Implementation of the Outcome of the World Summit for Social Development and of the 24th Special Session of the General Assembly

A/RES/65/185No PDF available

Who created this mandate?

A Resolution of the General Assembly, under agenda item 27aImplementation of the outcome of the World Summit for Social Development and of the 24th special session of the General Assembly, published in 2011.

What other versions does this mandate have?

24 versions · 2002–2025

This is an older version — the most recent is A/RES/80/178

2025A/RES/80/178Implementation of the outcome of the World Summit for Social Development and of the 24th special session of the General AssemblyLatestCompare with previous version
2024A/RES/79/146Implementation of the outcome of the World Summit for Social Development and of the 24th special session of the General AssemblyCompare with previous version
2023A/RES/78/174Implementation of the outcome of the World Summit for Social Development and of the 24th special session of the General AssemblyCompare with previous version
2022A/RES/77/188Implementation of the outcome of the World Summit for Social Development and of the 24th special session of the General AssemblyCompare with previous version
2022A/RES/76/134Implementation of the outcome of the World Summit for Social Development and of the 24th special session of the General AssemblyCompare with previous version

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Which reports were submitted under this mandate?

1 report of the Secretary-General submitted under this mandate, 2011.

2011A/66/124Implementation of the outcome of the World Summit for Social Development and of the 24th special session of the General Assembly report of the Secretary-General

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What does this mandate say?

64 operative paragraphs

Takes note of the report of the Secretary-General;

Welcomes the reaffirmation by Governments of their will and commitment to continue implementing the Copenhagen Declaration on Social Development and the Programme of Action,Error: Reference source not found in particular to eradicate poverty, promote full and productive employment and foster social integration to achieve stable, safe and just societies for all;

Recognizes that the implementation of the Copenhagen commitments and the attainment of the internationally agreed development goals, including the Millennium Development Goals, are mutually reinforcing and that the Copenhagen commitments are crucial to a coherent people-centred approach to development;

Reaffirms that the Commission for Social Development continues to have the primary responsibility for the follow-up to and review of the World Summit for Social Development and the outcome of the twenty-fourth special session of the General Assembly and that it serves as the main United Nations forum for an intensified global dialogue on social development issues, and calls upon Member States, the relevant specialized agencies, funds and programmes of the United Nations system and civil society to enhance their support for its work;

Expresses deep concern that the world financial and economic crisis, the world food and energy crises, continuing food insecurity and climate change, as well as the lack of results so far in the multilateral trade negotiations and a loss of confidence in the international economic system, have negative implications for social development, in particular for the achievement of poverty eradication, full and productive employment and decent work for all and social integration;

Stresses the importance of the policy space of national Governments, in particular in the areas of social expenditure and social protection programmes, and calls upon international financial institutions and donors to support developing countries in achieving their social development, in line with their national priorities and strategies by, among other things, providing debt relief;

Recognizes that poverty eradication, full and productive employment and decent work for all and social integration are interrelated and mutually reinforcing, and that an enabling environment therefore needs to be created so that all three objectives can be pursued simultaneously;

Also recognizes that the broad concept of social development affirmed by the World Summit for Social Development and the twenty-fourth special session of the General Assembly has been weakened in national and international policymaking and that, while poverty eradication is a central part of development policy and discourse, further attention should be given to the other commitments agreed to at the Summit, in particular those concerning employment and social integration, which have also suffered from a general disconnect between economic and social policymaking;

Acknowledges that the first United Nations Decade for the Eradication of Poverty (1997–2006), launched after the World Summit for Social Development, has provided the long-term vision for sustained and concerted efforts at the national and international levels to eradicate poverty;

Recognizes that the implementation of the commitments made by Governments during the first Decade has fallen short of expectations, and welcomes the proclamation of the Second United Nations Decade for the Eradication of Poverty (2008–2017) by the General Assembly in its resolution 62/205 of 19 December 2007 in order to support, in an efficient and coordinated manner, the internationally agreed development goals related to poverty eradication, including the Millennium Development Goals;

Emphasizes that the major United Nations conferences and summits, including the Millennium Summit, the 2005 World Summit, the High-level Plenary Meeting of the General Assembly on the Millennium Development Goals and the International Conference on Financing for Development, in its Monterrey Consensus, have reinforced the priority and urgency of poverty eradication within the United Nations development agenda;

Also emphasizes that poverty eradication policies should attack poverty by addressing its root and structural causes and manifestations, and that equity and the reduction of inequalities need to be incorporated in those policies;

Stresses that an enabling environment is a critical precondition for achieving equity and social development and that, while economic growth is essential, entrenched inequality and marginalization are an obstacle to the broad-based and sustained growth required for sustainable, inclusive and people-centred development, and recognizes the need to balance and ensure complementarity between measures to achieve growth and measures to achieve economic and social equity in order for there to be an impact on overall poverty levels;

Also stresses that stability in global financial systems and corporate social responsibility and accountability, as well as national economic policies that have an impact on other stakeholders, are essential in creating an enabling international environment to promote economic growth and social development;

