THREAT OF HIV/AIDS, EMPLOYMENT, IMPLICATIONS OF GLOBALIZATION AMONG ISSUES RAISED IN COMMISSION FOR SOCIAL DEVELOPMENT

Press Release
SOC/4526

THREAT OF HIV/AIDS, EMPLOYMENT, IMPLICATIONS OF GLOBALIZATION AMONG ISSUES RAISED IN COMMISSION FOR SOCIAL DEVELOPMENT

Discussion Continues on Commission's Contribution To Review, Appraisal of World Social Summit Agreements

HIV/AIDS was a threat to human civilization, was at the heart of the development agenda and should be recognized as one of the international community's highest priorities, the Commission for Social Development was told this afternoon, as it continued its thirty-eighth session, which began today and will continue through 17 February.

The Commission was discussing its priority theme for the session which is the Commission's contribution to the overall review and appraisal of implementation of the agreements reached at the World Summit for Social Development (Copenhagen, 1995). The General Assembly will hold a special session in Geneva in June to review the Social Summit.

The representative of the Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS) this afternoon reported that over 33 million persons were now living with HIV/AIDS. The majority of people with HIV/AIDS -- some 95 per cent -- lived in developing countries. Sub-Saharan Africa continued to bear the overwhelming burden of the epidemic, with 23.3 million living with HIV/AIDS. The spread of the AIDS epidemic had imposed heavy burdens of poverty and ill health. Life expectancy in southern Africa had risen to 59 years by the early 1990s, but due to AIDS, it was expected to decline to 45 years between 2005 and 2010.

A number of speakers this afternoon also stressed the importance of employment in reaching the goals of the Social Summit. The implications of globalization in social development were approached from a rights-based view and from the business-centred perspective.

The representative of the International Labour Organization (ILO) said employment-generation had been identified as one of the three core goals of the Social Summit. Since the Summit, the ILO had intensified its efforts to help governments formulate and implement comprehensive employment strategies. Steps had been taken to increase awareness of the challenges and opportunities offered by globalization. The ILO had launched a global programme on "decent work" to

Commission for Social Development - 1a - Press Release SOC/4526 2nd Meeting (PM) 8 February 2000

create employment, promote human rights at work, improve social protection and promote social dialogue.

A representative of the International Confederation of Free Trade Unions said the special session of the Assembly was coming at a critical time for the international community because the rapid liberalization of markets had run ahead of themselves and were not producing any benefits for ordinary working people. Despite unprecedented levels of wealth creation in the world economy, employment was precarious, the numbers of those living in poverty were increasing, and trade union rights were being eroded. The anomalies of the existing economic order were glaring, as was the level of disaffection of millions of men and women.

The representative of the International Chamber of Commerce said, however, that the answer to social and economic challenges did not lie in attempting to halt or slow the process of globalization. Employment creation could only result from sustainable economic growth based on market principles that encouraged investment and entrepreneurship. Spreading the benefits of global prosperity would result only from open international trade, and an investment and financial system founded on equitable rules that enabled business in all countries to make its full contribution to achieving the goals of the Social Summit. Globalization was an irreversible process. National policies, legislation and regulation must address good environmental management, the protection of human rights and the promotion of basic workers rights.

Representatives of the Russian Federation, Japan and Ukraine addressed the Commission this afternoon, as did representatives of the following non-governmental organizations: International Federation for Home Economics; International Chamber of Commerce; Foundation for the Rights of the Family; Pax Christi; International Confederation of Free Trade Unions; International Cooperation for Development and Solidarity; Social Watch; United Nations Volunteers; and Values Task Force.

The Commission will meet again at 10 a.m. Tuesday, 9 February, to conclude its general discussion on its priority theme and hold a dialogue segment with non-governmental organizations on the review and appraisal of the Social Summit.

Commission Work Programme

The Commission for Social Development met this afternoon to continue its thirty-eighth session, which runs from today through 17 February. It planned to continue its consideration of its priority theme: "Contribution of the Commission to the overall review of the implementation of the outcome of the World Summit for Social Development (Copenhagen, 1995)".

The General Assembly will hold a special session in Geneva in June to appraise the implementation of the outcome of the Social Summit and decide on further initiatives to strengthen the effectiveness of implementation. At the Summit, representatives from 186 States, including 117 heads of State or government, pledged to make three core themes their overriding objectives: eradication of poverty; achievement of full employment; and the promotion of secure, stable and just societies. (For detailed background see Press Release SOC/4524 issued 7 February.)

