag 13359, Windhoek, Namibia
Tel:+264-641/592249; Fax:+264-61/248332
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The Inter-Parliamentary Union
It is a pleasure to address the Summit on behalf of the Inter-Parliamentary Union the world
organization of parliaments of sovereign States. Parliaments share with governments special
responsibility for social development and human well-being. Indeed, the subject of the Summit
is very close to the hearts of parliamentarians who believe that poverty, unemployment and
problems of social integration have become the biggest challenges that the world faces in the
post-cold-war period.
This explains why the Union has given its full backing to the Social Summit preparation and
spared no effort to ensure that the parliamentary contribution to this process is a meaningful one.
In so doing, our members have made a number of recommendations relating to social
development which you will find included in the special Message, circulated to all delegates,
of the IPU to this Summit Let me highlight some of their views:
- Development is sustainable only to the extent that it is human centred;
- Concerns of development should be reconciled with those of environment and concerns of
equity with those of efficiency. Interdependence must be at the heart of our reflections;
- Women's rights, children's rights and the rights of the elderly are integral parts of human
rights;
- Emphasis must be placed on two complementary concepts: the concept of parity between men
and women, and the concept of partnership;
-While developing countries are responsible for ensuring that their domestic policy is
development friendly, it is the task of the international community to create an external
environment which is supportive of development.
The commitments listed in the draft declaration of this Summit are indeed consonant with the list
of priority targets outlined by members of parliament in their Message. In particular,
parliamentarians are of the opinion that:
- The '20-20' compact out essential and minimum targets for human development over a 10-year
period should be implemented; and
- Industrial countries should meet without further delay the target of 0.7% of GNP for official
development assistance.
Today we are celebrating the international Women's Day. For the Inter-Parliamentary Union, the
status and rights of women constitute a critical dimension of human development Women are
key actors of the development process. The IPU trusts that it should be possible, without
destabilizing cultures or imposing values foreign to the national culture, to enhance or
re-enhance women's dignity at the social level and to provide the proof that women and men are
equally able to contribute to development and governance. In this perspective, the Union
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advocates the concept of partnership between men and women, which it defines as a creative
synergy between the two genders to confront the challenges that the society faces in its
development as parliamentarians, we feel that the concept of democracy will only assume true
and dynamic significance when policies and national legislation are decided upon jointly by men
and women with equitable regard for the interests and aptitudes of both halves of the population.
One of the ways of achieving partnership is to enhance the participation of women at all levels of
the decision-making process. Throughout the last decade, IPU has carried out pioneering work to
that end and last year we adopted a comprehensive Plan of Action to correct present imbalances
in the participation of men and women in political life. We intend to pursue this course actively
in the context of preparation of the World Conference on Women, as much as we shall do so
with regard to the follow-up of this Summit.
Clearly, girls and women should have access to basic education and to technical and vocational
training. National programmes and legislation should ensure equal access to credit for women.
Laws should be reviewed, wherever appropriate, so as to facilitate women's access to land
property, water, and other national resources. The economic value of women's work at home
could be considered as part of the gross national product and a system to remunerate such work
should be devised.
The extent to which this Summits decisions are translated into concrete realities - will clearly
depend on the effectiveness of the follow-up which States will take, individually and
collectively. Parliaments have a special role to play in this regard.
The issue of providing adequate follow-up to the Summit was at the very heart of f the debate
that took place yesterday at the Danish Folketing during the Parliarnentarians' Day which was
organized by the Inter-Parliamentary Union and in which some 200 MPs participated. We then
re-confirmed our support to the set of commitments to be adopted by this Summit we welcomed
the fact that the Draft Programme of Action makes proposals for creating a favourable economic
and political environment which is needed for social progress to be achieved, widespread
poverty to be eliminated, productive employment to be promoted and unemployment to be
reduced. Needless to say, the implementation of results of the Summit will be enhanced if the
role and involvement of parliaments were reflected in its final documents, which is not yet the
case.
Let me nevertheless confirm that as parliamentarians, we are committed to ensuring that
appropriate legislation is adopted in our respective countries. We are also committed to
approving budgets which allocate the resources necessary to bring about the key commitments
taken by our Governments at this Summit.
Dr. A.F. Sorour
Council of the Inter-Parliamentary Union
Place du Petit-Saconnex, CH-1209 Geneva 11, Switzerland
Tel:+41-22/734 4150; Fax;+41-22/733 3141
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Mouvement Mondial des Mères
Je vous remercie de donner la parole au Mouvement Mondial des Mères dans le cadre de cet
important Sommet mondial. Notre mouvement, fondé en 1947, a pour but essentiel, d'aider les
mères à assumer pleinement leurs responsabilités familiales, sociales et civiques.
Notre objectif principal aujourd'hui est de faire reconnaître la valeur économique et sociale du
travail parental au foyer. Car, l'activité domestique, de soins et d'éducation exécutée pour la
famille, par la mère principalement, est un travail. Un travail qui demande des efforts, du temps,
de la compétence, de la patience, de l'ingéniosité, des facultés d'adaptation (car il évolue
constamment) et beaucoup de persévérance. II commence, rappelons le, dès le début de la
grossesse. II se réalise dans une "salle de travail" de la maternité et continue durant de longues
années. Dans certains pays en développement, les mères sont dans une situation différant de celle
des pays industrialisés. Elles doivent, pour assurer leur survie et celle de leurs enfants, cumuler
travail artisanal (le plus souvent dans l'agriculture), et de lourdes taches domestiques dues au
manque d'infrastructures élémentaires dans leurs pays.
Ainsi parfois, de très jeunes filles n'ont pas accès aux soins de santés élémentaires, ni à
l'instruction comme leurs frères. Elles ne sont donc pas toujours préparées au rôle difficile de
mère, ni capables d'accéder à des emplois intéressants. De plus, une meilleure préparation des
adolescentes à leur avenir serait une bonne façon d'assurer un développement durable dans
ces pays.
Mais c'est dans toutes les régions du monde, que la maternité doit être revalorisée. Elle est une
mission, une vocation, une source de bonheur. Mais elle est aussi une charge. Comme le rappelle
une résolution adoptée le 25 juin 1993 par le Parlement européen, le travail a la maison réduit la
charge du budget des infrastructures sociales de l'Etat comme par exemple les crèches, garderies,
cantines scolaires, et foyers d'accueil. Ce travail à la maison est indispensable car, et je cite
toujours le Parlement européen, "en réalité, pour que les personnes actives dans les secteurs
dépendants du marché puissent travailler de manière efficace, ne faut il pas que les enfants soient
pris en charge, que les malades soient soignés, Que les repas soient préparés, etc. ?"
La charge de la maternité ne peut s'ajouter à celle d'une profession, beaucoup parlent de
conciliation du travail familial et professionnel. Ayons le courage de regarder la réalité en face.
II n'y aura jamais conciliation, ce sera toujours du cumul. Et, à celles qui m'objecteront que c'est
possible, je leur répondrai qu'elles ont joui de conditions exceptionnelles pour supporter ce
cumul.
Le Mouvement Mondial des Mères demande aux responsables de notre société aujourd'hui de
penser aux nombreuses femmes qui ne sont pas dans des conditions aussi favorables. Une
famille, aujourd'hui, ne peut vivre d'un seul salaire et trop de femmes sont obligées de cumuler
travail professionnel et travail familial. Elles en ont assez d'être coupées en deux.
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Afin d'intégrer les mères dans le tissu social, le travail familial doit être considéré comme un
emploi. Si elles le désirent, les femmes doivent avoir la possibilité d'être mères à plein temps.
Elles doivent avoir le choix entre travail rémunéré et travail parental au foyer.
Pour avoir ce choix, les conditions économiques et sociales doivent être équivalentes. Le
Mouvement Mondial des Mères demande des mesures qui établiraient cette égalité. De telles
mesures ont déjà été prises au Luxembourg et en Allemagne. Ce dernier pays dispose depuis 9
ans de lois donnant aux jeunes mamans une allocation d'éducation . De ce fait, 94 % des jeunes
mamans de ce pays, renoncent à un travail professionnel pour s'occuper de leurs bébés, durant les
deux premières années de leur vie. Ces jeunes mamans ont aussi un statut social, leur donnant
droit aux assurances maladies, invalidités et à une pension personnelle. Quand les enfants sont
plus grands, la mère qui souhaite s'intégrer ou se réintégrer dans le circuit professionnel doit
pouvoir préserver ses acquis professionnels ou suivre une formation. Car, la vie des femmes
évolue. Dans le cadre de la Déclaration et du Programme d'action, le Mouvement Mondial des
Mères se réjouit de constater le désir des Nations unies de combattre la pauvreté.
Ces projets de document proposent des systèmes de protection sociale pour mettre à l'abri de la
pauvreté, les personnes qui ne trouvent pas de travail ou ne peut pas travailler à l'extérieur du
foyer familial, parce qu'elles doivent s'occuper d'enfants ou de parents malades ou âgés (parag.
38). Le Projet demande aussi que les femmes de tous âges et leurs enfants aient accès aux
services sociaux, notamment à l'éducation, aux services juridiques et a l'amélioration des services
de santé (parag. 35-c). II est également demande que soit améliorée la qualité des soins de santé
maternelle et infantile (parag. 37-e). D'autre part, il est reconnu que "la famille, constituant
l'unité de base de la société joue un rôle clé dans le développement social, et qu'a ce titre elle doit
être renforcée" (para. 26-h).
Le Mouvement Mondial des Meres demande aux délégués d'adopter le Paragraphe 81, relatif au
renforcement des liens familiaux. En effet, il est important que les gouvernements et les
organisations internationales adoptent des politiques sociales et économiques qui répondent aux
besoins des familles. II est important aussi que ces pouvoirs publics offrent des services
familiaux destinés à renforcer la compréhension, le respect mutuel et la tolérance au sein des
familles et en particulier de promouvoir la collaboration entre hommes et femmes. Le soutien
aux familles, et particulièrement aux parents dont le travail au foyer n'est pas rémunéré, fait
partie d'une politique familiale d'avant garde (parag. 64-a). Cette politique a une action
préventive en comparaison de la politique sociale classique, dont les effets ne sont que curatifs.
Aujourd'hui, journée de la femme, nous voulons rappeler qu'il est primordial, pour garantir la
qualité du tissu social à l'echelle mondiale, que les pouvoirs publics protègent la maternité et son
rôle éducatif. Une société s'honore dans la mesure où elle honore les mères.Puissent les
préoccupations des mères, que beaucoup ici présentes connaissent, être au centre de la
commémoration de la journée de la femme.
Françoise de Bellefroid
Mouvement Mondial des Mères
56 Rue de Passy, F-75016 Paris, France
69
National Union of Working Women
On this great day of March 8, I bring greetings from the women of India to one and all. While
I'm placing on record millions of sacrifices that women have gone through to fight gender, class
discrimination in their respective societies, I will take only 7 minutes to place before this August
body the struggle of field activists. I speak here both on behalf of my own organization, i.e. the
National Union of Working Women in the Southern parts of India, with a membership of
300,000 poor women in the urban slums and rural areas. I also speak for my network partner,
GROOT'S International, a network of social movements of grassroots women in 19 countries.
The women in the National Union of Working Women (NUWW) earn their own livelihood by
hard work through access to credit, welfare services, training for empowerment, also have
provided for the basic needs for their families as well. Despite being poor these women have
established a banking system of their own contributed to a credit recovery rate of 95%. Through
their reproductive health services contributed to 71% per cent of couple production rate (C.P.R.)
in population reduction effort.
They have struggled to fight for their land rights, housing rights, labour rights, and pursued
social action process both for their own visibility and for the larger issues affecting women in
family and communities.
Women everywhere have to struggle their way as most often they are victims of unequal
divisions of social responsibilities within the household, often denied equal distribution of
family's resources - a practice continued for generations, thus made women poorer than others.
I come from the land of Mahatma Gandhi who made it possible for women to participate in the
freedom struggle of the country on an equal basis with men. His desire for equality of the sexes
is enshrined in the Indian constitution. However, habits die hard among various cultures in
traditional societies that often negate what little progress one achieves. This is very evident in the
treatment of girl children not alone in India but in our entire region and few other developing
countries as well. This is also seen in the human right violation such as female foeticides and in
the occurrences of infant mortalities, dowry deaths, and many other forms of victimization that
women face at the grassroots.
Child labour is yet another phenomenon where even as human species they are denied their
normal childhood, also made to work in harsh working conditions. In India and in many other
countries of our region the in the wake of rampant alcoholism and unemployment, the male
contribution to the family is very low. Therefore the entire organization of the family is
sometimes run by the income of the children and women.
I also speak on behalf of our network of social movements, GROOT'S International. The
National Union of Working Women, along with other grassroot women's' initiative in 19 other
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countries have contributed to this networking process. The major contribution of GROOT'S
International is through the collective vision of their regional focal points have fed
micro-information's that led to micro-policy options, mainly to place women in the global
agenda.
India, as elsewhere in the developing world, is passing to unprecedented challenges due to
liberalization measures and an open-door policy to market economy. While this liberalization
process is not reversible, still it is the harsh reality to note that vulnerable sections of people
below the poverty line in the country have to face denial of access to education, medical
facilities, access to capital, training and technology.
Apart from the social safety net programmes, wider social security measures of education,
health, and other protective insurances are necessary. This will enable millions of poor children
to have access to education and will enable millions of poor women to have access to health
services and maternity benefits to withstand the pressures during this reform process.
Economic conditions of women workers are no doubt worsening in the informal sector, as 89%
of India's "working poor" are women in the informal sector. These women workers are facing
new patterns of competition from unemployed men who are retrenched on account of the
liberalization process. Therefore any measure to help informal sector workers in India and in the
developing world will be a real major step forward for poverty reduction, and job creation among
the working poor.
