SLOVENIA

Dr. MINA BREJC

at the Special Session of the General Assembly of the United Nations on Social Development

Geneva, 27th June 2000

Mr. Chairman, Excellencies, ladies and gentleman.

Allow me to express my gratitude concerning the preparation of this Special Session of the General Assembly, which is of pivotal importance for exchanging experiences, examples of good practice and, not least, obstacles, encountered in our respective countries when addressing the issues of poverty, unemployment and social exclusion.

The Government of Slovenia would wish to extend its firm support for the objectives, encompassed in The Copenhagen Declaration on Social Development and Programme of Action, and underline the importance of assessing the accomplishments made as follow-up to the guidelines outlined in Copenhagen in 1995 and finding the most adequate ways towards the implementation of further initiatives. However, as the above mentioned issues represent composite and interwoven topics, it has to be emphasised that we can tackle them only by recognising their complexity and act accordingly both on national and international level.

In the beginning of the nineties, the transition towards market economy in Slovenia and subsequent loss of certain markets brought about temporary negative trends of economic growth and, as a result, a marked rise in unemployment. Since 1993 we have been witnessing a revival of economic growth and a substantial improvement of living standard of most of the Slovene population. In 1999, the economic growth of Slovenia amounted to one of the highest in Europe. However, we are aware that general economic and social development does not imply an improved situation for everyone per se. Prevention of poverty and related social exclusion are therefore fundamental objectives of social policy in Slovenia.

In the areas which contribute to the great extent towards alleviation of social exclusion, namely the policies of education, employment, health, housing, social assistance and services, numerous programmes have already been elaborated or are currently being developed. Irrespective of that, the Governmént of Slovenia is of the opinion that an integral national

strategy is required, hence it has adopted a special Programme on the Fight against Poverty and Social Exclusion in the beginning of this year.

The main goal of this Programme and a general objective of our Government is to overcome the partiality of solving a multidimensional problem, which is what poverty and social exclusion undoubtedly are, by employing appropriate interconnection, harmonisation and expansion of the existing measures and programmes. The Programme along with numerous others adopted in recent years addresses the issues of employability with a specific emphasis on vulnerable groups, and underlines the importance of education for all categories of the population.

We wish to emphasise that there is an urgent need for measures to rectify the current situation concerning social exclusion both in a national and in a global context. Therefore, it is believed to be important to reduce poverty and social exclusion by means of permanent activities and actions, thus preventing the long-term exclusion of individuals and their families. Such action, in order to be successful, requires concerted efforts of the international governmental organisations, governments, local communities, public services and non-governmental organisations.

The modern world is increasingly characterised by an extensive welfare of people on one hand, which is, regrettably, accompanied by the silent poverty of growing numbers of people, on the other. The government of Slovenia believes that this obvious antagonism is becoming unacceptable and urgently requires corrections. In spite of improvements in several specific areas of social and economic development (namely prolonged life, rising literacy rate, access to

primary education and basic health care, family planning, decrease in mortality of infants, spread of pluralism, democratic institutions and observance of fundamental human rights, the world is, more than ever, faced with a growing number of people, predominantly women and youth, who are afflicted by hunger and other deprivations.

The increasing internal social problems in individual countries threaten the well-being of their inhabitants, exerting negative impact on the quality of life in general. In numerous rich and developing countries the gap between the rich and the poor is widening, as is the gap between the most and the least developed countries.

The Government of Slovenia applauds the fact that the world community is becoming conscious that, along with global changes in the world economy, the fundamental parameters of social development in all countries should also be changed. Social and economic policies need to be in conformity, as the interests of the population have to be mirrored in the interests of the state. It has been ascertained that poverty and unemployment often result in isolation, marginalisation and violence. Even more: poverty has been found to offer fertile ground for massive infringements of human rights in the World. Therefore, I wish to express the readiness of the Government of Slovenia to co-operate at the international level in a concerted effort to erase the absolute poverty in the World and underline that our goal is to create a society for everybody in which every individual plays an active part.

Thank you.