OLEG MALGUINOV (Russian Federation) said the upcoming special session of the General Assembly would provide a unique chance to draw lessons from the twentieth century and bring humankind forward. The Secretary-General's comprehensive review of the implementation of the outcome of the Summit showed that changes were preventing some social evils, but also giving rise to some challenges. Among those challenges were the threat of global destruction, international terrorism, organized crime, armed militant separatism and ethnic conflict, as well as the illegal trade in weapons and narcotic drugs. Social development was not possible without determined opposition to such phenomenon.

The new level of well-being was felt by only a small number of Member States, where the "golden billion" lived, he said. If present conditions prevailed, the gaps between poverty and wealth would continue to grow. There was need to rebuild the entire contemporary architecture of international economic relations.

Countries with economies in transition were determined to end poverty and ensure employment and integration, but their efforts were not being met with appropriate responses from the international community and the international financial institutions, he said. The Secretary-General's report noted the deterioration of the social and economic situation facing such countries, but failed to address what was needed to help those countries.

Few States had gone through so many trials in the past century as had the Russian Federation, he said. The Government had begun elaborating a long-term national strategy for economic and social development. The main task was to achieve economic growth in conditions of stability. Ensuring human rights and freedom was vital for ongoing and gradual social and economic development. The Copenhagen Declaration provided important guidelines in developing policy. The Government was determined to continue increasing budget allocations for social protections and to support culture, education and health care. It recognized the need to decrease the "shadow economy" and limit crime, but only through joint efforts would real answers be found.

KUNIO UMEDA (Japan) noted that the human security approach reflected the principle of human-centred development proclaimed in the Copenhagen Declaration. Concerted efforts should be strengthened to realize human potential and improve livelihoods through the protection of human life and dignity. To that end, his country had established a human security fund.

He also pointed to the importance of establishing effective partnerships to achieve social development. While the primary responsibility for achieving that goal lay with the individual State, a partnership was needed involving civil society, non-governmental organizations, volunteers, as well as among United Nations bodies and other relevant regional and international organizations. The Secretary-General had referred to the progress made in establishing those partnerships and he believed that efforts to enhance it in all fields should be further encouraged during the review process at the upcoming special session.

SVITLANA VEGERA, First Deputy Minister for Labour and Social Policy of Ukraine, said that social measures undertaken in her country were aimed at improving the living conditions and providing protection to the most vulnerable segment of the population. The Government placed special emphasis on employment and it was aiming at a gradual transfer in implementing relevant measures, such as pension reform and a policy to generate employment by stimulating private enterprise and entrepreneurship.

She stated that to ensure full employment for the population, the Government had created reliable conditions for a labour market and training programmes, supported people-owned businesses to generate self-reliance and introduced tax advantages. However, several difficulties had been encountered, due to the country’s economic crisis. During the period of economic transformation, the people were suffering serious social losses; real income had fallen and savings had become depleted. Ukraine had inherited a structurally distorted economy and the Chernobyl catastrophe remained a primary concern of the Government’s economic efforts.

She expressed regret that the analysis on the section of the report that contained her country had only mentioned internal State problems and did not refer to the fact that globalization had also had an adverse effect on social development policies and initiatives.

FRANKLYN LISK, Director, International Labour Organization (ILO), recalled that employment-generation had been identified as one of the three core goals of the Social Summit. The Copenhagen Declaration and Programme of Action had recognized that the ILO had a special role to play in the field of employment and social development, and requested it to contribute to the implementation of the Programme of Action. In doing so, the ILO had developed activities at the operational, research and policy levels that it would put at the disposal of the Commission, as input for its deliberations.

Since the Social Summit, the ILO had intensified its efforts to help governments in formulating and implementing comprehensive employment strategies, he continued. It had provided technical assistance on implementing core labour conventions and in designing and extending social safety nets, including to the informal sector. Concomitantly, steps had been taken to increase awareness among ILO's tripartite constituents of the challenges and opportunities offered by globalization and a knowledge-based economy, both for creating new and better jobs, and for designing new approaches to overcome social exclusion.

Overall, the objective of the ILO was what its Director-General, Juan Somavia, called "decent work for all". The ILO had launched a global programme on decent work, to reduce poverty and promote social integration through the incorporation of employment concerns with broader economic and social policies. Its objectives were: employment creation; promotion of human rights at work; improving social protection; and promoting social dialogue. While those were areas of the ILO's work, what was required was an integrated approach involving collaboration between the ILO and its partners in the United Nations and the international community. The ILO would seek the collaboration of its international partners, including non-governmental organizations for implementing further initiatives in connection with the implementation of the outcome of the Summit.

