SOCIAL DEVELOPMENT CAN BE HARMED BY GLOBALIZATION, STRUCTURAL READJUSTMENT DEMANDS, GENERAL ASSEMBLY IS TOLD ADDENDUM
Press Release
GA/9332/
SOCIAL DEVELOPMENT CAN BE HARMED BY GLOBALIZATION, STRUCTURAL READJUSTMENT DEMANDS, GENERAL ASSEMBLY IS TOLD ADDENDUM
19971017In Press Release GA/9332 of 16 October, the following should be added at the end of page 13:
ION GORITA (Romania) said that his country subscribed to the statement by Luxembourg, on behalf of the European Union, but he wished to highlight a few specific points.
He said the World Summit for Social Development, organized two years ago, represented a milestone in the history of international cooperation and provided a coherent vision on the multidimensional nature of social reality. It also emphasized the interdependence between social development, economic growth and environmental protection as mutually reinforcing facets of sustainable development. While governments bore the primary responsibility for implementing the Copenhagen Declaration and Programme of Action, civil society must do its part, and national strategies for social development required the support of the United Nations.
Specifically, the United Nations follow-up trilateral mechanism, namely, the General Assembly, the Economic and Social Council, and the Commission for Social Development, must aim towards implementing the Social Summit. The Council could play an increased role to that effect, and the Commission for Social Development had already proceeded to a systematic review of the implementation of the Copenhagen commitments based on the three core themes of poverty alleviation, employment and social integration. At the Commission's March 1997 session, it had adopted a set of agreed conclusions on the topic of productive employment and sustainable livelihoods. That document contained useful references for governments trying to implement the Copenhagen proposals.
Since the Copenhagen Summit, he said, Romania had striven to raise living standards, to alleviate poverty, and to enhance social integration. Special attention had been given to improving employment in general, to providing higher labour productivity and competitiveness, as well as to encouraging job creation. The initiative by Portugal to organize, in 1998, a world conference of ministers responsible for youth, in cooperation with the United Nations, was most welcome.
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