The World Summit on Social Development meets at a time when the entire planet is in the grip
of economic, social, political, and environmental problems. The Summit had already had the
prepcoms where the various caucuses of the people's initiatives have made it possible for the
draft document to include a framework for people-centered development, decentralization
process, a progress in gender concerns, a step forward paving the way for a transitional path
between market forces and social demands of the people.
However, the disagreement of the north-south are major issues such as timeframe for poverty
eradication, concepts of more equal distribution of income, greater access to equity and equality
for all on a global basis causes great concern. Agreements on right to food, health education,
shelter, information sharing and fundamental rights are strategies for the fight against poverty are
equally important. The agreement on resource transfers and timeframe work to achieve all the
objectives of the Summit are even more important.
It is a critical need for the World Summit to look for alternatives and it could be found in the
growing network of social movement's private, non-governmental efforts, civil society
initiatives, both at national and international efforts. These are initiatives alone can stimulate the
livelihoods of people both in poor and rich nations. NGOs can democratize systems and make
countries self-reliant through encouragement to local production for local use. They can help
generate income and help asset less poor acquire assets. NGOs can further experiment such
forms of ownership serving different economic social purposes. They can build institutions and
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establish relations to support the survival of peaceful communities. They can achieve this locally,
nationally, and globally within a given time and phases.
The development model that exists today emphasizes economic growth and therefore perpetuates
only oppression on the poor and discrimination on women. Is it possible for the World Summit
to come up with a model that will also meet the social demands of the people and create a space
for the poor and the women to move forward?
The World Summit should be a meeting place of minds rather than meeting place of
governments and people. It should further strive to agree to eliminate biased cultural, economic
relations. Pave the way to reduce the gap between the developed and the developing nations. We
look forward to the Summit as a new direction towards the national budgets of governments to
include pro-poor measures to withstand reform process. The Summit must echo reciprocity of
practices between the various actors in the process of resource transfers with relative autonomy
and interdependence.
Jaya Arunachalam
National Union of Working Women
55 Bhimasena Garden Street
Mylapore, Madras 600004, India
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NGO Committee on Ageing
I am happy to speak this afternoon as Chair of the NGO Committee on Aging at the United
Nations in New York, as representative of the World Federation of Methodist Women and as
President of Global Action on Aging.
The NGO Committee was pleased to be invited by the Summit Secretariat to organize a Special
Event at Eigtveds Pakhus this past Monday. I want to report to you about that event. But first let
me express my disappointment that, in spite of the efforts of our Older Persons Caucus, and in
spite of various special preparatory meetings and workshops, the Summit documents say very
little about older persons, even though this large group--nearly ten percent of the world's
population--suffers acutely from joblessness, poverty and social isolation, in the North as well as
in the South.
Our speakers at Eigtveds Pakhus noted that persons over the age of 60 are rapidly growing in
numbers; they represent a steadily rising proportion of the world's population. Population aging is a
revolutionary change in global society and one of the great human achievements of our time. In
1950, there were 200 million persons over 60 living on the planet, today there are over 500 million
and in just 30 years' time there will be 1.2 billion. That rate of increase is much faster than the
global population as a whole. This change will deeply affect everyone in this hall. Each of us has a
personal stake in constructing a decent old age for society in the future.
At Eigtveds Pakhus we heard reports from nearly every continent that families increasingly
cannot provide a dependable basis of support for older persons, due to migration, disease,
poverty and war. Many governments of the South -- and the North, too--are shirking their
responsibilities by claiming that families will always take care. This pretence cannot lead to
social development. Rather it makes the elderly even more vulnerable.
The plague of unemployment causes the core problem faced by older persons. In village society,
people could support themselves throughout their life as farmers, fishers, weavers, healers and so
on. In the market economy, overall wealth is much greater and outright starvation less frequent.
But only wage employment can provide security for existence. Now, more and more, older
people cannot find wage work and many have no other source of support. If elderly were counted
as unemployed rather than retired, the scandal of world-wide unemployment would be more
painfully obvious. Even in Europe, three-quarters of all workers have now been pushed out of
the workforce before reaching the so-called retirement age. Neo-liberal policies, recommended
in Summit documents, have deepened this problem and will continue to deepen it, further
impoverishing the elderly, as policymakers at this Summit surely know.
What is being done to "alleviate" these problems and to tackle growing poverty in later life? At
Eigtveds Pakhus, we heard alarming testimony about how the World Bank, the IMF and other
international financial institutions are forcing governments to slash pensions, health care
programs and social services for the elderly--in Latin America, Eastern Europe, China and now
Turkey and Western Europe, too. In Argentina, pensions dropped so drastically in 1992 that
desperate elderly committed suicide, some in protest, some out of desperation. Others, including
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one of our panellists, have carried on a vigorous, inspiring movement of opposition. -- even
where rights of the elderly are constitutionally protected, as in Brazil, the Bretton Woods
Institutions do not hesitate to demand constitutional changes to destroy these rights as a
condition for new loans. Why do Summit documents not say a single word about these scandals
of greed? Hundreds of billions of dollars are being-let us say it frankly: stolen--from the poor
elderly to enrich some of the world's wealthiest citizens. Four hundred billion dollars, according
to one estimate, in Latin America alone in the last decade!
No. This is not "social development." And the world's older people know it. But, by coming
together here, and sharing our concerns, we have gained new courage and new hope. We will
work to win a society of real solidarity, where every person can look forward to a full,
productive and cooperative. That is social development.
Susanne S. Paul
NGO Committee on Aging
100 West 92nd Street #24F
New York NY 10025
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ONG africaines
C'est pour moi un réel plaisir et un honneur de porter à cette auguste assemblée la présente
déclaration des organisations non gouvernementales de l'Afrique.
A New York les ONG africaines ont pris une part active à toutes les phases préparatoires du
Sommet dans un climat d'échange et de partenariat soutenu avec les représentants des
gouvernements Africains. Nous continuons à jouer le même rôle ici a Copenhague en ayant
comme objectifs et priorités le bien-être effectif des populations africaines a tous les niveaux.
L'Afrique est pourvue d'immenses ressources naturelles. Celle ci est exploitée dans le but de
satisfaire la surconsommation des pays industrialises, alors que la majorité des populations
d'Afrique est confrontée à une paupérisation grandissante.
Les termes des échanges inéquitables, le fardeau de la dette qui fragilise l'exploitation par les
compagnies transnationales et les programmes d'ajustement structurel (PAS) destructeurs sur le
plan social, sont au nombre des causes profondes de la crise sociale et comptent parmi les
obstacles qui empêchent les communautés de s'engager dans un développement durable. En
Afrique, en particulier, les PAS ont exacerbé les tensions sociales et ont alimenté de violents
conflits civils.
Pour soutenir le développement durable en Afrique, nous attendons du Sommet:
1.Qu'il aborde la question des conséquences négatives de la mondialisation des phénomènes
socio-économiques sur les populations d'Afrique. Ces conséquences, pour la majorité d'entre
elles, se traduisent par le dénuement, la marginalisation et l'appauvrissement persistant, facteurs
qui empiètent sur leurs droits à la qualité de la vie et des moyens d'existence adéquats. A ce
propos, nous sommes inquiets de l'enthousiasme sans réserve que le Projet de Déclaration et le
Programme d'action manifestent à l'égard de la libéralisation du commerce international dans le
cadre de l'Organisation Mondiale du Commerce.
2. Qu'il définisse un calendrier très précis en vue de l'annulation de la dette de l'Afrique, et
d'autres pays moins avancés.
3. Qu'il encourage la restructuration, la démocratisation des institutions de Bretton Woods qui
devraient rendre compte de leurs actions devant l'ECOSOC qui aurait la responsabilité de les
contrôler.
4. Qu'il exhorte l'ONU à entreprendre sa restructuration afin de se doter des moyens d'établir
véritablement des structures anti-discriminatoires développement humain et de les surveiller. Le
PNUD doit fonder l'exécution. le contrôle et le suivi de sa nouvelle stratégie conçue pour
l'Afrique sur la situation présente telle que décrite par les institutions locales - notamment celles
qui sont mises en place par les communautés et les organisations de base en Afrique.
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5. Qu'il élabore des mécanismes viables de suivi, d'exécution. Les ONGs Africaines attendent du
Sommet un moyen de contrôle et d'évaluation qui intègrent ceux qui existent déjà aux niveaux
locaux, national, sous-régional, régional et international; qu'il associe les organisations non
gouvernementales, le secteur privé et les autres institutions de la société civile aux structures déjà
établies.
6. Qu'il s'assure que les groupes vulnérables: handicapés, personnes âgées, enfants jouissent de
l'accès aux services sociaux, à l'éducation, à la culture et à l'entassement physique adaptes à leurs
conditions, a l' information et à la communication et que leurs droits soient respectés.
Il est important, que les communautés et les institutions de nos pays prennent conscience des
conséquences négatives de certaines de nos pratiques traditionnelles et culturelles qui affectent
les jeunes et les enfants. Que l'accès à la terre et au crédit soit un acquis pour les femmes
particulièrement celles du milieu rural. Le développement de l'Afrique ne sera effectif que si
justice et égalité prévalent dans toutes les relations et les politiques internationales, notamment
sur le plan financier, économique et commercial.
Le Programme d'Ajustement Structurel des institutions de Bretton Woods tel qu'actuellement
exécuté en Afrique et dans d'autres pays devrait être abandonné et remplacé en Afrique par le
Cadre Alternatif Africain du Programme d'Ajustement Structurel que les chefs d'Etat et de
gouvernements ont adopté lors de leur Sommet tenu à Addis-Abeba en 1989. Cela devrait se
faire avec la participation active des ONGs et de la société civile a tous les niveaux (conception,
gestion et évaluation).
La reformulation des institutions financières internationales devrait commencer par l'adhésion de
tous les membres et doivent tenir compte de la préoccupation sociale de leurs populations.
L'expertise locale et la technologie africaine doivent être reconnues, développés et sauvegardées
pour un développement durable.
En Afrique, le développement des ressources humaines devrait être la priorité des priorités. La
prise en compte et la satisfaction des besoins essentiels de la population doivent être la base de
tout effort de développement. Il est important de tenir compte de la dimension culturelle du
développement et notamment des retombées négatives de l'extrémisme et de l'intégrisme dont
l'impact freine le développement à tous les niveaux.
Les ONG Africaines gardent l'espoir que ce Sommet sera réellement social et que les décisions
qui en seront issues prendront en compte les préoccupations réelles des populations africaines.
Fatoumata Sire Diakite
Comite de pilotage des ONGs Africaines sur le Sommet Social
Association pour le progrès et la défense des droits des femmes maliennes
Rue Dakar 129 X126, Dravela No. 6 BP 1740
Bamako, Mali
Tel:+223/226146;Fax:+223/230025
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Rights Of The Child Caucus
The purpose of the Rights of the Child Caucus has been to build solidarity and concerted action
among NGOs concerned with the rights of children.
We are pleased that some children's rights have been reaffirmed in the Declaration and Plan of
Action. We regret, however, that some of the worst violations of children's rights have not been
sufficiently addressed.
One of them is the situation of children in armed conflict. There are over 40 conflicts raging in
the world today and children continue to be the main victims, sometimes are even the main
targets and forced to be soldiers. A total ban on the production, sale and use of land mines has
become a moral imperative and should have been one of this Summit's goals. How can the
Summit claim to address social development without a serious discussion of the armed conflicts
which in many parts of the world are part of the vicious circle of poverty and social
disintegration?
Another issue of concern is the lack of a timetable for with child labour. The Plan of Action calls
for its elimination without direct and clear strategies. It fails to set a cut-off date or target year.
Sending children to work as early as age three represents not only a gross violation of their
rights, but also a loss to the country in terms of the children's potential, creativity, energy and
productivity.
Children are a country's most precious asset - the most precious human social and economic
asset. They demand the highest priority on national and international investments. Unless a new
vision for a viable human society comes out of this Summit, whole generations will continue to
miss out on the right to develop as full human beings. Present policies have marginalized more
and more children. They have gone too far in promoting inequality and unfairness.
We recognize the attention given to the rights of girls in the Summit provisions on gender
equality; we emphasize the need for national and international commitment to fulfil these
provisions.
We would have hoped that the Summit would have established concrete targets to reach peace,
security, development, democracy and freedom, based on the satisfaction of basic needs for all
human beings. A hungry person is not a free person and cannot be asked to be a peaceful person.
Nevertheless, we see the Summit as a first step for governments, NGOs and the UN to reflect
deeply and to act cooperatively in addressing poverty, unemployment and social marginalization.
We are told that we have to be realistic, that no new funds are available in today's economy, but
unless new resources are created and existing ones are reallocated, the Plan of Action will remain
nothing but words. New resources and new policies need to be created within the framework of
the globalization of the economy. Unless you take radical measures, we will soon wake up to the
reality that the only real power in the world are the transnationals, the bankers, the money
lenders and the big traders, and that States are powerless to protect the people.
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We raise this concern as citizens of nations that now are being deprived of their independence,
and equally we speak with the voices of the civil society which we represent.
We need everyone's contribution if we are to emerge from the present period of uncertainty,
social unrest and despair. Children and youth also need to be part of this process. Avenues
should be created for children to have a voice in matters that affect their lives, in accordance with
their evolving capacities, and in the spirit of the Convention on the Rights of the Child and in the
spirit of this Summit, which calls for people's participation. A young person from Turkey said:
"We the young people, want to be partners, but equal partners, and we are ready to play our role
and take responsibility.