Recognizes the need to promote respect for all human rights and fundamental freedoms in order to address the most pressing social needs of people living in poverty, including through the design and development of appropriate mechanisms to strengthen and consolidate democratic institutions and governance;

Reaffirms the commitment to the empowerment of women and gender equality, as well as to the mainstreaming of a gender perspective into all development efforts, recognizing that these are critical for achieving sustainable development and for efforts to combat hunger, poverty and disease and to strengthen policies and programmes that improve, ensure and broaden the full participation of women in all spheres of political, economic, social and cultural life, as equal partners, and to improve their access to all resources needed for the full exercise of all their human rights and fundamental freedoms by removing persistent barriers, including ensuring equal access to full and productive employment and decent work, as well as strengthening their economic independence;

Stresses, further, that effective participation of people in civic, social, economic and political activities is essential in order to achieve the eradication of poverty and the promotion of social inclusion; in this regard, Governments should increase participation of citizens and communities in the planning and implementation of social integration policies and strategies aimed at achieving poverty eradication, social integration and full employment and decent work for all;

Reaffirms the commitment to promote opportunities for full, freely chosen and productive employment, including for the most disadvantaged, as well as decent work for all, in order to deliver social justice combined with economic efficiency, with full respect for fundamental principles and rights at work under conditions of equity, equality, security and dignity, and further reaffirms that macroeconomic policies should, inter alia, support employment creation, taking fully into account the social impact and dimension of globalization;

Notes with interest the adoption by the International Labour Conference on 10 June 2008 of the International Labour Organization Declaration on Social Justice for a Fair Globalization,Error: Reference source not found which acknowledges the particular role of the Organization in promoting a fair globalization and its responsibility to assist its members in their efforts, and the adoption by the International Labour Conference on 19 June 2009 of the Global Jobs Pact;

Reaffirms that there is an urgent need to create an environment at the national and international levels that is conducive to the attainment of full and productive employment and decent work for all as a foundation for sustainable development and that an environment that supports investment, growth and entrepreneurship is essential to the creation of new job opportunities, and also reaffirms that opportunities for men and women to obtain productive work in conditions of freedom, equity, security and human dignity are essential to ensuring the eradication of hunger and poverty, the improvement of economic and social well-being for all, the achievement of sustained economic growth and sustainable development of all nations and a fully inclusive and equitable globalization;

Stresses the importance of removing obstacles to the realization of the right of peoples to self-determination, in particular of peoples living under colonial or other forms of alien domination or foreign occupation, which adversely affect their social and economic development, including their exclusion from labour markets;

Reaffirms the need to address all forms of violence in its many manifestations, including domestic violence, particularly against women, children, older persons and persons with disabilities, and discrimination, including xenophobia, recognizing that violence increases challenges to States and societies in the achievement of poverty eradication, full and productive employment and decent work for all and social integration, and further recognizes that terrorism, trafficking in arms, organized crime, trafficking in persons, money-laundering, ethnic and religious conflict, civil war, politically motivated killing and genocide present fundamental threats to societies and pose increasing challenges to States and societies in the attainment of conditions conducive to social development, and that they further present urgent and compelling reasons for action by Governments individually and, as appropriate, jointly to foster social cohesion while recognizing, protecting and valuing diversity;

Calls upon the organizations of the United Nations system to commit to mainstreaming the goal of full and productive employment and decent work for all in their policies, programmes and activities;

Requests the United Nations funds, programmes and agencies, and invites financial institutions, to support efforts to mainstream the goals of full and productive employment and decent work for all in their policies, programmes and activities;

Recognizes that promoting full employment and decent work also requires investing in education, training and skills development for women and men, and girls and boys, strengthening social protection and health systems and applying international labour standards;

Also recognizes that full and productive employment and decent work for all, which encompass social protection, fundamental principles and rights at work, tripartism and social dialogue, are key elements of sustainable development for all countries and are therefore a priority objective of international cooperation;

Stresses that policies and strategies to achieve full employment and decent work for all should include specific measures to promote gender equality and foster social integration for social groups such as young people, persons with disabilities and older persons, as well as migrants and indigenous peoples, on an equal basis with others;

Also stresses the need to allocate adequate resources for the elimination of all forms of discrimination against women in the workplace, including unequal access to labour market participation and wage inequalities, as well as reconciliation of work and private life for both women and men;

Reaffirms its resolution 64/134 of 18 December 2009 proclaiming the year commencing on 12 August 2010 the International Year of Youth: Dialogue and Mutual Understanding, and calls upon all Member States and other relevant stakeholders, including civil society, the private sector and international cooperation agencies, to support activities at the national, regional and international levels aimed at promoting the ideals of peace, freedom, progress and solidarity among young people in order to ensure social cohesion and youth development;

Encourages States to design and implement strategies and policies for the creation of full and productive employment that is appropriately and adequately remunerated, and for the reduction of unemployment, and further encourages States to promote youth employment by, inter alia, developing and implementing policies and strategies in collaboration with relevant stakeholders;