DAVID LAWSON, Technical and Liaison Officer, Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS) said that over 33 million persons were now living with HIV/AIDS. In 1999, 5.6 million people became infected with HIV, while 2.6 million people died of HIV/AIDS. That was a higher global total than any year since the epidemic started. Overall, 16.3 million people had died of AIDS since the beginning of the epidemic. The majority of people with HIV/AIDS -- some 95 per cent -- lived in developing countries.

Sub-Saharan Africa continued to bear the overwhelming burden of the epidemic, with 23.3 million living with HIV/AIDS, he said. The spread of the AIDS epidemic had imposed heavy burdens of poverty and ill-health in countries of eastern and southern Africa. That region, with less than 5 per cent of the world's population, was home to more than 50 per cent of those living with HIV/AIDS. Life expectancy in southern Africa had risen to 59 years by the early 1990s, but due to AIDS it was expected to decline to 45 years between 2005 and 2010.

At the 1999 meeting on the International Partnership against HIV/AIDS in Africa, the Secretary-General requested all United Nations agencies, funds and programmes working in sub-Saharan Africa to put HIV/AIDS at the top of their agenda, he said. HIV/AIDS should be recognized in the current review of the Copenhagen Declaration and Programme of Action as one of the highest priorities for the United Nations and the entire international community. As the Secretary- General stated in December 1999, AIDS was far more than a health problem; it was a threat to human civilization as a whole. That was why it must be at the heart of the development agenda.

MARY MILLER, International Federation for Home Economics, noted that the mainstreaming of family issues remained vital and plans for the special session should include the key goals, including: advocating the eradication of poverty so that disadvantaged families would be a priority of social development policies; and urging that basic family income be earned through freely chosen employment. Progress to reach those goals had been erratic and slow. Social development priorities must remain central to all development strategies, through the use of a broad, holistic, multi-pronged approach. She was particularly concerned by such measures as foster care and social protection policies, which tended to separate families because they were poor.

She added that the collaboration and cooperation of non-governmental organizations on the regional, national and international levels were imperative for realizing social development goals for families worldwide in addressing disability issues, maintaining support to families with evolving needs and responding to the needs of the ageing population within the family unit, in addition to other areas.

ABRAHAM KATZ, International Chamber of Commerce, said employment creation could only result from sustainable economic growth based on market principles that encouraged investment and entrepreneurship. The answer to social and economic challenges did not lie in attempting to halt or slow the process of globalization. Globalization was an irreversible process. National policies, legislation and regulation must address good environmental management, the protection of human rights and the promotion of basic workers' rights.

An adequate social safety net, tailored to the needs and possibilities of individual countries, must address the worst aspects of poverty and protect the losers in the inevitable structural adjustment, he continued. Such domestic measures must be supported by the international financial institutions and international organizations. Spreading the benefits of global prosperity would result only from open international trade, and an investment and financial system founded on equitable rules that enabled business in all countries to make its full contribution to achieving the goals of the Social Summit.

PETIT HERRERA, Foundation for the Rights of the Family, said that over the years, delegations in the Commission had raised the possibility of coming up with a declaration on the rights and responsibilities of the family. His group felt that such a declaration would provide a unique opportunity to reflect on family relations and the norms that govern social life. The family was a complex structure of relations based on duties and shared values. A declaration would not imply imposing a model of family policy. Rather, the challenge of coexistence of various types of families and of different situations should be accepted. Family rights included autonomy, the free organization of its internal functioning, gender equity, and social and legal protections. The family should be recognized as a basic value, a fundamental unit of society regardless of culture, forms and organization.

JOAN COWISKEY, Pax Christi International Catholic Peace Movement, urged that a way be found to bring poor people themselves into the deliberations in more than a token and symbolic way. She said that well-intended efforts to act on behalf of poor people, the unemployed and those not adequately integrated into society would not work until those persons had the direct ear of decision makers. There should also be more concerted efforts to address the values that underlie strategies for social development. Dialogue about values might engender cohesiveness in the issues addressed by the Commission for Social Development and those of the Commission for Sustainable Development. Separating social development and sustainable development in policy discussions was an error and reflected a failure to grapple with the fundamental values that lie at the heart of human development.