One of the objectives of this Summit is social integration. How is this cohesion to be achieved? It
has not been ensured here at Copenhagen. This gathering must commit itself to achieving human
dignity and social justice among nations and within societies. That is the frame of reference in
which children's rights can be ensured - or lost.
For our endeavours in favour of children, the future generations will thank us - or if we fail, they
will judge us. It is we who are on trial here today.
Mercedes Roman-Bamat
Rights of the Child Caucus
Defense for Children International
3 Stephen Place, Ossining NY 10562, USA
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Rotary International
Rotary International is a non-profit, non-political, non-governmental volunteer service
organisation, today represented in 151 nations. The most recent are Belarus, Mongolia, and
Kazakhstan and in the near future Armenia, Georgia and Cambodia.
It is formed by 27,000 clubs with 1.2 million members, professional men and women united in
the idea of "Service above Self'. This means that Rotary International is a tight network
worldwide of leaders in business, companies, official administration and all other professions.
The main purpose is to promote understanding and thus peace between individuals, groups and
nations. Through the Rotary Foundation the organization provides Humanitarian assistance of
many kinds, such as medical supplies, health services education, refugee help.
The major project is the Polio Plus Program to eradicate Polio and other deceases from the earth
before the year of 2000. 606 million children are immunized through volunteers, donated vaccine
doses and in close cooperation and administration of the UN World Health Organization. 247
million US$ have been raised for this program through the Foundation.
As we are in Denmark, I would like to mention a Scandinavian project named "the Rotary
Doctor Bank". 400 physicians and doctors are lining up today for volunteer service in mainly
Central Africa and South East Asia. They work without any salary for 2 months or more (some
have been out 8-10 times) They not only serve as doctors, they also educate local physicians. The
Rotary Doctor Bank pays for their travel costs and lodging (housing) living. Today this idea has
started in Great Britain and the Netherlands as well.
This year, a special emphasis is stressed by Rotary International and its clubs on community
concerns. Unemployment is one of the increasing social needs all over the world, where the
concept of Community Concerns will be used. The idea, developed by President Bill Huntley, is
to encourage rotarians to work with the community, not only for the Community, locally,
nationally and internationally.
So, this means that you have this tight network of 1.2 million men and women, who are willing
and able to assist their local governments - voluntary with their skills and knowledge as
professionals to try to solve the problems by training, education and to get new jobs.
The organization itself, the Rotary International, is prepared to continue its cooperation with the
United Nations as well as with other volunteer organizations.
Lennart Arfwidsson
Rotary International
1560 Sherman Avenue
Evanston IL 60201 , USA
Tel:+1-708/866 3229; Fax:+1-708/866 9732
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Small Farmers, Producers, and Microentrepreneurs Caucus
I bring greetings to you from the two million women borrowers of Grameen Bank in Bangladesh.
They wish you to know that they are fortunate to have Grameen Bank to support them. With tiny
loans averaging slightly over $100, one-third of them have already crossed the poverty line with
their own efforts and talents.
The remaining two-third will cross the poverty-line within the next five years. All of the
Grameen families have increased their family income rapidly, birth rate has declined in these
families, nutrition level has significantly increased; over 300,000 of them have built decent
houses with Grameen housing loans, installed hand tubewells for pure drinking water, and set up
sanitary latrines ---all with Grameen Bank loans.
Grameen Bank started out in 1976, by giving out US$30 to 42 people. Eighteen years later,
Grameen disbursed US$385 million in 1994 alone. Projected disbursement in 1995 exceeds half
a billion US dollars.
Grameen borrowers have demonstrated how good the poor are in paying back bank loans. They
deserve to be rated as top-class clients by any banking standard. But the conventional banks still
do not consider the poor as credit-worthy. Will it be wrong now to say that the conventional
banks are not poeple-worthy?
If this Social Summit is taking the challenge of poverty-alleviation seriously, then the task would
be to create people-worthy banks, both in the poor and the rich countries, to establish credit as a
human right.
Many among us talk about poverty alleviation but do not really believe that poverty alleviation is
a feasible proposition. Seeing what is happening among Grameen borrowers, non-believers will
easily turn into firm believers. I am totally convinced that the poverty alleviation is very much
a do-able proposition. If we can create a global commitment, we can definitively create a
poverty-free world within the next fifty years.
The poor are completely capable of changing their own lives with their own efforts, provided
barriers which are put around them by the existing system are removed. All people are endowed
with incredible potentials. But, for the poor and the small producers these potentials remain
unexplored.If the bottom fifty percent of the world population, i.e., the poor and the small
producers, are allowed to bring out their productivity, ingenuity, and creativity -- the world will
be a better place for all.
In the name of "development", we have invested large sums of money over the past few decades.
But they hardly touched the lives of the bottom fifty percent of our people.In this Social Summit,
let us all agree that we shall not accept any investment as development expenditure unless it
touches the lives of the bottom fifty percent of the people.
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I urge the taxpayers in the donor countries to make sure that their money directly benefits the
bottom fifty percent in the recipient countries. Poverty has not been created by the poor. It is
created by the institutions and policies we have built around us. Unless these are redesigned, and
alternative institutions and policies are made, poverty will continue to flourish.
My country, Bangladesh, has received US$27 billion in foreign assistance over the last 23 years.
But you don't see the imprint of this money on the faces of the poor. Where did all this money
go? Research findings tell us: 75 percent of their money was spent in donor countries to pay for
commodities, equipment, consultants, experts, and contractors. The remaining 25 percent spent
in Bangladesh went to local contractors, local suppliers, local consultants, and bureaucracy.
What did the bottom fifty per cent get out of it? I am sure you can guess. Of course, everything
was justified in the name of the poor people.
The policies you endorse here must empower -- not ignore -- the bottom people, the poor and the
small producers, who are the engines of sustainable economic progress and stakeholders in the
civil society. The poor and the small producers are not asking for charity or handouts. They are
asking for the same opportunities as enjoyed by other segments of the society.
Let us put our faith in the capabilities of individual human beings. Let us accept the fact each
human being is capable of ensuring his/her human dignity if we only create the supportive
environment.Let us commit ourselves to creating a poverty-free world in the next fifty years. Let
us promise that we shall not let a single family on this planet suffer from the disgrace of poverty.
Professor Muhammad Yunus
Grameen Bank,
Mirpur Two, Dhaka 1216 Bangladesh
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Soroptimist International
Education for Women: Key to Progress is the focus of Soroptimist International's awareness,
advocacy and action leading up to the Fourth World Conference on Women in Beijing in 1995.
One of the priorities of the World Summit for Social Development must be the concept of
ensuring education of girls and women in all parts of the world.
An economic, political, social, cultural and legal environment must be created to enable all
people to achieve economic, and social development. Governments, as well as public and private
sectors, must co-operate fully in strategies to achieve this goal, which can only benefit all of
society.
Soroptimist International believes that particular attention should be paid to the needs and
education of girls and women, who continue to maintain the greatest share of family and
household responsibilities. Their education, whether in domestic-based activity or outside the
home, is the only key to progress and therefore the best investment.
Soroptimist International believes that improved education of girls and women is the best way to
eradicate poverty, expand productive employment, accelerate development of the economic,
social and human resources of countries experiencing the greatest hardships, and achieve social
integration.
The fundamental issues Soroptimist International fully supports are education of girls and
women, primary health-care programmes and family planning, vocational training, equal
employment opportunities, programmes designed to prepare them to fully participate in
economic and social development.
Educational commitments should include the establishment of long-range, workable solutions
that prioritize human needs such as:
- prevention of rapid population growth
- family planning and primary health-care programmes
- better education and training of women and girls
- improved employment opportunities
- income-generating vocational training programmes for women and girls
Girls and women should have universal access to basic education and literacy and equal access
to higher education, the only way to ensure the mitigation of existing social inequalities Equality
and equity between men and women should be achieved through education. Training
programmes and life-long learning supports, as well as appropriate financial support, must be
made available to girls and women on the same basis as to men.
Educating girls and women to be full partners must include service in public life at all levels and
in all sectors. Women must be in decision making positions in political affairs and in government
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service in order to participate fully in decisions and initiatives which determine the course of
economic and social affairs.
Soroptimist International urges the World Summit for Social Development to take specific
measures to ensure that education and training for girls and women is part of the Declaration and
Programme of Action, and included in the Platform of Action of the IVth World Conference for
Women in Beijing, in September 1995.
Marie-Jeanne Bosia-Berberat
Soroptimist International
72 Rue de Florissant, CH-1206 Geneva, Switzerland
Tel:+41-22/346 0880;Fax:+41-22/789 0443
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South Asia Caucus
We, NGOs and citizens' groups from South Asia participating in the World Summit for Social
Development entered the process with the expectation that the Summit would address the issue
of structural disintegration and would place people at the centre of the development process. The
importance of the Social Summit lies in its potential to identify the connection among the
political, economic and social factors basic to sustainable development i.e., equitable and long
term development and address the constraints to the achievement of social development goals.
While appreciating the effort made by the UN to convene the World Social Summit and address
the issues of poverty, employment and social integration at the global level, we are deeply
disturbed by the conciliatory, and often soft stance taken by it towards a market-friendly
development paradigm for humanity. A wrong impression has been created that there is no
alternative to this. In spite of a growing body of evidence to show the damaging impact of this
development model on the world's poor and in widening the gulf between the rich and poor
within countries and across the nations, this Summit has taken a low-key approach to this critical
issue.
Instead of challenging the core of this ideology, the Draft Declaration and Programme of Action,
looks like a checklist of ameliorative measures to be taken to neutralize the damaging effects of
market-led development on the poor. As such, it seems, we are all participating in a grand
cooption by the World Bank and the IMF, who are the acknowledged institutional ideologues of
the system. This is a disappointing approach, given the seriousness of the challenges that lie
ahead. We, therefore, urge the UN to take a more critical policy stand on the issues revolving
around the World Bank, IMF and the newly formed WTO, and their policies, including the
structural adjustment policy. This has been a long-standing hope of the NGO sector.
Similarly, language recognizing the constraints that external debt, including multilateral debt, has
placed on the realization of social development goals has not been matched by a commitment to
resolve the problem. We call on the UN to carry out an audit of Who Owes What To Whom with
regard to the debt question. The countries of the West have developed on the ruthless
exploitation of their erstwhile colonies. The time has come to right this historical wrong.
While some progress has been made in a number of areas during the negotiating process, the
economic framework adopted in the draft documents as stated earlier is antithetical to equitable
and sustainable social development. The documents' overreliance on undefined and unregulated
market forces as a basis for organizing national economies contradicts our view that these forces
are contributing factors, and not the solution, to the current global social crises.
The Declaration and Programme of Action, has failed to adequately recognize the centrality of
democratic values and participation in the development process.
It is clear that the international financial institutions, and other actors representing the interests of
transnational corporations, and international capital are committed to the continuation of
structural adjustment programmes and so-called free-trade regimes under which unregulated
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investment, particularly by transnational corporations, can flourish. These actors, though not
involved in the negotiations either in New York or in Copenhagen, have more or less succeeded
in imposing their global economic agenda through the back door on a Summit designed to be
devoted to social and economic justice.
The result of these neoliberal policies, the Summit must realise, has been growing
unemployment, depressed wages, the elimination of thousands of small producers, decline in
food security, and cutbacks in social services, with women carrying the greatest burden in almost
all societies. The Summit process has merely emphasized a decade-old strategy of mitigating the
impact of adjustment programmes instead of suggesting a change in policies and encouraging
governments to respond first and foremost to the needs, priorities and perspectives of local
populations.
Compounding the problem is the fact that both the Declaration and Programme of Action do not
move in a meaningful way toward committing nations to increase the share of their respective
national and foreign-aid budgets to social development areas. The developed countries are
refusing point blank to provide new resources for the WSSD. They will make no commitments to
raising their aid budgets to 0.7% GNP as agreed to in the U N as far back as 1970, other than "as
soon as possible". The battle in the text is over öincreasing the volume of aidô(G-77 and China)
and ôincreasing the impact of aid" (EU, US). Furthermore, there is a strong reluctance to identify
and establish any mechanisms designed to effect a more equitable distribution of resources.
While it is heartening-that the Programme of Action recognises unsustainable consumption
"particularly in industrialised countries as the major cause in aggravating poverty it is tragic that
no concrete solutions are offered to this grave problem. The massive generation of wealth
through the large and virtually unregulated movement of speculative foreign exchange between
countries, which is inherently an unproductive activity, has greatly contributed to the problem of
unsustainable consumption. We call for urgent measures to curb short term speculative
transactions and urge governments to impose a 0.5% tax on such transactions as recommended
by Nobel Prize winning economist James Tobin. Such a step would generate well over one
trillion dollars which could be profitably spent on social development.
We also urge the UN to be driven by its beliefs, and not by the need to secure annual
contributions from large Western nations. Failure to do so will perpetuate the current trend of the
UN becoming marginalized to the role of providing relief for the symptoms and not for the
causes of the scars left behind by the multilateral financial institutions.
We do point with satisfaction to the recognition given in the Declaration and Programme of
Action to the importance of the various UN human rights treaties relating to social development,
though we find unacceptable the current backsliding on Cairo commitments related to women's
rights. Progress has been made in recognizing the importance of the role of NGOs and peoples'
organizations in social and economic development processes. The documents also point to the
need for gender-disaggregated data that makes quality programme and policy formulation
possible.
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However, to date sufficient commitments have not been made to establish specific targets and
mechanisms by which these objectives can be achieved. We press for progress in these and other
key areas, such as reducing military sales and spending, promoting labour rights and ensuring
environmentally sound sustainable development.
