PREPARATORY COMMITTEE FOR ASSEMBLY'S SPECIAL SESSION ON SOCIAL SUMMIT OUTCOME HEARS CALLS FOR INCREASED FOCUS ON POVERTY REDUCTION, WOMEN'S HUMAN RIGHTS
Press Release
SOC/4450
PREPARATORY COMMITTEE FOR ASSEMBLY'S SPECIAL SESSION ON SOCIAL SUMMIT OUTCOME HEARS CALLS FOR INCREASED FOCUS ON POVERTY REDUCTION, WOMEN'S HUMAN RIGHTS
19980520 Strategies to reduce poverty and achieve gender equity were discussed during a panel discussion on the implementation on the goals of the World Summit for Social Development (Copenhagen, 1995) this afternoon. The panel was held by the Preparatory Committee for the Special Session of the General Assembly on the Implementation of the Outcome of the Summit and Further Initiatives as it continued its organizational session.More attention should be focused on the rural to urban drift and its effects on poverty, Faith Innerarity, Director of Social Security in the Ministry of Labour, Social Security and Sport of Jamaica said. In the future, the poorest segment would not be the rural peasant, but the urban unskilled worker. Urban poverty often tended to be more severe because, while there were some social safety nets in the rural areas, there was often a break-down in value systems in urban areas.
Agendas for poverty eradication should address the social and economic gaps between men and women, said Salma Khan, Director-General of the Bangladesh Institute of Management and Chairperson of the Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW). The Declaration of the Social Summit had failed to forcefully emphasize the promotion of women's human rights and non-discrimination against them. The special session should consider further actions and initiatives to ensure the human rights of women, including their participation in power structures at all levels of society in order to ensure women's access to education, health and employment.
Jacques Baudot, Special Adviser and Secretary of the Copenhagen Seminars for Social Progress, said economic policy, no matter its objectives, had to be treated as an means to social goals. Economic policy should be assessed constantly with the use of various criteria, including the provision of income and opportunity to the maximum number of people and supplying resources to public institutions responsible for promoting the common good.
Julian Disney, President of the International Council on Social Welfare (ICSW), said there had been some discussion that the Social Summit had not had a people's movement behind it, as in other conferences. One of the reasons for that was that the commitments of the Summit were aimed at helping the poorest segments of society and the homeless. Those groups were not
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represented directly by the United Nations and rarely had a strong voice in world affairs. But there had been protests and demonstrations around the world that showed that those groups were concerned and they did expect action.
Cristian Maquiera (Chile), Chairman of the Committee, introduced the panellists.
Also this afternoon, the Preparatory Committee elected Bagher Asadi (Iran) as Vice-Chairman.
The Preparatory Committee will meet again at 10 a.m. tomorrow, 21 May, to continue its general discussion on preparations for the special session and on the participation of non-governmental organizations in the session.
Preparatory Committee Work Programme
The Preparatory Committee for the Special Session of the General Assembly on the Implementation of the Outcome of the World Summit for Social Development and Further Initiatives met this afternoon to continue its organizational session. It was scheduled to hold a panel discussion on the appraisal of implementation of the outcome of the Social Summit, held in Copenhagen in 1995. (For background information, see Press Release SOC/4446 of 18 May.)
Panel Discussion
CRISTIAN MAQUIERA (Chile), Chairman of the Committee, introduced the panellists: Jacques Baudot, Special Adviser and Secretary of the Copenhagen Seminars for Social Progress; Julian Disney, President of the International Council on Social Welfare (ICSW); Faith Innerarity, Director of Social Security in the Ministry of Labour, Social Security and Sport of Jamaica; and Salma Khan, Director-General of the Bangladesh Institute of Management and Chairperson of the Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW).
JACQUES BAUDOT, Special Adviser and Secretary of the Copenhagen Seminars for Social Progress, said the central message of the Social Summit was to state that social development, in a comprehensive sense, was the raison d'etre of governmental and public action. That meant that a number of technical problems needed to be solved in order to make social development permanent in all actions at the national and international levels. The political culture had to ensure that social development was treated as a central permanent objective. The current spirit of the times had not always been favourable to social development as defined by the Summit. In order to overcome the obstacles to achieving the ideals of the Summit, there was a need to: subordinate economic policies to social goals; diversify the process of globalization; and enrich the moral foundation of social progress.
