AS WRITTEN

INTERNATIONAL COUNCIL ON SOCIAL WELFARE ADDRESS TO THE PLENARY SESSION OF 
THE WORLD SUMMIT FOR SOCIAL DEVELOPMENT 

Speech by Dirk Jarre, ICSW President,
Bella Center, Copenhagen, March 7, 1995.

 For more information, contact: Lilian Chatterjee, Director of 
Communications, ICSW, (in Copenhagen) tel: 31 31 48 01.

Chairman, Distinguished Delegates,

 The International Council on Social Welfare, of which I have the honour to 
be the president, is a truly global non-governmental membership 
organisation which represents a wide range of national and international 
organisations that seek to advance social welfare, social justice and 
social development. The well-being of people has been the central concern 
of the Council since its establishment more than 65 years ago.

 Our basic mission is to promote forms of social and economic development 
which aim to reduce poverty, hardship and vulnerability throughout the 
world, especially amongst disadvantaged people. We strive for recognition 
and protection of fundamental rights to food, shelters education, health 
care and security because we believe that these rights are essential 
foundations for freedom, justice and peace. Consequently, we also seek to 
advance equality of opportunity, freedom of self-expression, participation 
and access to human services.

 The UN World Summit on Social Development is a unique opportunity for the 
world community to open a new chapter in global social development. The 
International Council on Social Welfare calls upon the world community, 
represented in this Summit, to recognise and act upon the insight that 
poverty and social injustice are not only intolerable from ethical and 
humanistic points of view. but also retard the pursuit of peace, security 
and sustainable economic development throughout the world.

 But it is not enough to just oppose the most extreme cases of injustice, 
impoverishment, discrimination and violence on an ad hoc basis and through 
short-term social and developmental policies. The Summit should raise the 
worlds consciousness on the global context of social development and its 
interrelation with prevailing economic ideologies and political 
orientations. It should be the starting point of the development of a new 
framework of ethics based on the universal recognition of indivisible human 
rights - in their social, economic, cultural, civil and political 
dimensions. This obviously requires a new understanding of human need and a 
new culture of sharing the resources and the opportunities of this fragile 
and endangered world.

 An essential precondition for this kind of change is that the signatories 
of the Declaration and Program of Action of this Summit quickly and 
effectively implement their commitments so that the expectations of people 
all over the world will not be deceived but that the promises become 
relative in their daily lives. Only if governments live up to their words 
over the next years will they keep their credibility and their raison 
d’être.

 The International Council on Social Welfare has been actively and 
constructively involved in every phase of the preparatory process leading 
to the Summit. We have mobilised our global resources - in personal, 
intellectual, organizational and financial terms - to inform NGOs about the 
Summit and to motivate them to participate in the endeavour, to contribute 
ourselves directly to the Summit's content and to give support to the 
process itself. We have advocated, and will continue to advocate five major 
priorities for action.

 First, a concerted effort should be made to achieve universal ratification 
of all human rights agreements - especially the Covenant on Economic, 
Social and Cultural Rights - be the year 2000. The resources and mechanisms 
for monitoring and enforcing these agreements should be strengthened.

 Second, the Economic and Social Council should be strengthened to play the 
central role envisaged for it in the United Nations Charter. This should 
include greater involvement in international considerations of key economic 
issues, and the regular conduct of public hearings with active involvement 
of civil society

 Third, vigorous and coordinated action should be taken to improve the flow 
of private business investments in ways which will enhance social 
development. This will require, among other things, reform of the 
international financial system and of the tax systems.

 Fourth, urgent action should be taken to cancel the debt of severely-
indebted low-income countries, and to announce specific timetables for 
raising official development assistance to the agreed target of 0.7% of 
GNP.

 Fifth, high-level regional reviews should be conducted every two years to 
facilitate and evaluate implementation of the Summit agreements. These 
reviews should provide substantial opportunities for input by NGOs

 Today we cannot be entirely satisfied with the results of the political 
negotiations. We had hoped for more - for more advanced concepts, for 
stronger commitments and for more concrete target lines and dates. But we 
recognize that a first and decisive step has been done by the political 
leaders of the world. For the first time in human history they have dealt 
with the basic questions of humanity and they have tried to come to a 
common perception of the problems and create a new understanding of the 
needs of people. With all the good will of the actors, the effort has 
certainly shown great imperfections. However, it seems to me that at least 
a new language translates the shared concerns and the common 
preoccupation’s. And this is very important indeed.

 Next Monday the International Council on Social Welfare will start the 
second phase of its strong involvement in the Summit progress. As a global 
network which is rooted in local and national organizations dealing with 
people's needs, their misery and hopes, but also using their imagination 
and their capacities, we will closely monitor the follow-up of the Summit, 
the implementation of the commitments and the plan of action. We will 
acknowledge and strongly support progress made and equally strongly 
denounce failures and lack of action. In partnership with other NGO 
networks and civil society at large we will make sure that the drive 
created by the Summit will not be forgotten and keep the pressure high so 
that the issues of social development and human security will not be 
scrapped from the political agenda.