GEMMA ADABA, International Confederation of Free Trade Unions, said the special session of the Assembly was coming at a critical time for the international community, because the processes of globalization had run ahead of themselves and were not producing any benefits for ordinary working people. Despite unprecedented levels of wealth creation in the world economy, the absolute numbers of those living in poverty were increasing and human and trade union rights were being eroded. The anomalies of the existing economic order were glaring, as was the level of disaffection of millions of men and women. The backlash of lopsided globalization was very evident during the recent widespread workers’ and citizens’ protests in Seattle at the third ministerial meeting of the World Trade Organization.

She said that five years after Copenhagen, it had been concluded that the international community had underestimated the degree of political will and cooperation needed to effectively implement its goals. She called on governments, as well as the international community, to exercise that political will and agree on a set of initiatives to reflect the vision and spirit of Copenhagen, while simultaneously meeting the new challenges of the global economy.

She outlined several critical priorities for formulating and implementing effective social policy. Those included: endorsing the ILO Declaration of Principles and Rights at Work; incorporating guidelines on sound principles and good practice in social policy to give a social dimension to the financial architecture devised by the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the World Bank; achieving strong gender awareness through renewed commitment to the goals of equality and equity between men and women; and redoubling the international community’s focus on ending the marginalization of Africa and the least developed countries.

She also expressed reservations about the proposal to expand the role of the private sector in providing social services. The profit motive that drove the business sector contradicted society’s need to provide equal social services. Therefore, the public sector should remain responsible.

MADELEINE LAVERNE, International Cooperation for Development and Solidarity in collaboration with CARITAS Internationalis and Franciscans International, said the worldwide liberalization of capital flows increased the risks of currency destabilization, which facilitated global financial speculative behaviour. The recent financial turmoil experienced by East Asia clearly demonstrated the risks of too-liberal global financial markets. Two lessons had been learned: that the human impact persisted long after economic recovery; and that financial crises had become increasingly common with the spread and growth of global capital flows and were not isolated. Therefore, excessive financial speculation, particularly as it impacted on impoverished populations, must be regulated. A new financial architecture must be established.

She said additional resources were needed to provide faster debt relief, including a human development approach to debt sustainability, and establish an international bankruptcy procedure. That would allow the heavily indebted poor countries, particularly those in sub-Saharan Africa, to release their financial resources for primary public services, such as education and health. The emergence of the Poverty Reduction Strategy initiative was a significant turning point in the development approach of the IMF and the World Bank. Therefore, the special session should adopt a decision requesting national governments to conduct social impact assessment studies on their structural adjustment programmes. That approach would require closer collaboration among the IMF, the World Bank and the United Nations and its organizations. PATRICIA GARCE, Social Watch, said that many of the poorest countries of the world had made extraordinary progress regarding the social indicators. But, many realistic goals for social development had not been met. Half the world's population lived in poverty and that was not due to the lack of resources, but rather the deficit in political will. The special session must acknowledge the insufficiency of efforts so far and approve new initiatives. Action must be taken in certain areas, including the following: debt cancellation; increased resources for development to the agreed goal of 0.7 per cent of gross national product (GNP); and gender equity in all spheres of life. The impact of trade liberalization on developing countries should also be reviewed. The Social Summit "was easier said than done". Those with greater power and richness should be embarrassed that the greatest progress had been achieved in some of the world's poorest nations.

ROBERT LEIGH, United Nations Volunteers, said it was the first time his group had taken the floor, which indicated the growing awareness of the contributions of volunteer efforts. Volunteering played a significant part in the development of nations and of human beings. It was a fundamental vehicle for creating a society for all, in which youth, disabled persons, families and others participated in the life of societies. By focusing on volunteer behaviour, the international community could promote social integration. The United Nations Volunteers had been requested by the Preparatory Committee for the upcoming special session to report on the role of volunteering. Results would be presented at a lunchtime panel meeting on Thursday. By taking up volunteer action as an area of concern, the international community would assist in achieving more just societies.

VIRGINIA MARY SWAIN, Values Task Force, said that shared values should be linked with national and international policies in addressing global problems. The poor, often the outcast in society, were usually plunged deeper into poverty and succumbed to mounting pressures resulting in crime and conflict. The only way to stop that cycle was to realize that everyone was part of a global dynamic in which each human being was implicated. Recent events in Asia served as a reminder that markets decreased, businesses relocated and economies responded to natural cycles that were sensitive to conflict that struck close to home.

She said that, sometimes, in a desperate bid for security, governments were forced to take extreme measures, usually at the expense of those who were least able to bear the burden. Regardless of the approach, if interconnectedness was not a consideration, there was no foundation for long-range successful problem solving. When that link was made, more attention would be paid to all relevant details, regardless of status or outmoded power structures.

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