The Commitment of the World Summit For Social Development to reduce poverty and eradicate
absolute poverty, promote productive employment and social integration are intricately
interwoven with the "right to development". Yet the commitment regarding the right to
development has been kept vague, ambiguous and far from satisfactory in both the "Declaration
and the Programme of Action", despite its clear recognition in the U.N. resolution No.41/128
dated 4th December 1986, particularly so in Articles 1, 2 and 4 thereof. To that extent this
Summit has put the clock back. Corrective action has to be taken.
The Summit should call upon all nations to set up a National Commission for Social
Development in their respective countries. This Commission should have: constitutional
safeguards; constitutional powers to monitor implementation of the programme of action coming
out of the Summit; and the Commission should have powers to intervene into the budgetary
activities of governments to ensure that social sector outlays and expenditure are not made the
first casualty whenever there is a need to economise. The National Commission should publish a
report every year on the results of its monitoring the implementation of the Programme of
Action. Such reports should be public documents to which every citizen of the country will have
the right to access. The Commission should be a broad based Commission consisting of
members of the civil society, including legislators, NGOs, and representatives from the judiciary
and the Government/bureaucracy.
In summary the Declaration and the Programme of Action are incomplete in that they promote a
failed neoliberal economic model as the context within which social development takes place,
which is contrary to both our values and experiences, and to people-centred development.
Acceptance of this framework would constitute an abandonment of our responsibility to our
constituencies. We accept and respect the Social Summit process but distance ourselves from the
basic thrust of the documents. In Copenhagen, and after it, we urge our governments to join us in
an alternative vision where our economies and societies are defined by the values of equality and
social and economic justice.
Dr. Amitava Mukherjee
South Asia Caucus for the
World Summit for Social Development
ActionAid India
No. 3 Rest House Road,
Post Box No.5406, Bangalore – 560 001
India
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L'Union nationale de la femme tunisienne
C'est pour moi un grand honneur et un immense plaisir d'intervenir dans ce débat en plénière en
tant que représentante de l'une des premières organisations de femmes de mon pays: la Tunisie,
petit arabo-musulman d'Afrique du Nord dont les options en faveur des femmes sont bien
connues. Et je suis d'autant plus honorée de prendre la parole devant vous que nous fêtons
aujourd'hui la Journée Mondiale de la Femme, journée, que constitue pour nous femmes de
monde en développement, l'occasion privilégiée pour lancer un appel à la solidarité a tous les
hommes et femmes du monde entier.
Cet appel ne signifie pas seulement que nous soyons ensemble par le cœur et l'esprit, mais
l'espoir que nous nésscitons plus d'attention, plus d'engagement de la part de la communauté
internationale pour que s'instaure un véritable dialogue, une reconnaissance et un respect mutuel
entres nos cultures et nos valeurs, une volonté commune d'entraide et coopération, et pour que le
bien-être soit mieux partagé par les peuples du monde et surtout entre les hommes et les femmes.
Permettez-moi de mettre à profit mon temps de parole pour souligner quelques idées auxquelles
croient les hommes et les femmes de mon pays et plus généralement des régions auxquelles
j'appartiens, c'est-à-dire l'Afrique, le monde arabe et que l'organisation que j'ai l'honneur de
présider défend avec fermeté et conviction. En premier lieu, si nous voulons désamorcer 'la
bombe Sociale' dont parle l'Ambassadeur Somavia, président de la Commission Principale il
faudrait que nous nous y mettions tous, hommes et femmes sans discrimination; l'expérience ne
montre-t-elle pas clairement que dans les stratégies de survie, dans la faire en change des crises
et des problèmes sociaux, les femmes font preuve d'un génie qui est le leur et qu'elles basent
rarement les bras devant les difficultes de la vie.
Les responsables de mon pays l'ont bien compris. Le présidant Ben Ali a décidé en 1991 de
mettre en place une Commission 'Femmes et Développement.' Depuis, des programmes concrets
et des politiques sont mis en oeuvre pour soutenir la constitution des femmes dans les secteurs
productifs. Depuis également, une dynamique nouvelle c'est instaurée et les femmes se sont
mobilisé avec ferveur au sein de la société civile, je dis bien OSC et des ONG parce que nous ne
voulons pas perdre notre temps a une confrontation avec nos gouvernements mais plutôt asseoir
une véritable collaboration efficace et pertinente et un partenariat à même de répondre aux
attentes des femmes, des enfants et des populations encore dans les besoin ou en difficulté.
Cette approche s'est montrée, croyez moi, plus efficace que nous ne le pensions. Avec le
gouvernement nous avons mis en place une action pour éradiquer l'analphabétisme des femmes
en milieu rural, phénomène qui a persisté malgré un enseignement de base obligatoire et une
politique d'éducation générale. Notre expérience nous a valu une consécration internationale à
travers le prix de l'Unesco pour l'alphabétisation en 1994, pour avoir mis l'accent sur le monde
rural et sur la prévention du phénomène de l'abandon scolaire précoce des filles.
Aux cotés des pouvoirs publiques nous développons des chameaux de mobilisation des
ressources nationales, transparents crédibles que, par le biais du fonds national de solidarité crée
par le président Ben Ali, aboutissent à la promotion de projets intègres le cas dans des régions
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dites poches de pauvreté. Les premiers résultats positifs que nous enregistrons n'auraient pas pu
être réalisés si ce n'était avec le soutien des agences spécialisées de Nations Unies: c'est à dire,
FNUAP, l'OMS, l'UNICEF, et le FAO, ainsi que des ONG de pays amis qui ont compris que
l'issue réelle était le développement dans tous les composants économiques, culturelle et
sociales.
Le développement intégré, humain, durable, c'est en effet de cela que nous voulons parler, mais
pas sans les femmes. Un développement que se fait avec et pour les femmes aussi, qui tienne
compte d'elles en tant qu'extraordinaire potentiel productif capable moyennant des formations
réellement qualifiants; et porteur d'emploi, de mener l'économie de leur pays à des niveaux de
croissance soutenus, capable de constituer un tissu entrepreneurial créatif d'emploi ou d'autoemploi et d'investir les divers secteurs économiques.
Les femmes tunisiennes comme bon nombre de leurs consœurs africaines et arabes ont fait la
preuve d'une telle capacité: au cours de ces 5 dernières années, 150 entrepreneurs femmes se sont
lancées en Tunisie dans l'aventure du risque et de l'investissement. Des milliers des femmes
contribuent à l'expansion des secteurs exportateurs notamment de textile, de l'agro-alimentaire,
des industries de montage électronique et de l'artisanat traditionnel. Il est vrai qu'en Tunisie cela
n'a été possible que grâce au contexte juridique et politique favorable dont bénéficient les
femmes tunisiennes. Mais cela reviens aussi des choix qui ont été fait très tôt en matière de
politique de population. Ce sont en effet des services rapproches de planification et de santé
familiale qui ont permis à un nombre plus en plus grand des femmes de réaliser en équilibre réel
entre leur fonctions reproductives et productives.
Vous voyez bien que nous sommes loin de l'image caricaturale de femmes du quart-monde
impuissantes, ligotées, báillonnées, mais plutôt en présence d'un mouvement grandissent de
femmes maghrébines, africaines, arabes, conscientes de leur droit, de leur immense
responsabilités, aspirant à un plus grand place dans les circuits de prise de décision et du pouvoir,
dans la réalisation du changement, et la concrétisation de la démocratie.
Les femmes de mon pays sont préoccupées par celà. Elles savent que la democratie n'est pas un
mot magique, qu'il suffit de prononcer pour ériger tout un système. C'est bien au contraire un
ensemble de valeurs, une culture, une règle de jeux qui n'a de chance de s'établir que si tous les
partenaires en présence en comprennent les fondements, à savoir le respect de l'autre,
l'invincibilité des droits de l'homme dont les droits des femmes font partie integrante.
A ce titre, elles ne sont pas prêtes à admettre que des mouvements s'appuyant sur les religions
et se prétendant de la démocratie aient une certaine audience internationale, alors qu'ils sont la
négation même de la démocratie et des droits de l'homme, qu'ils ont en horreur des droits des
femmes et qu'ils bafouent quotidiennement dans certaines régions de ce monde les valeurs
universelles, les principes d'ouverture et de tolérance pronés par cet Islam que nos pères et nos
mères nous ont fortement enseigné.
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Ne dit-on pas que les femmes sont les meilleures gardiennes des valeurs de cette monde? Alors
nous,femmes tunisiennes, maghrébines, africaines, arabes ce sont ces valeurs-la que nous
garderons jalousement pour nos enfants aujourd'hui, par nos enfants demain, et pour l'humanité
tout entière pour l'éternité pour que triomphe l'égalité, le développement et la paix. Nous irons à
Beijing, fortes de nos lutte, fortes des nos principes et des nos acquis, fortes des réseaux que nous
avons constitués. Nous irons à Beijing pour revendiquer notre droit au progrès, notre droit de
participer aux destinées de notre famille, de notre peuple et de la société dans son ensemble et
pourquoi pas de la planète tout entière. Nous ne sommes pas une bombe a désamorcer. Nous
sommes une force dynamique pour le progrès que personne pourra arrêter.
Fayza Kefi
Union nationale de la femme tunisienne
56 Blvd Bab Benat, Tunis, Tunisia
Tel: +216/561845
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The Values Caucus
Why is it that the word "values" is becoming increasingly visible in the media and as a topic of
conversation? Why is it that the World Summit for Social Development has been called a
summit of "values"? Why does the Commission on Global Governance call for a fundamental
shift in values for our times? In times of integration we hear little about values. But our world is
in the process of profound change. Societal disintegration and global integration are happening
simultaneously.
Managing these changes requires a new global vision of global interdependence, cultural
diversity, and participatory decision-making. We must identify practical values that will work in
the contemporary world, and provide the foundation for a better, kinder world. Further, we are
asked to develop processes and structures which will foster these values. We can no longer
accept empty rhetoric about ideals and values that are exploited in the name of a cause, no matter
how bloody. We must demand that leaders who attest to ideals and values be required to
demonstrate them in their actions. We must ask the same of ourselves.
Only collective action will solve global problems in the contemporary world. Building trust and
cooperation between states will be required if we are to avoid collective destruction. The
extensive research of Sisela Book, Harvard University, indicates that three universal values are
fundamental to building trust and cooperation. In their absence global society lacks the cohesion
necessary to find common solutions. We can honor diversity only if it does not violate these
basic values
- mutual caring, support, reciprocity
- constraints on violence, Lying, betrayal
- rudimentary system of justice
We must make a commitment to practice values that lead to societal cohesiveness. The sacred
and secular are converging today in attesting to the reality of the One Humanity. Thinking about
ourselves as One helps avoid the negative values of separation and otherness which lead to fear,
suspicion, and ultimate dehumanization, inviting violence without conscience. The solution of
contemporary global problems require global solidarity. We must identify ourselves at more
inclusive levels as members of the One Humanity. We must change our attitudes, values and
behaviors to adapt ourselves to this new identity. We must choose leaders in all fields who put a
high value on changing themselves and developing the values and skills needed for the changing
times. We need leaders who are integrated thinkers to build an integrated world.
The time is short. The opportunity is now. We are at a defining point in history, when
breakdowns are occurring, and institutional changes have not yet become stabilized and
impermeable to change. In the past sweeping historical changes have occurred through fear and
catastrophe rather than through choice and wisdom. Potential global catastrophe threatens us
through nuclear disaster, environmental pollution, poverty, and eruption of violence. We must
examine the value choices that created a threatening and materialistic world. Change can occur
through a change of mind and a choice of values that include global responsibility. We, civic
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society and governments together, can and must define our future through moral courage and the
wisdom of our highest values. We, the people of the world, will be satisfied with nothing less.
Nancy B. Roof
Center for Psychology and Social Change
330 East 46th Street, New York, N.Y. 10017 USA
Tel/Fax:+1-212/808 0469
The Integration of Spiritual and Material Values
In our new, changing world of interconnectedness and interdependence, a guiding principle must
be recognized in order for this new world to be further enhanced: "As material civilization
develops, spiritual civilization must be cultivated accordingly". Spiritual evolution of each
individual needs to accompany the ever-expanding scientific, political and economic revolutions.
Otherwise, the human spirit will be stunted in growth. To enrich ourselves in the coming new
world, we must learn to resolve with patience, and seek to integrate with perseverance, many
seemingly conflicting views, ie. the spiritual and material, the sacred and the secular, theory and
practice, religion and science. Only when scientific and material civilizations are integrated with
spiritual cultivation can an ideal global society be established in the world.
As an example of this integration, ordinary Won Buddhist ministers in Korea live with the
homeless while also managing their shelters. Everyone in these shelters, shares the same daily
schedule. In the morning they cultivate the mind-heart by rising at 4:30 a.m. for meditation and
prayer, planning their days, and exchanging ideas in a forum. During the day everyone works in
animal farms, agricultural fields, or factories earning wages, but they are limited in spending the
savings until they become independent materially and spiritually. In the evening, it is time for
reflection, chanting, and writing in a spiritual diary.
Our program empowers the homeless, spiritually and materially. Certainly, in the beginning, it is
difficult to change attitudes and habits. But with spiritual inspiration, empowerment, and
understanding the facts and principles of daily living, people can change their lives. Many of the
homeless graduates in our shelters find jobs and apartments and can become independent. Some
of them return to the shelters after spending their savings, but most of them successfully adjust to
society By integration of the spiritual and the material, we will realize that we are One Family in
One House. Humanity is One Family and the world is the House we share. We inherit the world
from our ancestors, and in turn we pass it on to future generations. We live in it, sharing its
resources, its joys and sufferings. Therefore, it is our duty to take good care of our One Human
Family in One Planet Home. We must use our sense of One Family to eradicate material and
spiritual poverty, to empower our fellow human beings spiritually and materially, and to
encourage social development through love and compassion.
