The World Social Charter
This document is to be included in the considerations of the World Summit on Social Development which is to be in Copenhagen in March 1995.
WE THE PEOPLE OF THE WORLD SOLEMNLY PLEDGE to build a new global civil society, based on the principles of equality of opportunity, rule of law, global democratic governance and a new partnership among all nations and all people.
WE propose to build a society where the right to food is as sacrosanct as the right to vote, where the right to a basic education is as deeply enshrined as the right to a free press and where the right to development is considered one of the fundamental human rights.
WE COLLECTIVELY PLEDGE to build new foundations of human security which ensure the security of people through development, not arms; through cooperation, not confrontation through peace, not war. We believe that no provision in the Charter of the United Nations will ever ensure global security unless people have security in their homes, in their jobs, in their communities and in their environment.
WE ARE FULLY CONVINCED that diversity in our societies is our strength, not our weakness, and we intend to protect this diversity by ensuring non-discrimination between all our people, irrespective of gender, race, religion or ethnic origin.
WE COLLECTIVELY BELIEVE that our world cannot survive one-fourth rich and three-fourths poor, half democratic and half authoritarian, with oases of human development surrounded by deserts of human deprivation. We pledge to take all necessary actions, nationally and globally, to reverse the present trend of widening disparities within and between nations.
WE ARE CONVINCED that it is possible to overcome the worst aspects of poverty in our lifetime through collective effort. We jointly affirm that our first step towards this goal will to be to design a global compact to ensure that no child goes without education, no human being is denied primary health care or safe drinking water and all willing couples are able to determine the size of their own families.
WE ARE CONSCIOUS of our responsibility to present generations and to future generations, and we are determined to pass on to our children a rich natural heritage and an environment sustained and whole.
WE INTEND to design a pattern of development cooperation based on open global markets, not protectionism: on an equitable sharing of market opportunities, not charity; on an open policy dialogue between sovereign nations, not coercion.
WE PLEDGE our deep commitment to a new social and economic philosophy that puts people at the centre of our concerns and creates unbreakable bonds of human solidarity.
WE STRONGLY BELIEVE that the United Nations must become the principal custodian of our global human security. And towards this end, we are determined to strengthen the development of the United Nations and to give it wide-ranging decision-making powers in the socio-economic field by establishing an Economic Security Council (United Nations Development Programme, Human Development Report 1994, 6).
Social Summit to be about ‘values and action’:
Under Secretary General of the United Nations, Nitin Desai, says that the Social Summit will be “a conference almost as much about values as actions.” He concedes however, that the Summit’s Preparatory Committee is still “groping” for solutions…The concern is clear but not the answers.”
The motivation of the Social Summit is a concern “that is not fully articulated… The central issue is to arrive at a shared vision of a good and just society, to assert a shared set of values” with, according to The Earth Times, “compassion high on the list.”
Desai said the test of the Summit’s success is whether “it will strengthen the hand of those seeking to improve conditions” (Jack Freeman, “Social Summit will be about values and action,” The Earth Times, 15 December 1994, 3).
Massive AIDS impact in some regions:
A new statistical study by the U.S. department of Commerce study suggests a worldwide AIDS epidemic could have a massive effect on population trends in some regions. Spread of the disease is expected to restrain economic growth, particularly in developing countries where its impact can be expected to be most severe.
The study’s authors say. “The cumulative effect of national AIDS epidemics will be staggering though country-by-country projections are difficult to work out… Economic growth will be encumbered by increased morbidity and decreased productivity of HIV-infected workers and many others will be unable to enter the work force because of care-giving responsibilities among families.”
Further, “Analysis of the situation in 13 countries in sub-Saharan Africa suggests that AIDS will increase future crude death rates by 1-1/2 times in the aggregate, and indeed has already helped reverse a pattern of rising life expectancies in many of those countries that had stretched over the past 40 years.” In countries with the highest rate of infection AIDS is projected to more than double the annual number of deaths by 2010. “…The survival of non-HIV- infected children may be endangered by the death of one or both parents… the well-being of other non-infected household members may be threatened by the death of a principal breadwinner.”
The predicted result according to the authors: “The combined population of 16 selected countries — 13 African nations, Brazil, Haiti and Thailand — will be 120.8 million lower in the year 2020 than would have been the case absent AIDS (“U.S. study predicts massive AIDS impact in some regions,” Bangladesh Times, 18 June 1994).
