GENEVA SPECIAL SESSION MUST FOCUS GLOBAL AGENDA ON SOCIAL JUSTICE, SAYS UNDER-SECRETARY-GENERAL FOR ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL AFFAIRS

Press Release
PI/1218
SOC/4523

GENEVA SPECIAL SESSION MUST FOCUS GLOBAL AGENDA ON SOCIAL JUSTICE, SAYS UNDER-SECRETARY-GENERAL FOR ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL AFFAIRS

The United Nations Under-Secretary-General for Economic and Social Affairs, Nitin Desai, told the Council of Europe’s Conference on Social Development today in Dublin, Ireland, that there is a “crisis of legitimacy about globalization”, and that a follow-up session on the 1995 World Summit for Social Development this June will be “a rare opportunity” to refocus the management of globalization, so that everyone benefits.

Mr. Desai said that the overarching theme of the United Nations General Assembly special session on the Social Summit, which will be held in Geneva from 26 to 30 June, “must be to put social justice at the heart of the global political agenda”.

While noting that the Social Summit marked “a turn in the tide of political opinion” away from a narrow preoccupation with market liberalization to more balanced socio-economic development, Mr. Desai said new efforts are now needed to manage the process of globalization to ensure that there is no entrenchment of the divisions between the beneficiaries and the losers in the new world economy.

Since the Social Summit, Mr. Desai said many countries had upgraded poverty strategies and that progress has been made in global literacy and life expectancy, increased school enrolment and access to basic social services. Yet, the total number of people living in poverty has continued to rise, national conflicts have set back social development in many countries and national and international inequality has continued to increase.

The special session, he said, would consider a number of concrete proposals for action, including a renewed commitment to democratic governance, social principles to guide economic decision-making, support for a global employment forum by the International Labour Organisation, new targets for expanding employment and setting in motion a process to develop guidelines on the social responsibilities of corporations.

The Council of Europe is an international organization based in Strasbourg, France, and its main role is to strengthen democracy, human rights and the rule of law. One of its main core functions is to serve as a forum for examining a range of social problems, such as social exclusion, intolerance, and the integration of migrants. The Council has 41 members.

For further information, please contact: Shala Mokgethi, Development and Human Rights Section, Department of Public Information, Tel.: (212) 963-8104; Fax: (212) 963-1186; or Dan Shepard, (212) 963-2339.

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