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26 JUNE 2000

With me today is Mr. John Langmore, Director of the Division for Social Policy and Development of the Department of Economic and Social Affairs.  All this week, I will brief you on what is happening in the plenary and in the Ad Hoc Committee of the Whole of the Special Session, and Mr. Langmore will be here to help me answer your questions.

The General Assembly convened this morning for its twenty-fourth Special Session, entitled “World Summit for Social Development and beyond: achieving social development for all in a globalizing world”.
 
Over the next five days, Member States will assess the progress made towards implementing the Declaration and Programme of Action adopted at the 1995 World Summit for Social Development, held in Copenhagen, Denmark.  At the conclusion of the Special Session, on Friday, 30 June, Governments will adopt an outcome document containing further actions and initiatives to implement the commitments made at that Summit.

Prior to the official opening of the Special Session this morning, there was an event in which officials from Switzerland, as the host country, and Denmark, as host of the 1995 Social Summit, participated.  The President of the Swiss Confederation, Mr. Adolf Ogi, and the Prime Minister of Denmark, Mr. Paul Nyrub Rasmussen, addressed the Assembly.
 
Elected as President of the Special Session was the current Assembly President, Dr. Theo-Ben Gurirab, Minister of Foreign Affairs, Information and Broadcasting of Namibia.

Addressing the Special Session, the President said Member States had come to Geneva to confront one of the most urgent challenges of our time: that of putting the needs of people at the centre of the global agenda of peace and development and democracy, and to agree on real solutions to the acute problems of real people.  Everyone must agree on a future plan of action that would bring together Governments, business, parliaments, NGOs and civil society into a constructive partnership for joint action.

He said the main challenge facing humankind today was represented by the awesome force of globalization, which the Social Summit had anticipated when it called for a balance between the power of the market forces that produce technology, knowledge and prosperity, and the crippling reality that distribution of the benefits was increasingly and dangerously skewed.  “What the world actually needs”, the President said, “is globalization with a head, a heart and a human face”.  Political will, resources and sustained efforts were required to shift economic globalization to a new course that would focus partnership on poverty eradication, full employment and shared prosperity in a way that all the world’s people would be able to share a stake in the future, with optimism.

In his address to the Special Session, Secretary-General Kofi Annan said that economic growth, if it is to be broad-based and sustainable, requires investment in people – their health, education and security; and essential though it is, growth will not by itself guarantee that most people in a country have the chance to live lives of dignity and fulfilment.  A healthy society is one that takes care of all its members, and gives them a chance to participate in decisions that affect their lives.

Without economic prosperity, said the Secretary-General, no country can provide for all the social needs of its citizens.  But nor can any country be called truly prosperous so long as many of its citizens are left to fend for  themselves against ignorance, hardship and disease.  Nor yet can any country achieve prosperity by subordinating all social concerns to the achievement of a few quantitative benchmarks.   What matters in the last resort is the quality of life – a big part of which is the feeling that you belong freely to your country, and that it also belongs to you.

The Chairman of the Preparatory Committee for the Special Session, Mr. Cristian Maquieira (Chile), introduced the Committee’s report (document A/S-24/2/Addenda 1 and 2 (Parts I to III).  He said it was no secret that many people had lost faith in some of the international institutions that for decades had been charged with responsibility for managing the world economy.  The message of Seattle was not only a challenge from the street addressed to the Bretton Woods institutions.  In a way, it was also a challenge to the UN itself to re-prove its relevance.  “We can do that”, he said, “if we recall and reassert the original purpose of the UN, which is to give voice to the voiceless”.   Observing that there was discussion of the need for convergence of views between the UN and those institutions, he stated: “We can look forward to a new convergence in which the values of social development, which were codified at Copenhagen and which will be further articulated at this Special Session, are placed at the heart of global doctrines”.

A total of 27 speakers are inscribed for today’s plenary debate, among them, the Presidents of Equatorial Guinea, Albania, Ghana and Zambia; 5 Vice-Presidents, 5 Prime Ministers  and 1 Crown Prince.  The Journal lists the names and titles of all the speakers.

Over the next five days, representatives of some 168 Governments and 9 observers are expected to address the Special Session in plenary.   Time permitting, a limited number of non-governmental organizations in consultative status with the Economic and Social Council may also make statements in the plenary.

The Assembly adopted organizational arrangements for the Special Session, adhering to the same membership as the fifty-fourth session for the Vice-Presidents, the Chairpersons of the Main Committees, the Credentials Committee and the General Committee.  The Assembly also took decisions concerning the participation of observers, including Palestine, and of representatives of UN programmes and other entities in the UN system, as well as NGOs.

There will be 10 plenary meetings over the five-day period, with two meetings per day starting promptly at 10 a.m. and at 3 p.m.

The Assembly adopted the 9-item provisional agenda (A/S-24/1) recommended by the Preparatory Committee, and decided to consider all the items directly in plenary.  At the same time, it allocated item 8, on proposals for further initiatives for social development, to the Ad Hoc Committee. Under that item, the Committee will consider a three-part outcome document: Part I, Political Declaration; Part II, Overall review and appraisal of the implementation of the outcome of the World Summit for Social Development; and Part III, Further actions and initiatives to implement the commitments made at the Summit (document A/S-24/2/Addenda 1 and 2 (Parts I to III)).

In one document before the Special Session (A/S-24/6), the Secretary-General informs the President that 35 Member States are in arrears under Article 19 of the Charter.

This morning, the Assembly established an Ad Hoc Committee of the Whole, which then started its work in Conference Room 19, in the E Building.  The Committee elected its officers and is currently hearing statements in a general discussion by representatives of UN programmes and other entities in the UN system, as well as NGOs.  Mr. Maquieira (Chile) was elected Chairman, and he will chair Working Group I, which is dealing with commitments 1, 7, 8 and 9 of the Copenhagen Declaration.  Working Group II, chaired by Koos Richelle (Netherlands), is considering the remaining commitments: 2, 3, 4, 5, 6 and 10.  Working Group III, chaired by Bagher Asadi (Iran), is considering the Political Declaration.  Other members of the Bureau are: Ion Gorita (Romania), Kheireddine Ramoul (Algeria), with Luis Carranza (Guatemala), Sonia Elliott (Guyana) and Aurelio Fernandez (Spain) as the three facilitators.

As of today, 1047 delegates had been accredited to the Special Session; 487 NGOs were specifically accredited, for a total of 700 representatives; and there were 245 representatives of media organizations.

In addition to presiding over the Special Session, the Assembly President, Dr. Gurirab, will attend a luncheon, hosted by  the Secretary-General, for Heads of State and Government attending the session, here at the Palais.

At 6:30 p.m., the President will take part in a welcome reception, on the lawn of the Palais, for all accredited participants, hosted by the Swiss Confederation, the Republic and Canton of Geneva and the Geneva City Government.  The reception will include the landing of a Zeppelin airship in the gardens of the Palais.  On board will be the United Nations Goodwill Ambassador, Dr. Bertrand Piccard, and Mr. Brian Jones.  Together, the two became the first round-the-world balloonists.  They will deliver messages from developing countries on social development issues.

Today, 26 June, is the International Day against Drug Abuse and Illicit Trafficking.  It is also the International Day in Support of Victims of Torture.  The President has issued messages to mark the two occasions.