In order to build the ideal society materially and spiritually, we need to become aware that we
are ôCo-Workersö in One Work Place. We have many different duties and skills, but we all have
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a common task: to build the House of Truth, to make a home for love and justice. All social,
political, and religious enterprises should be utilized for the attainment of a peaceful world. We
must learn to be Co-Workers to solve the problems of poverty, unemployment, and social
disintegration.
For the benefit of the whole earth community, we need to practice these new values in our
material lives. It is critical to bring this back to the schools to awaken our next generation to their
highest potential. Let us work together for One Family in One House as Co-Workers to integrate
the spiritual and the material for a truly sustainable social development.
Ven. Chung Ok Lee,
Won Buddhism International
431 East 57th Street, New York, N.Y. 10022,USA
Tel: 212/750-2773;
Fax: 1-212/750-2774
Commitment to Values
Excellencies, we have endeavoured to draw your consciousness to the basic values we share by
appealing to your wisdom and your compassion. Without social development, speaking about
moral values is hollow. How can we speak about dignity, while children starve? Without moral,
ethical and spiritual values true social development cannot occur. Thus, we must speak of love,
compassion and human dignity. It is not just the mandate of political entities - member states but the very mandate of conscience, the mandate of the heart, the mandate of humanity, the
mandate of compassion that brings us here. Let us take a motto "Individuals, peoples and states
should treat others as they would have others treat them, and should avoid treating others as they
would have others avoid treating them." Underlying the exalted principle is the unity we feel as
part of one human family.
Is it not obvious that patience, justice, non-violence, forgiveness, harmony, compassion, loving
kindness, faith, hope, enthusiasm, trust and caring for the dignity in each individual bring us into
unity and harmony, not only with each other, but with the very core of our inner being?
We have assembled here at a very historic moment in time. We have assembled here to set forth
the foundation for the coming millennium. Remember, only that structure can withstand the test
of time, which is built on a strong foundation. There are two types of conferences which we shall
symbolise. Envision a beautiful lake which is absolutely still. When a big stone is thrown into a
still lake, there is a huge splash, big waves occur and the water is still again in a little while.
Then there is the other type, a small stone is carefully thrown into the center of the still lake, it
creates a ripple, and slowly but surely the ripple reaches the embankment. Let us endeavour to be
a part of this summit that creates this ripple.
Remember, you are the representatives of the people who have empowered you. These billions
of people look up to you to set forth the vision for our common future. We salute your
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commitment to the cause of humanity. Do not go back without making a conscious commitment
at this forum which shall truly be in the service of humanity.
We urge you. We implore you. We beg you. Bring this forum a gift. Do not go away from this
forum without making this solemn pledge. Bring to this forum a Gift of Affirmation, and when
you bring this gift, first reflect for a moment, and "Separate that from yourself that separates you
from your fellow beings."
P. N. Jain (Bawa)
International Mahavir Mission,
65 Mud Pond Road, Blairstown, NJ 07825, USA
Tel: +1-202/362 9793
The Values Caucus
431 East 57th Street, New York, N.Y. 10022,USA
Tel: 212/750-2773; Fax: 1-212/750-2774
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Women's Environment & Development Organization (WEDO)
We've made it to the Summit. Men and women, governments, NGOs and the United Nations, are
today joined together in a historic remembrance and common celebration on International Women's
Day. For women in the struggle for equality, there are many paths to the mountain top. It is a climb
by all of society of monumental scale -- perhaps akin to struggle to end slavery. --Never
underestimate the importance of what we do here today in changing the course of history.
Our struggle is about resisting the slide into a morass of anarchy, violence, intolerance,
inequality and injustice.
Our struggle is about reversing the trends of social, economic, political
and ecological crisis.
Our struggle is about creating sustainable lives, and attainable dreams.
Our struggle is about creating violence-free families. And then, violence-free streets. Then,
violence-free borders. In that order.
Because the root of the problem is persistent inequalities and growing inequities.For us to realize
our dreams, we must keep our heads in the clouds and our feet on the ground. We must marshall
our courage and creativity and act together. As delegations act to remove the brackets in this
document, they must pledge to remove the brackets on the lives of women and children, the
majority of the world's poor.
If we love ourselves, if we love our young, if we love our country and the earth, -- and we do -then that same motivation must move us to create not only the words but the actions to remove
the great divide between rich and poor. That's what the Summit is all about --grappling with the
world's contradictions.
Because women are the majority of the world's poor, the Women's Caucus argues that gender
equality is fundamental to the core objectives in removing that great divide. We argue gender
equality is a prerequisite, a precondition for social development. We argue for a redefinition of
security. One that promotes security of people -- of women and children.
We argue for a redefinition of productive employment and the meaning of work. We argue to
count and value unpaid work, the majority of which is currently done by women. We challenge
the definition of development and the results of the present growth model and call for remedying
that.
We call for a people-centered, ecologically sustainable planet for this and future generations.
We call for changing budget priorities to transfer funds from the military to clothe, feed and
house and meet the real needs of women and children. -- It is a 20-20 vision that should not wait
for hindsight to prove it right. We call for building communities, not markets alone.
We are all in a dangerous and fragile transition to an integrated, global market economy
dominated by resourcism -- an ethic based on exploiting the planet's natural and human wealth
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for uncontrolled growth--of more and more and more. Without limits.We must have the boldness
to restructure the global institutions that have the power to shape our lives.
Let's see how it might operate in the exercise of power and decision-making by the Heads of
State gathering here. Some have already announced initiatives; others are expected to follow.
We have a perfect opportunity to announce a dramatic initiative to begin implementing this
Summit agenda. There are two open spots in the global governance cabinet --the World Bank
and the World Trade Organization-- that are just begging for fresh leadership.
Hasn't the Summit made it perfectly clear that who ever has his or her hand on the global rudder
of these institutions will radically effect, if not determine, the level, type and scale of social
development? And do I dare to ask if there's a gender-balanced short list or if any women at all
were considered for these positions in the global economic royalty?
Who's watching this process? Who's watching the decisions that get made here? Of one thing I
am certain. The women's movement has put women in movement everywhere. And women will
be watching. We will continue to demand accountability and transparency. In the World Bank
and World Trade Organization, the IMF and the UN in the global public sector as well as the
global private sector --transnational corporations and financial institutions. We will insist upon
Codes of Conduct to regulate the behavior of these so-called "faceless" corporate bodies that
consider only financial gain, not human pain.
As we speak of initiatives, let us pledge that this Summit will be remembered as the high-water
mark on the decades of greed. That from this day forward, we will act to reclaim our
communities and reign in renegade financial systems and markets. That we will be courageous
enough to stop the tidal waves of paper entrepreneurialism and speculative capital transactions.
That we will seek to stabilize this system and seriously implement the Tobin tax idea.
Let us pledge today to end financial apartheid, particularly the financial apartheid of Africa and
the least developed countries. Let us end the "redlining" of foreign investment and technology
transfers and end the charade of debt discussions. Does anyone seriously think that the African
people, particularly its women and children, owe the Northern countries or the IMF and World
Bank any more? Have they not paid for centuries? The women's caucus has called for historical
accounting to be used in calculating the debt to take into account the social and environmental
plundering of their continent.
Will we tolerate and carry over today's "robber barons" into the 21st century?
The revival of values, ethics and spirituality are essential ingredients. But not at the expense of
women. Not fuelled by the rise of fundamentalisms and xenophobic nationalisms. Not values
that are anti-women, but real family values. That values all forms and members of families. That
is based on tolerance, dignity and love --real inclusion. That rejects racism, sexism, homophobia,
and discrimination based on age, ability, religion. ethnicity or economic status --all forms of
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exclusion. Now is the time for men and women to act together to tear down the patriarchical
pyramids.
But above all, everyone needs and deserves a place. The quality of our habitat is a measure of
our collective humanity. The birds have the trees, the fish have the seas. But women and children
have no safe place. We need a room of our own, 500 pounds, and with a garden.
Bella Abzug
Women's Environment and Development Organization
10th Floor, 845 3rd Avenue, New York N.Y. 10022, USA
Tel: +1-212/759 7982; Fax: +1-212/759 8647
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World Council of Churches
It is a privilege to greet you at this important gathering of world leaders in the name of the World
Council of Churches which I serve as General Secretary. The World Council of Churches is a
fellowship of some 325 Orthodox, Anglican and Protestant member churches in more than one
hundred countries in several regions of the world. What I present to you today has been informed
by decades of dialogue between Christian churches, but increasingly also with people of other
religious faiths. In addition, the two international Roman Catholic networks, CIDSE and Caritas
Internationalis, have emphasized that their views on social development are similar to those of
the WCC.
Since its beginnings, the World Council of Churches has been an advocate of Christian
involvement in the struggle for social justice, based on the conviction that we cannot separate the
material and spiritual needs of individuals and communities. Out of this conviction, the World
Council of Churches actively promoted the formation of the United Nations fifty years ago as an
instrument not just of sovereign states, but as the embodiment of the aspirations of the peoples of
the world for peace, respect for human rights, including religious liberty, and freedom from
want.
This World Summit on Social Development could hardly come at a more important turning
point, a time when social policies are under attack in nations around the world. Poverty and
injustice erode the foundations of fragile democracies in many nations. Even in the industrialized
countries, social welfare systems are being dismantled in the interest of economic growth.
Unemployment and poverty are on the increase. Almost everywhere, the gap between rich and
poor grows daily.
As the world economy becomes global in nature, economic and political power is increasingly
concentrated in the hands of the privileged few. The global market approach is rapidly reshaping
the world, weakening the traditional role of national governments through policies of
deregulation and limiting the effectiveness of the system of intergovernmental social institutions.
Who is to look after the people's interests in a time when institutions in the private sphere assume
an ever greater role in the shaping of global economy? Who is to safeguard the rights of the poor
nations and the small states in the face of the domination of a handful of powerful actors on the
world scene?
In the face of such a challenge, a potentially powerful third force, the civil society, has begun to
emerge. The development everywhere of social movements and voluntary non-governmental
organizations is accompanied by a resurgence of religion, an indication that the spiritual, cultural
and material needs of human community are inextricably bound together. The United Nations,
through world gatherings as this one, has facilitated the emergence of an international civil
society which must be regarded as an essential component of social development and as a crucial
part of a new international order. It presupposes, however, the universal affirmation of basic
structures for justice in the political, social and economic realms. What is at stake here is a
fundamental change of consciousness and values.
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One of the areas in which we need such a fundamental change of paradigms is the role of
economic growth. Certainly the growth of world production over the last decades has led to great
improvements, at least for certain groups in society. For many areas in the world economic
growth is absolutely necessary to provide employment and income and to make possible
dignified human life for all. But the tendency -- evident in the preparatory documents for this
summit -- to consider open markets and economic growth as a panacea for almost all social ills,
must be challenged. The assembly of the World Council of Churches in Canberra in 1991
reminded us that "growth for growth's sake is the strategy of a cancer cell". Just as humanity has
developed a sense of the minimum which is required to satisfy basic human needs, so we should
consider where the maximum limits lie before excess leads to ruin.
Further, as world production has grown, so has the number of poor people. Globally, and in
many cases at the national level too, the gap between rich and poor is widening, and economic
growth is increasingly taking on the character of jobless growth, thereby contributing to greater
inequality and exclusion. Apparently, economic growth alone does not solve social problems. If
it is argued that economic growth is absolutely necessary to eradicate poverty, then why has it
not done so during decades of growth-oriented development strategies?
We believe that it is time to rethink our arguments. Why not consider whether policies aimed at
poverty reduction, long-term employment generation and environmental restoration and
protection will lead to sustainable human development? Such an approach contrasts with the
prevailing thought which begins with economic processes and trusts against broad empirical
evidence - that the benefits will "trickle downö to all layers of society. Social and ecological
policies come in only as a corrective or as an after-thought.
The alternative approach would require, from the outset, the active participation in
decision-making processes of those who are affected by such decisions. It would be a
"building-up" rather than a "trickle-down" approach, starting with the needs of local
communities and using these as the basis for global policies. This new direction is already being
followed by several organizations. At the international level, for example, the United Nations
Development Programme has developed the Human Development Index which qualifies
economic growth by putting it alongside social development indicators. Organizations in civil
society have demonstrated the effectiveness, both economically and financially, of
community-oriented development schemes. One such example is the Ecumenical Development
Cooperative Society which gives loans to commercially viable enterprises which comply with a
set of social objectives.
Certain short-term measures are needed to foster such alternative approaches. Some of the most
urgent are:
- Strengthening the United Nations: more effective control over international economic actors
such as transnational corporations must be established and the international financial and
economic institutions, such as the International Monetary Fund, the World Bank and the World
Trade Organization, must be held accountable as envisaged by the Charter of the United Nations.
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- Elimination of the external debt of the Least Developed Countries and reduction of at least 506
in the debt of the Middle Income Countries. This must be accompanied by a fundamental
revision of the Structural Adjustment Policy, giving highest priority to social development and
environmental protection. The "Alternative Structural Adjustment Programme", recently
developed by organizations in civil society in Guyana, may serve as an example.
- Implementation of the United Nations target for Overseas Development Assistance of 0.7% of
the Gross National Product by all OECD countries by the year 2000. Concerns about the quantity
of foreign development assistance have to be combined with policies to improve the quality.
Therefore, at least 20~ of official development assistance should be directed to social
development areas and the fulfilment of basic needs for all.