Shades of U.S National Security Study Memo 200!:
Secretary of State Warren Christopher was forced to defend the Clinton administration’s population programs in the face of criticism from incoming Republican congressional leaders.
In his address to a follow-up session at the U.S. State Department for the UN Conference on Population and Development, Christopher said, “Population and sustainable development are back where they belong in the mainstream of American foreign policy and diplomacy.” He stated that population pressure “ultimately jeopardizes America’s security interests…It strains resources. It stunts economic growth. It generates disease. It spawns huge refugee flows, and ultimately it threatens our stability…We want to continue working with the other donors to meet the rather ambitious funding goals that were set up in Cairo” (“Christopher defends U.S. population programs,” Reuters, Washington, D.C. 19 December 1994).
Miracle rice seed being developed:
Agronomists at the International Rice Research Institute (IRRI) in the Philippines say that “these non-irrigated lands will be the source of the world’s next potential miracle rice seed which they are feverishly trying to develop.” South and Southeast Asia’s more arid “lands are likely to star in efforts to boost rice harvests and ease a projected supply crunch by the turn of the century, according to the scientists. Attention is focused on the fields of Bangladesh, Burma, India, Nepal, Pakistan and Sri Lanka as well as parts of Southeast Asia such as Cambodia. Scientists are in the process of developing a plant that can both withstand adverse climates and double output to around five tonnes per hectare” (Dhaka Monday, June 13, 1994 (“Non-irrigated Asian lands to be next source of potential miracle rice seed,” The New Nation, Dhaka, 12 June 1994).
Social Integration as proposed at the Social Summit:
Social integration is viewed as a “process of forging unity in diversity, to bind together the various regions and diverse peoples of a country into a functioning and interdependent whole.” The rationale for ‘social integration’ is based on a need to “avoid social dislocations — particularly between ethnic groups.”
Measures to bring this about are to include: Equality before the law; minority rights; antidiscrimination policies, with stiff penalties for infringement; education; employment policies, favoring disadvantage groups, including women: governance by bringing government closer to the people by promoting grassroots groups (Australia Government’s Population Summit Information kit ).
International Youth Forum to be held in Copenhagen:
A project will be directed by Danish youth entitled “UFO-International Youth Forum,” to be held in Denmark prior to the U.N. Summit on Social Development. UFO will coordinate voluntary youth activities into “a huge manifestation of ideas and action.” Topics to be addressed at the Forum could include: “minorities, unemployment, gender roles, education policy, theatre and music workshops.” After the general meeting UFO will “show the older generation and politicians alike that young people must also be involved in decisions affecting their future” (The People’s Summit, special edition, 3).
Proposed action agenda for the Social Summit:
“Approve a world social charter as a social contract among all nations and all people; endorse a new development paradigm…; give the United Nations the mandate to draw up a comprehensive blueprint for ensuring human security and protecting people from threats in their daily lives”…; agree on a targeted reduction of 3 percent a year in global military spending for the decade 1995-2005 direct that to [social spending]… 20 percent by industrial countries and 10 percent by developing countries — be credited to a global security fund; approve a human development compact for the next ten years whereby all nations pledge to ensure the basic human development levels for all people, and endorse the 20:20 proposal requiring developing nations and aid donors to earmark a minimum of 20 percent of their budgets for human priority concerns; recommend to the Economic and Social Council that it examine the feasibility of various forms of global taxation —— especially taxes on global pollution and on speculative movements of capital — to raise adequate financing for setting up a new global fund for human security; urge the international community to strengthen the role of the United Nations in the socio-economic field and to vest more decision-making powers in the U.N, by establishing an Economic Security Council to manage the new dimensions of global human security” (“A proposed action agenda for the Social Summit, U.N. Human Development Report 1994, 11).
Social policy indicators:
It has been suggested that the Human Development Index be used as a measure of development in addition to the Gross Domestic Product (GDP). The Human Development Index would be moderated to include a “gender sensitive” measurement. Support is being called for “gender disaggregated” data collection on “indicators such as health, education and employment” (National Consultative Committee recommendations, Australia, The People’s Summit, 7).