Economic policy, no matter its objectives, had to be treated as a means to social goals, he said. Economic policy should be assessed constantly, using different criteria, including the provision of income and opportunity to the maximum number of people and supply of enough resources to public institutions responsible for promoting the common good. Global capitalism was a political product, and efforts should be made to develop other forms of globalization in the cultural, scientific and political domains. The United Nations should be the place where the various forms of globalization were debated. In addition, the notion of progress should be made more simple and receptive to the values of different cultures, while keeping the vocation of the United Nations in promoting universal, shared values.
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FAITH INNERARITY, Director of Social Security in the Ministry of Labour, Social Security and Sport of Jamaica, said there were many steps that needed to be taken to improve implementation of the Social Summit goals. While world poverty was still deeply entrenched, the focus should be on the rural to urban drift and its effects on poverty. In the future, the poorest segment would not be the rural peasant, but the urban unskilled worker. There was a need to study the dichotomies of the rural and urban areas. The two were interrelated, and what happened in rural areas often affected urban areas. While there were some social safety nets in the rural areas, there was often break-down in value systems in urban areas, which worsened urban poverty.
There was also a need for micro-approaches involving communities and families as basic units of social organization, she added. There was a need to prioritize the social agenda, and that meant focusing particularly on youth unemployment and development of the social sector. There was also a need for a reorientation in viewing gender issues. While women fell behind men in many areas, there were some situations were women had an advantage over men. In the Caribbean, women were outperforming men in education and that had important social implications. The marginalization of the black male and men at risk had been issues of discussion in some areas. There was a need to revisit the gender issue from a different standpoint, not just focusing on women's problems as they related to men but the advantages and disadvantages of both sexes.
SALMA KHAN, Director-General of the Bangladesh Institute of Management and Chairperson of the Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW), said poverty monitoring systems indicated a steady increase in the level of poverty around the globe. For poverty eradication, micro-credit programmes had produced positive results for millions of borrowers. They were particularly successful among women, who otherwise had no access to credit. Yet, all poor did not suffer from similar problems, nor were they endowed with similar potential. For the ultra-poor in the least developed countries, micro-credit was unlikely to be successful; they were too poor to use credit and make a surplus to pay back the loan. Local governments should be more responsive to the needs of the ultra-poor and encourage them to organize themselves. Community-based organizations could create a demand for social services at the local level and allow poor people to gain control over the situations and factors that affected their lives.
Agendas for poverty eradication should also address the social and economic gaps between men and women, she said. Women were the majority of the world's poor, and safety nets for female-headed households should be given priority. The Declaration of the Social Summit had failed to forcefully emphasize the promotion of women's human rights and non-discrimination against them. Those were essential to revise the orientation of social values, objectives, priorities and policies needed as a pre-condition for a just and
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humane society. The special session should consider further actions and initiatives to ensure the human rights of women. Governments should focus on the participation of women in power structures at all levels of society in order to ensure women's access to education, health and employment. In the review of the commitments of the Summit, governments should be asked to include in their reports the concerns of and challenges faced by women regarding each of the commitments of the Summit. States should also describe measures undertaken to address those concerns and challenges.
JULIAN DISNEY, President of the International Council on Social Welfare (ICSW), said the special session should have two initiatives: assessment and encouragement of national, regional and global initiatives; and decision and action in relation to specific international initiatives. It should focus on deciding what the United Nations could do because the General Assembly had more authority to act than the Summit itself. There should be some concrete decisions put forward before the session begins, however. It was unrealistic to go from the exploration of ideas to detailed decision-making at the same meeting. Proposing decisions early would allow governments to examine and formulate positions ahead of time. The decisions and discussion should centre on the most significant parts of the Summit's Programme of Action.
One priority for action by the special session should be focused on economic cooperation, he said. That included strengthening the role of the Economic and Social Council, especially in relation to international economic issues affecting social development. There had been some discussion that the Social Summit had not had a people's movement behind it, as in other conferences. One of the reasons for that was that the commitments of the Summit were aimed at helping the poorest segments of society and the homeless. Those groups were not represented directly by the United Nations and rarely had a strong voice in world affairs. But there had been protests and demonstrations around the world that showed that those groups were concerned and they did expect action.
Following the presentation by the panellists, the representative of the United States said that while his Government did not agree with all that was said, the panellists had given the Committee much to consider.
There were no further comments on the panel, and the meeting was adjourned.
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