What can "the peoples of the world" expect from this World Summit on Social Development
where so many laudable intentions are formulated? It seems to me that our current dilemma is
that we use a social development model when we state our intentions, but that we apply an
economic growth model when we act. Nothing short of a renewed and massive political will is
required if we are to practise what we preach. The changes we need are not only administrative,
legal, technical or technological, but changes in the direction of life-oriented values, a change of
hearts and of minds. Promoting cultures of solidarity and life has been a primary concern for
faith communities all over the world. It is in this field that religious organizations can make their
most important contribution. The issues at stake at this World Summit are profoundly
challenging. We are willing to accept this challenge.
Dr. Konrad Raiser
World Council of Churches
Case Postale 2100, CH-1211 Geneva, Switzerland
Tel: +41-22/791 6216; Fax: +41-22/791 0361
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Inaugural address
by Ambassador Juan Somavía at the NGO Forum
I am here to say that without you—all of you present here today and the millions that you
represent—the World Summit for Social Development would not have been possible.
You created the consciousness that made it necessary.
You mobilized the support that made it a reality.
You provided the experience and ideas that gave it direction.
You proved, once again, that the United Nations of today and tomorrow, can only be relevant to
people if it listens to and is influenced by, people’s organizations that constitute the rich and
varied expressions of civil society and the non-governmental world. Many of you know my
personal commitment to this vision.
My applause goes out to you. To the Women’s Caucus, the Development Caucus, the Values
Caucus, the International Council for Social Welfare, and all the regional caucuses, among so
many of you who have accompanied the preparatory process.
The Social Summit is a deep cry of alarm. In the most profound sense, it is a moral and ethical
challenge to governments, business, media, trade unions, political parties, religious traditions,
intellectuals, civil society in general, and all of us individually. It is a challenge to come together,
to join forces and to actually give social development “the highest priority both now and into the
21st century,” as stated in the Summit’s declaration.
If we don’t, so that public and private policies continue unchanged and present trends are left to
grow unchecked, the expanding feeling of uncertainty and insecurity in the daily life of people
will make our societies increasingly unliveable.
The underlying and structural causes of the social tensions that are growing worldwide, find a
common root in the growth of inequity in most societies. Thirty years ago, the total income of
the people in the richest 20% bracket worldwide, including the rich of the Third World, was 30
times higher than the lowest 20%. That was already a scandal and yet today, it 60 times higher
and in 30 more years—if present trends continue—it can soar to become 120 times higher. To
imagine that this reality has no relation to the violence, drug abuse, corruption and moral decay
surrounding us, is truly political blindness.
As a result, the number of people living in poverty continues to grow—reaching more than one
billion human beings throughout the world. Equally serious, 30% of the world’s active
population—that is 820 million people, more women than men—are either unemployed or
underemployed.
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Such disparity and polarization cannot continue if we aspire to societies that are safe, secure and
cohesive. It is clear we are not moving towards more equality of opportunity for the
dispossessed, but towards more concentration of opportunity for the well-off.
This evolution is compounded by multiple expressions of moral indifference and comfortable
self-righteousness towards the plight of others. More and more, we listen to voices that would
have us believe that poverty is the fault of the poor, that exclusion is the responsibility of the
excluded and that equality of opportunity is a reality that only the incompetent do not take
advantage of.
The Social Summit proposes a different vision and course of action. It says, and I quote:
“We acknowledge that the people of the world have shown in different ways an urgent need to
address profound social problems, especially poverty, unemployment and social exclusion that
affect every country.
“We acknowledge that our societies must respond more effectively to the material and spiritual
needs of individuals, their families and their communities in which they live throughout our
diverse countries and regions.
“We must do so as a matter of urgency, but also as a matter of sustained and unshakable
commitment through the years ahead.
“It is our task to address both their underlying and structural causes and their distressing
consequences in order to reduce uncertainty and insecurity in the life of people.”
The goals and principles it pursues and the ten commitments it undertakes, are rooted in the basic
notion that people matter, that human beings are important, that empowerment is possible, and
that we must “place people at the centre of development and direct our economies to meet human
needs more effectively.”
The question now before us is how to turn words into action, declarations into policies and
commitments into realities?
To begin with, we seem to have forgotten three fundamental lessons of history. Firstly,
successful development has always been accompanied by growing equity and solidarity. No
developed society of today reached that status by increasing polarization and disparity.
Unfortunately, even they have begun to backtrack on this road.
Secondly, when social tensions are not dealt with through more, not less, social integration and
cohesion, the easy option is to apply more authoritarian policies in order to control the situation.
Thirdly, cohesive societies have a shared notion of a common good expressed in values and
objectives that are different from, and often contrary to, the mere pursuit and interaction of
individual interests in the marketplace.
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Additionally, don’t let anybody tell any of us that there are no resources. Resources are there.
The real issue is priorities. We need new human priorities in all of our societies and in the
workings of the world economy to make different use of the enormous public and private
resources available.
For example, today we are generally subsidizing, through tax benefits, research and development
that leads to job-reducing technologies. At the same time, we are putting all the weight of the
acquired social rights on the cost of employment. The result, of course, is increasing
unemployment or poor quality employment. What would happen if we turned the equation
around, and shifted tax benefits by reducing the burden of employment creation. If we continue
to produce growth with little employment, we must eventually move away from tying to a paid
job many essential components of human dignity.
The contribution to society made by voluntary work, artists, the elderly, and most especially, by
women through unpaid household work, together with cost-free use of the environment, are in
fact subsidizing the economy. The women’s movement is rightfully demanding that this
contribution be measured, if not renumerated, at least to factor in the invisible components of an
economic system that ignores the actors which deserve a share of the benefits that they help to
produce. Where would the concepts of efficiency and productivity prevailing in today’s
economic mindset be without these unacknowledged subsidies?
In the same manner, there is no doubt that all countries need to balance their budgets, and
particularly developed countries who had in 1993 a combined yearly deficit of one thousand
billion dollars. They naturally tap capital markets in order to close the gap. This has led to a
combined accumulated public debt of ten thousand billion dollars in developed countries. If they
become fiscally responsible, there would be much more capital available worldwide for
investment at lower rates of interest. Many have embarked in this direction, but mainly by
slashing social expenditures.
Yet, the real political question is why should macroeconomic balances be achieved on the basis
of unbalancing the life of people already living in the margins of our societies? Why should the
weaker sectors of our communities bear the brunt of the adjustment process in any country? Why
not look, for example, to a renegotiation of the public debt, to a further significant lowering of
military investment, production, and trade as Mabub ul Haq has so systematically proposed, or to
give tax incentives which stimulate use of private capital to address social needs. We should also
look at appropriate fees to curb financial speculation, which Hazel Henderson calls the global
casino, so aptly confirmed by the recent collapse of the Barings Bank of Britain on the basis of a
27 billion dollar bet that went sour.
What is painfully obvious is that we need to innovate in our economic thinking. More of the
same will simply not do, and yet more of the same is what most countries are doing today. The
work of Peggy Antrobus and the recent Oslo Fjord Declaration clearly highlight this problem.
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Another dimension is the need to create a positive consensus for change. This is very difficult
when media normally reflect the negative news of our societies. Information and communication,
most especially television, have indeed become the power of powers today. We need committed
individuals behind those cameras joining in the challenge of overcoming the dogma that only
conflict and violence sell, while conflict resolution, consensus building, and success stories lack
the interest the market requires to consider them “news.” We need the media that values social
cohesion rather than systematically projecting social disintegration.
We need to address creatively the contradictions between the summit’s goals, principles, and
commitments and the weak and limited array of instruments that present public and private
policies offer to solve these problems.
We need to dare to think differently from prevailing trends. We need social and political
leadership which dares to lead.
By bringing social development into the centre of world politics, the summit wants to stimulate
this discussion and provide a new awareness and consciousness around the fact that security of
people is the true security challenge of the 21st century.
Civil society and the non-governmental world must claim a major role to implement the Social
Summit.
You must deepen you own commitment to change. You must make visible the creative solutions
that are possible at the grassroot and local levels, when people are truly involved. You must link
and network your global presence on gender issues, environment, workers’ rights, population,
peace, trade and social questions into a powerful and united force that can spearhead a
worldwide, civil society movement. You must interrelate the multiple and unconnected local
initiatives with your global vision and capacity to mobilize action.
You must be the conscience of the World Social Summit by engaging governments and all other
social actors in dialogue and debate on the new national and international priorities that are
needed to really put people first.
You must confront the development fatigue state of mind of many bureaucracies and political
leaders in developed countries, by making it evident that ordinary people are still prepared to
engage in international solidarity when the cause is just and the monies are well spent.
You must reach out to your opponents and connect with them, because even those you feel are
declared adversaries of your ideas have in part of their hearts the capacity to do good.
You must become the instruments of accountability for a better world. Finally, let me tell you
that this is not a summit of hopelessness; a gathering to say that nothing can be done. On the
contrary, it is a summit to find new directions, to say that change is possible and to affirm that
however dark things may look, however impotent we may sometimes feel as individuals, the
strength of the human spirit will prevail.
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We will not give up. The greatest strength of any society is for us never to lose the conviction
that justice is not only necessary, but ultimately possible, and that motivated and committed
human beings can make a difference.
I congratulate you on what you have done. I invite you to grasp the banners of the Social Summit
to help make it a reality.
And above all, I want you to know that I am a part of you, that I share your ideals and your
passions, and that hand in hand, all of us together—and the millions that you represent—we shall
break the barriers that contain us and find the answers that we still don’t see today.
Ambassador Juan Somavia (Chile)
Chairman, World Summit for Social Development
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STATEMENT ON THE COPENHAGEN
ALTERNATIVE DECLARATION
This document represents the ongoing work done over the past 20 to 25 years by people's
organizations and NGOs in the South and in the North. It represents the views and perspectives of
those who believe that the problems of poverty, unemployment, and social disintegration cannot be
solved without a change in the economic, political and social structures which serve to perpetuate
this situation. We believe that this summit is a historic event because for the first time a world
conference is looking at issues which have caused misery and pain for the majority of the world's
people. We are referring to the problems of debt, structural adjustment policies, and Bretton Woods
Institutions.
While we are happy that these issues are finally on the table, as NGOs and representatives of
people's movements we have a responsibility to be critical and forward-looking. The official
documents have very good humanitarian goals with ambitious targets but the policy
recommendations do not decisively address the structural roots of the social development crisis.
We recognize that the existing world order has opened the most dangerous chasm in human
history between an affluent overconsuming minority and impoverished majority of humankind
in the South and also increasingly in the North. It requires a tremendous amount of political will
on the part of governments, intergovernmental organizations and civil society to effectively
confront this situation.
It is in this light that some NGOs present here in Copenhagen put together this Copenhagen
Alternative Declaration. This is not the only document from NGOs. In fact, this document builds
upon the earlier ones made by the different NGOs and caucuses. It does not pretend to represent
a consensus because such is difficult to achieve especially when we need to analyse and
understand the whole global system. There will be a divergence of views between those who
want to address the structural roots oof the crisis and those who will opt to mitigate the negative
impacts of SAPs, trade liberalization, and debt.
Nevertheless, we believe that all of these efforts are complementary and we need to build strong
alliances with NGOs, social movements, governments both from the North and South, and the
United Nations to effectively address the serious world crisis.
We look upon this document as a mobilizing tool to advance the development debate and to
muster and consolidate efforts of social movements to bring about an equitable, just and humane
world. We cannot remain blind to the fact that it is the dominant neo-liberal system which is
causing poverty, unemployment, and social disintegration, and alternatives to this system have to
be strengthened and evolved. These alternatives should be allowed to blossom and the
marginalized peoples should play key roles in designing and implementing these.
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Underlying the political, social, economic and cultural structures is the structure of gender
inequity which should be seriously addressed. No meaningful transformation will be achieved
without a change in gender relations from the household level up to the international level.
We do not have much time. We are bequeathing to our children to a world which we, ourselves,
would not wish to live in. We are therefore renewing our commitment as NGOs, people's
organizations and movements to continue doing our responsibility of empowering people's so
they will become the centre of development. We find tremendous inspiration and hope in the fact
that people's movements and the NGO community continue to thrive and strive even in the face
of repression and difficulties. The desire to make this social summit relevant to the majority has
made the NGO community play a very active role.
We congratulate Ambassador Juan Somavia and the United Nations for making this social
summit happen. We look forward to a meaningful partnership between the NGOs who signed
and will sign the Copenhagen Alternative Declaration, and the United Nations.
We will sustain our efforts to monitor how the commitments in the summit are going to be
implemented, especially those in the areas of debt, structural adjustment policies and the reform
of the Bretton Woods Institutions and the United Nations.
We believe that this Copenhagen Alternative Declaration will help mobilize the political will to
implement the commitments arrived at this social summit.
Victoria Tauli-Corpuz
Member of the Drafting Committee of the Copenhagen Declaration
Cordillera Women's Education and Resource Centre
16 Loro St. Quizon SMB, Baguio City 2400 Philippines
Tel:+63-74/442 5347; Fax: +63-74/442 5205
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THE COPENHAGEN ALTERNATIVE DECLARATION
This Declaration builds upon efforts meaning from the NGO Development Caucus during the
Social Summit preparatory meetings, the Oslo Fjord Declaration, and other national and
international citizen’s' initiatives.
We, representatives of social movements, NGOs and citizens' groups participating in the NGO
Forum during the World Summit for Social Development (WSSD), share a common Vision of a
world which recognizes its essential oneness and interdependence while wholly embracing
human diversity in all its racial, ethnic, cultural and religious manifestations, where justice and
equity for all its inhabitants is the first priority in all endeavours and enterprises and in which the
principles of democracy and popular participation are universally upheld so that the longdreamed
creation of a peaceful, co-operative and sustainable civilization can at long last be made possible.
