AS WRITTEN

International Movement ATD Fourth World, 
107 Avenue du General Leclerc, 95480 Pierrelaye - France.

WORLD SUMMIT ON SOCIAL DEVELOPMENT
6 to 12 March 1995 in Copenhagen. 

"RECONSIDERING HUMAN ACTIVITY"
Contribution of Mrs Alwine de Vos van Steenwijk.
President of the International Movement ATD Fourth World.


 Mr. President,

 I. Poverty as a matter of responsibilities and rights.

 The final Declaration of this Summit affirms: "We are gathered here to 
commit ourselves(...)to enhancing social development(...)so that all men 
and women especially those living in poverty, may exercise the riots, 
utilize the resources and share the responsibilities which enable them to 
contribute to the well-being of(...)humankind."

 A crucial passage indeed, in that it affirms that poverty represents a 
situation in which people, families, entire populations are deprived of the 
means to exercise the rights and to assume the responsibilities enabling 
them - and I quote the Declaration again - "to maximize their capacities, 
resources and opportunities." The gist of this paragraph is that poverty is 
to be defined in the terms voted by the Economic and Social Council in 
France in 1987, when it stated that poverty, at worst, leads to exclusion, 
since it deprives individuals ans peoples of the means "to take on their 
responsibilities and to take possession of their lights on their own 
strength, in a foreseeable future.” 

 Poverty is a matter of being denied the right to command the means 
enabling a person to take on responsibilities.

 II. Poverty as a negation of the right to freely contribute to humanity's 
riches.

 From this same passage, we can logically infer that the key question 
raised by this Summit is how to restore in particular to the very poor the 
right to participate in the creation of material and immaterial assets. 
essential for the well-being of humanity.

III. Poverty, which is the opposite of partnership, requires the demand on
social development to grant priority to the poorest.

 As the final Declaration indicates from the very start, our attempts to 
restore this right to participation are faced with situations of extreme 
inequality. From this state of things we can logically infer that social 
development. in order to serve social justice and equal opportunities. must 
invest the best means primarily with individuals and peoples who otherwise 
will have no chance of even getting up to the starting line, from where we 
hope to set out toward an international community based on a spirit of 
partnership as advocated by the final Declaration.

 Unemployment, poverty and exclusion, as we now all agree. are the very 
opposite of partnership, and therefore of democracy. .And democracy 
requires that priority be granted without delay to the poorest populations 
around the world.

 IV. Partnership as a matter of sharing knowledge and culture.

 But what is the essential condition of a partnership that would put an end 
to the exclusion of the very poor? Father Joseph Wresinski, founder of the 
International ATD Fourth World Movement, a priest born into extreme poverty 
himself, made it clear to us even back in the 1960's. In order to become 
full partners, the very poor must of course have equal opportunities to 
work. But this cannot mean that we may resort merely to offering them 
menial odd jobs, leading in no way to a professional career, poorly paid 
and involving at best low-quality training through miserly funded programs.

 To become equal partners, presently excluded workers must have access to 
culture. Access to the means to bring out their own knowledge, to enrich it 
through access to other forms of knowledge, to take part in the cultural 
riches of surrounding society, and to become creators, along with their 
fellow citizens, of a culture for times to come.

 Father Joseph made it clear to us that without sharing cultural 
creativity, there was no use in speaking about sharing economic creativity. 
In a market economy which may well be unable. in a forseeable future, to 
offer to all people the means of taking part in economic production, we 
shall seek in vain a just redistribution of work, unless we seek at the 
same time a just redistribution of all other human activities, and 
especially of cultural creativity. Equal opportunities will exist only to 
the extent to which we promote them in the entire realm of human endeavour 
to ensure the progress of our peoples.

V. Reconsidering all human activity.

 This is what lead Father Joseph Wresinski to suggest that the 
international community "reconsider human activity." And his first proposal 
in this respect was to abolish the periods of unemployment of the most 
disadvantaged among workers, by transforming them into sabbaticals, into 
“sabbatic times geared to human and cultural progress, times of widely-
scoped training, including political and religious participation, as well 
as artistic creation."

 Father Joseph's combat is three-fold:

 - a combat for the right of all people to have access to the labor market, 
and to be useful there for consistent periods, under conditions worthy of 
the human person;

 - a combat also for the right of all people to be creative and useful 
during the periods in which they may not be active in the labor market;

- and a combat finally for a just redistribution, throughout each person's 
active years, of time spent within and time spent outside the labor market 
of a market economy.

 Mr President, the International ATD Fourth World Movement is confident 
that the Heads of State, with this perspective in mind, will decide to suit 
governmental action to their words, so that people in deepest poverty may 
indeed "exercise the rights(...)and share the responsibilities which enable 
them(...)to contribute to the well-being of(...)humankind." Is it not in 
choosing to fulfill the essential condition of full partnership of the 
poorest throughout the world, that the Summit in Copenhagen will actually 
contribute to ensuring justice, democracy and peace to the generations to 
come?