In this context, we expected that the Social Summit would address the structural causes of
poverty, unemployment and social disintegration, as well as environmental degradation, and
would place people at the center of the development process. These include not only economic,
political and social causes, but also the cultural structures of gender inequity.
While some progress was achieved in placing critical issues on the table during the Summit
negotiation process, we believe that the economic framework adopted in the draft documents is
in basic contradiction with the objectives of equitable and sustainable social development. The
over- reliance that the documents place on unaccountable “open, free-marked forces” as a basis
for organizing national and international economies- aggravates, rather than alleviates, the
current global social crises. This false premise threatens the realization of the stated goals of the
Social Summit.
The dominant neo-liberal system as a universal model for development has failed. The current
debt burden of dozens of countries is unsustainable, as it is draining them or the resources they
need to generate economic and social development. Structural adjustment programmes imposed
by the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank have consistently undermined economic
and social progress by suppressing wages, undermining the contributions and livelihoods of
small producers, and placing social services, particularly health care and education, out of reach
of de poor. In dismantling basic state services, these programmes have shifted an even greater
burden onto women, who care for the nutrition, health, well-being and harmony of the family, as
well as community relations. In promoting the rapid exportation of natural resources,
deregulating the economy, and pushing increasing numbers of poor people onto marginal lands,
adjustment has contributed to the process of ecological degradation.
This system has also resulted in an even greater concentration of economic, political
technological and institutional power and control over food and other critical resources in the
hands of a relatively few transnational corporations and financial institutions. A system that
places growth above all other goals, including human well-being, wrecks economies rather than
regenerates them, exploiting women’s time labour and sexuality. It creates incentives for capital
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to externalize social and environmental costs. It generates jobless growth, derogates the rights of
workers, and undermines the role of trade unions. In the process, the system places a
disproportionate burden on women and jeopardizes their health and well- being and consequently
that of those in their care. Finally, it leads to and unequal distribution in the use of resources
between and within countries and generates social apartheid, encourages racism, civil strife and
war, and undermines the rights of women and indigenous peoples.
It is for these reasons that we also cannot accept the official documents’ endorsement of the new
trade order as defined in the Final Act of the Uruguay Round and Articles of Agreement on the
establishment of the World Trade Organization. The documents do not consider that trade
liberalization through the General Agreement on Trade and Tariffs (GATT) and the WTO
creates more losers than winners and that the negative impacts will be disastrous for poor
countries, and poor and working people within all countries. The interests of local producers, in
particular, are undermined in the areas of foreign investment, biodiversity and intellectual
property rights.
We reject the notion of reducing social policy in developing countries to a “social safety net”,
presented as the “human face” of structural adjustment policies in the WSSD documents. This
proposal is predicated on the withdrawal of the State from one of its fundamental
responsibilities. The slashing of social expenditures in the North as a means of reducing the
budget deficit has also undermined many of the achievements of the welfare state.
Social development can only be achieved if all human rights -- civil, political, economic, social
and cultural -- of all individuals and people are fulfilled. We believe that the Summit documents
fail to recognize adequately the primacy of human rights as a prerequisite for a participatory and
meaningful social development for all sectors of society, especially for children and such
marginalized groups as people with disabilities, indigenous peoples, people in occupied
territories, refugees and the displaced. It also fails to note how the undemocratic nature of
structural adjustment programmes undermine the rights of citizens and often leads to their
repression. In addition, efforts made at the Social Summit to reverse agreements reached in
Vienna and Cairo in relation to women’s rights represent a future undermining of the
possibilities for the kind of fundamental changes required for the creation of just
societies.
Finally, we note that militarization creates enormous waste of human, natural and financial
resources. It causes future inequality and pauperization, political and social violence, including
violations against women, and violent conflict that adds to the rising global death toll and the
growing number of refugees and the displaced people.
In rejecting the prevailing global economic model, we do not suggest the imposition of another
universal model. Rather, it is a question of innovating and devising local answers to community
needs, promoting the skills and energy of women in full equality with men, and benefiting from
valuable traditions, as well as new technologies.
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In the light of the foregoing, we consider that the following conditions must be fulfilled at the
household, community, national and international levels to realize this alternative vision of
development:
At The Household Level:
* The new vision of development requires the transformation of gender relations, in which
women are equal participants in the decision-making process.
* Women and men must share responsibility for the care of children, the elderly and people with
disabilities.
* Domestic violence in all its forms must not be tolerated.
* Women must be guaranteed sexual and reproductive choice and health.
* Children's rights should be respected and enhanced.
The Community Level:
*The keys to effective development are equity, participation, self- reliance, sustainability and a
holistic approach to community life..
* The capacity of communities to protect their own resource base must be restored.
*Governmental and intergovernmental decisions must be built upon the full participation of
social movements, citizens' organizations and communities at all stages in the development
process, paying special attention to the equal participation of women.
*Communities must gain control over the activities of all enterprises that affect their well-being,
including transnational corporations.
The political, social and economical empowerment of youth, especially young women, should
be fostered.
At The National Level:
*All forms of oppression based on gender, race, ethnicity, class. age, disability and religion must
be eliminated.
*Governments must ensure the full and equal participation of civil society in the processes of
economic policy-making and other development decision-making, implementation and
monitoring.Education must be granted as the main instrument to empower youth to take their
rightful place in society, enabling them to take control of their lives. Non-formal education
should be promoted, drawing on the experiences and skills of non-specialized people.
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* Governments must ensure the full and equal participation of women in power structures and
decision-making at all levels.
* National accounting systems should be revised to incorporate women’s unpaid work.
*Governments must commit themselves to developing national strategies and implementation
plans in order to fulfill their responsibilities under the Human Rights covenants. They must
regularly report on their progress, in particular their efforts regarding marginalized groups'
access to legal procedures. Governments which have not ratified Convention on the Elimination
of All Forms of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW) should do so. Governments should
work for the approval of the Draft Declaration on the Universal Rights of Indigenous Peoples at
the United Nations.
*Recognition of and respect for ancestral territorial rights of indigenous peoples and their rights
to self-determination is an imperative in order to ensure their existence as peoples and cultures.
Territories that are still colonized should likewise be accorded their right to
sovereignty and self-determination.
*Governments must make agrarian reform the basis of rural economies and ensure access to
affordable credit for the poor without discriminating on the basis of gender, race and ethnicity so
that people can create their own employment and build their own communities.
*Governments should develop sustainable employment programmes, in full
consultation with trade unions and employers' organizations.
*Governments of industrialized countries should reduce their countries' disproportionately large
claim on available natural resources by implementing the appropriate mix of incentives,
ecological tax reforms, regulations, and environmental accounting systems to achieve sustainable
production and consumption patterns.
*Southern governments have the right to protect their people from the effects of deregulated and
liberalized trade, especially in areas of food security and domestic production. Moreover, they
should be able to regulate the market and take fiscal or legal measures for the purpose of
combatting inequalities among their peoples. Africa should be given preferential treatment in this
respect.
*Governments should commit themselves to reducing military expenditure so that it does not
exceed spending on health care and education and increase the conversion of military resources
to peaceful purposes. This "peace dividend should be distributed equally between a national and
a global demilitarization fund for social development. There should be a conversion of the
military economy to a civilian economy.
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At The International Level:
* A new partnership in South-North relations requires placing the cultures, development options
and long-term strategies of developing countries first, and not those of the North.
* It must be recognized that cultural diversity is the principal source of new strength, new
actors, new social systems and sustainable development, creating an alternative globalization
from below.
* There should be an immediate cancellation of bilateral, multilateral and commercial debt of
developing countries without the imposition of structural adjustment conditionality. In the longer
term, the international community should institutionalize equitable terms of trade.
* Policy-based lending and the interference of the World Bank and IMF in the internal affairs of
sovereign states should be discontinued.
* The Bretton Woods institutions must be made transparent and accountable to civil society in
both the South and North; their policies and programmes should be made people-centered; and
participation of social movements and citizens' organizations at all stages in the negotiation of
agreements, project implementation and monitoring should be ensured.
*Global macro-economic policy should address the structure of poverty and stimulation the
levels of real purchasing power. An alternative macro- economic policy will have to
meaningfully address the distribution of income and wealth, both between and within countries
leading to a democratization of consumption. This policy would require curbing, lavish luxurygoods economies and redirecting resources towards the production of essential consumer goods
and social services.
*Global production and consumption must stay within the limits of the carrying capacity of the
earth. Political regulation is mandatory in order to prevent: the global market system from
continuing to reward irresponsible behaviour that cares nothing, for the household, community,
nation end humankind.
* Regulatory institutions and instruments of governance and law that are truly democratic and
enforceable must be established to prohibit monopolistic structures and behaviour and to ensure
that transnational corporations and financial institutions respect the fundamental rights of all
peoples. In order to make this possible, TNCs must be reduced in size. Work to complete the
Code of Conduct for TNCs should be urgently resumed.
*An international independent body and accountability mechanisms should be set up to monitor,
evaluate and effectively regulate the behaviour of transnational corporations and their impact on
individual nations, communities, peoples and the environment.
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*The international community should enforce: the application of a tax on all speculative foreign
exchange transactions (Tobin tax) of about 0.5%, the revenue of which should go into a global
social development fund with adequate control mechanisms.
* Effective machinery to promote renewable energy should be installed in the UN system.
*Regional and international organizations should encourage diplomacy, peaceful negotiations
and mediation and promote institutions for research and training in non-violent conflict
resolution.
* In the 180 days between the Copenhagen Summit and Beijing, Conference, we demand an
independent investigation and audit of World Bank and IMF performance. In the aftermath of the
financial collapse in Mexico, it is essential that the international community prevent future
disasters that result from the refusal of the Bretton Woods institutions to depart from the agenda
set by the financial and corporate communities, the U.S. government, and Northern financial
ministries.
Existing power relations do not permit the realisation of these goals. We, representatives of civil
society, call upon governments and political leaders to recognize that the existing system has
opened the most dangerous chasm in human history between an affluent, overconsuming
minority and an impoverished majority of humankind in the South and also, increasingly, in the
North. No nation so dramatically divided has ever remained stable; no frontier or force can
withstand the despair and resentment that a failed system is now actively generating.
We do not have much time. We are at the point of leaving to our children a world in which we
ourselves would not wish to live. But we do find a tremendous inspiration and hope in the fact
that the global NGO community taking part in the Social Summit in such a massive way can
forge a common understanding of and strategy for the lasting improvement of humankind and
nature. With shared responsibility, we can draw from the present crisis the creativity needed to
make a world community that truly works. This is our common commitment as we leave the
Copenhagen Summit.
Copenhagen Alternative Declaration
(March 1995)
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THE QUALITY BENCHMARK FOR THE SOCIAL SUMMIT
An NGO statement for the third session of the Preparatory
Committee of the Social Summit
11-23 February 1996
The World Summit for Social Development will be held in Copenhagen from March 6 to 11,
1995. From the outset our aspirations have been for the Social Summit to address the structural
causes of poverty, unemployment and social disintegration, rather than dealing with their
symptoms. Our contribution has been set out in various documents, including the "Twelve Points
to Save the Social Summit" on which the current document is based.
Many UN conferences have been held in the past five years which dealt directly or indirectly
with the question of sustainable development. In our view, the importance of the Social Summit
lies in its possibility to identify the connection between political, economic and social factors for
sustainable development and the interface of those areas. Agenda 21 already identified the interrelationship of environmental sustainability and social development. The UN Vienna Conference
on Human Rights confirmed the universal right of all people to development and civil, political,
economic, social and cultural rights. The important contribution of women to social and
sustainable development has been the core of the debate in the UN Cairo Conference on
Population and Development and the preparations for the UN Beijing Conference on Women.
We expect the Social Summit to seek a new paradigm for social and economic relations among
nations, communities and men and women to reach peace, sustainability and justice.
Concretely the Draft Declaration for the Social Summit should be commended. It embraces a
broader vision of social development and identifies the need to improve the economic
environment to enable social development. It also recognizes the necessity to make the
international organisations more accountable to standards for social development set by the
international community. Even though the Declaration is dealing with such key-issues, we are
still looking for improvement.
The Declaration fails to note the necessary connection between sustainable growth and social
progress. This must be strengthened in view of the relation between poverty, over consumption
and unsustainable production patterns in the North that have already been addressed in Agenda
21.
Within the Declaration "poor" people are still seen merely as victims. We feel it is regrettable
that persons living in poverty are viewed as people in need of aid, instead of as citizens
universally entitled to development and civil, political, economic, social and cultural rights.
We have emphasized consistently that we believe the commitments of our national governments
for social development cannot be implemented unless civil society is fully integrated in the
implementation of the programme. The commitments in this respect should be stronger. A
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dialogue and consultation process at the national level regarding the Social Summit is
imperative, and NGOs should become part of the national reporting. In line with the spirit of the
Summit's preparations adequate NGO involvement must be ensured during inter-sessional
meetings.
The huge gap between the revised Programme of Action and the spirit of the Declaration must be
closed because the Programme of Action as it currently stands can not be a basis for the
realization of the Declaration. The Draft Programme of Action has, therefore, to be brought in
line with the Declaration. We need clear goals and commitments for the Declaration. More
particularly, for the Programme of Action we need well-defined targets, clear time-tables,
specified measures for follow-up and implementation and instruments for monitoring the
implementation both at the international and the national level.
From the experience and analysis of our organisations working in social development throughout
the world the following points are essential to the conclusions of the Summit:
1.The Social Summit should call on all governments to ratify the six core Human Rights
Treaties, the International Convention Relating to the Protection of Migrant Workers and their
Families, and the relevant ILO conventions by the year 2000, without reservations that are
contradictory to their intention and meaning. The Programme of Action should call on
governments to recognize the legally binding obligations of the Convention on Economic, Social
and Cultural Rights, and to establish means for the further elaboration and determination of those
rights. The Social Summit should endorse the call from the 1993 World Conference on Human
Rights for the creation of an optional complaints procedure under the International Covenenant
on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights. The complaints procedure would allow individuals and
groups to bring alleged violations of economic and social rights before an impartial international
body. Governments should adopt a National Strategy with specific actions and target dates for
implementing their obligations under the Human Rights Treaties and ILO-Conventions related to
social development. The strategy should be developed in full consultation with NGOs and civil
society, and its implementation be monitored by an independent national commission which is
drawn mainly from civil society.
2. Structural adjustment programmes focused on export led growth and which disregard wealth
distribution and environmental sustainability have been an obstacle for national governments to
develop such strategies. They fail to create employment, deepen social inequality and poverty,
and thereby feed social disintegration. The impact of these policies falls most heavily on women.
Trickle down economics is not working - in the north or the south. The Summit must urge that
adjustment policies be fundamentally revised. Through its expert Committee on Economic,
Social and Cultural Rights, ECOSOC should investigate the underlying premises of World Bank
and IMF policies, and measure their impact against the criteria established for the Social
Summit: namely, do they exacerbate or alleviate the forces which exclude and deprive people
living in poverty from the enjoyment of their basic rights. We, therefore, call for a reform of the
multilateral structure, which brings the accountability of the International Financial Institutions and the World Trade Organisation - into the UN system.
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3.Those national and international programmes and projects that have an impact on social
development, should be monitored through social impact studies, including those programmes
implemented by the International Financial Institutions and the World Trade Organisation. Their
programmes should be submitted to the relevant UN treaty monitoring bodies through regular
reports explaining what steps are being taken to assist governments to comply with their
economic, social and cultural obligations under the treaties and both governments and
international organisations should provide the treaty monitoring bodies with evaluations of the
effectiveness of their poverty alleviation measures and provide disaggregated data on the impact
of their programmes on women, children and vulnerable groups.
4. Low Income Countries should receive compensation for losses experienced as a result of the
Uruguay Round, so that resources are made available for social development.
5. The UN expert bodies on economic, social and cultural rights should also examine the
implications of the new trade regime and the operations of the World Trade Organisation. There
is a need for a social audit to gauge their impact on human welfare in the South. The right of
Nations to establish national food and agriculture policies in order to eradicate hunger and ensure
food security should be explicitly recognized. There should be no patenting of life forms.
6. Governments should direct their economic policies towards achieving sustainable economic
development, not merely short-term economic growth. They should guide and moderate the
operation of market forces, require fairness and honesty in business activities, provide adequate
public infrastructure, and invest heavily in human resources (especially through education and
health care). In particular, vigorous action should be taken to ensure that market forces are not
allowed to degrade the community and environment in which they operate. Recognizing that the
major actors of the macro-economic system are unaccountable, the Social Summit should
include as a condition for an enabling economic environment the international monitoring and a
code of conduct for the operations of transnational corporations.
7. For a lot of countries the debt burden remains one of the most important obstacles to social
development. The Social Summit should promote debt reduction initiatives that go beyond the
existing package of options. Most urgently, the writing off of multilateral debt in Africa and all
Low Income Countries is needed, since multilateral debt has been identified as a major obstacle
for releasing resources for social development.
8. The UN target for Overseas Development Assistance of 0.7% of GNP should be achieved in
the year 2000 by all OECD countries, including those who have yet to make such a commitment.
To enable social sector expenditure and to enable investment in the economy of people living in
poverty, effective spending of public resources is required. To achieve social development that
caters for a broad range of fundamental human needs at least 50% of Official Development
Assistance should be allocated to social development areas, which would include primary health
care, reproductive health, education, shelter, water and sanitation, credit, institutional support
and work guarantee schemes for people in poverty.
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9.The Social Summit should establish effective mechanisms to curb the arms trade as a
contribution to minimising violent social disintegration. Governments must decrease military
expenditure to make resources available for social development.
10. Recognizing the central role of citizenship and citizens' organization in social development,
the Programme of Action should insist on governments committing themselves to provide legal
and regulatory frameworks for the contribution of different actors so as to involve local, regional
and national civil society in social development. This requires the eradication of corrupt
practices.
11. The gender specific aspects of each issue addressed by the Social Summit should be
explicitly identified in the policy analysis and commitments taken by the Social Summit.
Governments should pay specific attention to the development, implementation and evaluation of
the impact of government policy on women, in order to create a new social climate, and should
recognise the central role that women play in social and economic development. Governments
should ensure that effective laws and agencies prevent violence, harassment and discrimination
against women. The Social Summit should draw on the contribution and respect of the unique
cultures of people and integrate sustainable indigenous and traditional practices which do not
violate women's rights into social development. Vigorous action should also be taken to prevent
discrimination on the grounds of disability, race, age, religion or sexuality. Specific strategies to
develop greater respect for cultural diversity and for the needs of refugees and migrants should
be adopted by encouraging tolerance in society.
12. Data on social development and environmental sustainability, including those related to
health, education, income distribution, disaggregated by gender, are lacking and need to be
seriously gathered and used as the basis for new indicators for sustainability and social
development. The Social Summit should vest principal responsibility for the monitoring of the
commitments undertaken in the Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights. The
Committee's mandate and methods of work should be adjusted accordingly to accommodate such
responsibilities.
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DID WE ACHIEVE THE QUALITY BENCHMARK?
An NGO Assessment of the Social Summit Declaration and Programme of Action
The Quality Benchmark for the Social Summit was conceived during the Second Session of the
Preparatory Committee in August 1994. It grew from the fear of NGOs in the women’s and
development caucuses that the social summit would not be addressing the economic and political
environment necessary to allow social development, nor the ways in which the implementation
of the Declaration and the Programme of Action could be ensured.
Following the appeal by the NGOs, the Draft Declaration was expanded to include an enabling
economic and political environment, structural adjustment programmes, and implementation
with specific attention given to women and Africa.
The Quality Benchmark has served since that time as an instrument for measuring progress made
in the summit’s preparations. It was also used as a tool for generating debate at the national level,
engaging domestic groups in the substance of the summit.
More than 1000 organizations have endorsed the document and used it in their national
campaigns for the social summit. Now is the time to measure to what extent the heads of state
will sign a document that meets the standards set by the Quality Benchmark. This is, therefore,
the assessment of the Declaration and the Programme of Action against the criteria developed by
non-governmental organizations that have been engaged in the summit’s preparations.
1.The declaration and programme of action encourages the ratification and avoidance of
reservations and acknowledges the importance of the Declaration of the Right to Development,
although interpreted as for individual and not collective rights; the Convention on Economic,
Social and Cultural Rights; the Convention on the Elimination of the Discrimination of Women;
the Rights of the Child; the relevant international instruments on migrant workers; the
Convention to Combat Desertification; the Declaration on Friendly Relations between States and
the ILO Conventions. No actions are included to further strengthen the Human Rights framework
in relation to social development beyond the Vienna Declaration on Human Rights.
2. The Declaration and Programme of Action states that structural adjustment programmes
agreed should include social development goals and protect people living in poverty and
vulnerable segments of society from budget reductions on social programmes and expenditure,
while increasing the quality and effectiveness of those expenditures. It is also agreed that the
impact of structural adjustment programmes on social development must be reviewed, including
by means of gender sensitive assessments.
A very first step is taken to create closer connections between the International Financial
Institutions and the Economic and Social Council of the United Nations with the request for
consideration of joint meetings of ECOSOC, the Development Committee of the World Bank
and the IMF. In order to increase coordination of the implementation of the summit’s
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programme, joint meetings are proposed between the Secretary General and the heads of the
IMF, the World Bank, and other UN agencies.
3. While the role of the WTO and its activities is not considered, the document recognizes the
required support and cooperation of regional and international organizations, the Untied Nations
system—which includes the Bretton Woods Institutions—in the implementation of the social
summit programme. The creation of instruments to make the international financial institutions
accountable is optional to interested countries.
4. The summit’s final documents reaffirm that poverty is aggravated by unsustainable patterns of
consumption and production causing a continued deterioration of the global environment. It
should be ensured that in accordance with Agenda 21 and other agreements, sustained economic
growth and sustainable development respects the need to protect the environment and the
interests of future generations.
In the document the full implementation of the Final Act of the Uruguay Round is emphasized. It
is agreed that assistance, and not compensation, should be given to low income countries,
particularly in Africa, which are not currently in a position to benefit from the implementation of
the Final Act. It is recognized that small and micro enterprises must be supported, particularly in
rural areas, as well as subsistence economies, to secure their safe interaction with larger
economies.
5. No mechanisms have been established to examine the implications of the new trade regime or
the operations of the World Trade Organization through UN expert bodies or independent
reviews. The impact of patenting of life forms on social development is not mentioned. However
coordination between the United Nations, the Bretton Woods Institutions and the World Trade
Organization is promoted through reports to and meetings in coordination with ECOSOC.
The right to food is recognized as well as the need to support the domestic efforts of Africa and
the least developed countries to increase food security. However, if protectionism is to be
avoided as the document outlines, it remains unclear as to how these sectors can be protected.
6. The Declaration and Programme of Action promotes dynamic, open, free markets, while
recognizing the importance to intervene in markets to the extent necessary in order to harmonize
economic and social development. It also recognized that public policies are necessary to correct
market failures and promote social progress and stability.
The call for the code of conduct for transnational corporations is not included; they are requested
to apply policies conducive to social policies.
7. No new initiatives are proposed on debt. However, it appears as an important element of the
social summit agreements. These do not go beyond previous agreements reached in the Paris
Club, G7 and the General Assembly of the UN. The need to find solutions to multilateral debts is
explicitly recognized. The focus is on low income highly indebted countries whereas the
problems of middle income countries are not properly addressed. It is agreed to develop
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techniques of debt conversion applied to social development programmes in conformity with
summit priorities.
8. The target date of 2000 for achieving 0.7% of GDP for development assistance is not included
and no specific time frame has been presented in the documents for reaching this internationally
agreed standard. However, the summit does call for new and additional resources with
reservations of the United States.The inclusion of the 20:20 compact is the only qualitative
criterion in the documents. However, it is optional to interested countries, the priority social
areas are not defined, and the measurement is to be done on the basis of an average of total ODA
expenditure.
9. The documents states that the negative effects of excessive military expenditures, trade in
arms, especially those that are particularly injurious or have discriminatory effects, and an
excessive investment for arms production and acquisition should be recognized and addressed.
10. Throughout the document, the involvement of civil society is encouraged. The summit
encourages the creation and development of community organizations and no profit nongovernmental organizations and the establishment of legislative frameworks, institutional
arrangements and consultative mechanisms for involving these organizations in the design,
implementation and evaluation of social development strategies and programmes. Other sectors
such as business enterprises, trade unions, farmers representative organizations and academic
and educational institutions are encouraged to contribute to the implementation of the
Programme of Action.
11. The importance of women in social development and the need for gender specific approaches
are recognized throughout the document, both in legal and policy terms. The inequality of power
relations between men and women and the unequal access to resources and employment is
addressed. First steps are taken to initiate the measurements of unremunerative labor in economic
indicators. The importance of cultural diversity is acknowledged as are the traditional rights to
land—but not territories—and other resources of indigenous people. The documents call for the
formulation and strengthening of the protection of the human rights of migrants. It also calls for
the creation of the appropriate legal and political environment to address the root causes of
movements of refugees, to allow their voluntary return in safety and dignity, also of internally
displaced persons, and enhance humanitarian and financial assistance to refugees. The
documents also recognize the need to avoid the displacement of people in development
programmes.
12. The Declaration and Programme of Action encompass a comprehensive set of parameters to
define poverty which can be used as a basis for the development of indicators to measure the
eradication of poverty. The summit agrees to strengthen the United Nations system’s capacity for
gathering and analyzing information and developing indicators for social development, taking
into account the work carried out by different countries, in particular developing countries. The
document includes that within the ECOSOC Coordination Segment of 1995 a common
framework should be developed for the implementation of the outcome of UN conferences in the
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economic and social fields with consideration to the role of Bretton Woods Institutions, as well
as the regional commissions and banks. The document calls for an integrated implementation,
follow up and assessment of the outcome of the summit together with the results of other
conferences. The General Assembly should review the effectiveness of the steps taken to
implement the outcome of the summit with regard to poverty eradication in the International
Year for the Eradication of Poverty in 1996 and should hold a special session in the year 2000
for an overall review. ECOSOC has been given the task to oversee system-wide coordination in
the implementation and monitoring of the summit outcome.
Assessment and Follow Up
The areas proposed by the Quality Benchmark for inclusion in the Social Summit Declaration and
Programme of Action are integrated in the final document. They have been given high profile in the
structure of the declaration. However, even though the agreements reached are comprehensive, new
and innovative steps for solving the problems described have been avoided. The summit reaffirms
agreements reached earlier at a high political level and therefore it creates an even larger obligation
to implement the Declaration and Programme of Action.
The contribution of NGOs has been recognized throughout the access created in the preparatory
process. The recognition now needs to be translated in the follow up process at the national level.
The Quality Benchmark for the Social Summit continues to be an important instrument for
NGOs to measure the implementation of the Declaration and Programme of Action both at a
national and an international level.
Copenhagen,10 March 1995
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