Also encourages States to pursue efforts to promote the concerns of older persons and persons with disabilities and their organizations in the planning, implementation and evaluation of all development programmes and policies;

Stresses that policies and programmes designed to achieve poverty eradication, full employment and decent work for all should include specific measures to foster social integration, including by providing marginalized socio-economic sectors and groups with equal access to opportunities and social protection;

Acknowledges the important nexus between international migration and social development, and stresses the importance of enforcing labour law effectively with regard to migrant workers’ labour relations and working conditions, inter alia, those related to their remuneration and conditions of health, safety at work and the right to freedom of association;

Recognizes that, since the convening of the World Summit for Social Development in Copenhagen in 1995, advances have been made in addressing and promoting social integration, including through the adoption of the Madrid International Plan of Action on Ageing, 2002, the World Programme of Action for Youth, the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples and the Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action;

Stresses that the benefits of economic growth should be distributed more equitably and that, in order to close the gap of inequality and avoid any further deepening of inequality, comprehensive social policies and programmes, including appropriate social transfer and job creation programmes and social protection systems, are needed;

Recognizes the importance of providing social protection schemes for the formal and informal economy as instruments to achieve equity, inclusion and stability and cohesion of societies, and emphasizes the importance of supporting national efforts aimed at bringing informal workers into the formal economy;

Stresses that poverty eradication policies should, inter alia, ensure that people living in poverty have access to education, health, water and sanitation and other public and social services, as well as access to productive resources, including credit, land, training, technology, knowledge and information, and ensure that citizens and local communities participate in decision-making on social development policies and programmes in this regard;

Recognizes that the social integration of people living in poverty should encompass addressing and meeting their basic human needs, including nutrition, health, water, sanitation, housing and access to education and employment, through integrated development strategies;

Reaffirms that social integration policies should seek to reduce inequalities, promote access to basic social services, education for all and health care, eliminate discrimination, increase the participation and integration of social groups, particularly young people, older persons and persons with disabilities, and address the challenges posed by globalization and market-driven reforms to social development in order for all people in all countries to benefit from globalization;

Urges Governments, with the cooperation of relevant entities, to develop systems of social protection and to extend or broaden, as appropriate, their effectiveness and coverage, including for workers in the informal economy, recognizing the need for social protection systems to provide social security and support labour-market participation, invites the International Labour Organization to strengthen its social protection strategies and policies on extending social security coverage, and also urges Governments, while taking account of national circumstances, to focus on the needs of those living in, or vulnerable to, poverty and to give particular consideration to universal access to basic social security systems;

Requests the United Nations system to support national efforts of Member States to achieve inclusive social development, in particular by fostering the eradication of poverty, full and productive employment and decent work for all and social integration, in a coherent and coordinated manner, and to promote exchanges of good practices in this regard;

Reaffirms the commitment to promote the rights of indigenous peoples in the areas of education, employment, housing, sanitation, health and social security, and notes the attention paid to those areas in the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples;

Recognizes the need to formulate social development policies in an integral, articulated and participative manner, recognizing poverty as a multidimensional phenomenon, calls for interlinked public policies on this matter, and underlines the need for public policies to be included in a comprehensive development and well-being strategy;

Acknowledges the important role that the public sector can play as an employer and in developing an environment that enables the effective generation of full and productive employment and decent work for all;

Also acknowledges the vital role that the private sector can play in generating new investments, employment and financing for development and in advancing efforts towards full employment and decent work;

Recognizes that priority should be given to agricultural and non-farm sectors and that steps should be taken to anticipate and offset the negative social and economic consequences of globalization and to maximize its benefits for poor people living and working in rural areas, while paying special attention to the development of microenterprises and small and medium-sized enterprises, particularly in rural areas, as well as subsistence economies, to secure their safe interaction with larger economies;

Also recognizes the need to give priority to investing in and further contributing to sustainable agricultural development and microenterprises, small and medium-sized enterprises and entrepreneurship cooperatives and other forms of social enterprises and the participation and entrepreneurship of women as means to promote full and productive employment and decent work for all;

Further recognizes the need to pay necessary attention to the social development of people in urban areas, especially the urban poor;

Reaffirms the commitments made in respect of meeting the special needs of Africa at the 2005 World Summit, underlines the call of the Economic and Social Council for enhanced coordination within the United Nations system and the ongoing efforts to harmonize the current initiatives on Africa, and requests the Commission for Social Development to continue to give due prominence in its work to the social dimensions of the New Partnership for Africa’s Development;

Also reaffirms that each country has the primary responsibility for its own economic and social development and that the role of national policies and development strategies cannot be overemphasized, and underlines the importance of adopting effective measures, including new financial mechanisms, as appropriate, to support the efforts of developing countries to achieve sustained economic growth, sustainable development, poverty eradication and the strengthening of their democratic systems;

Further reaffirms, in this context, that international cooperation has an essential role in assisting developing countries, including the least developed countries, in strengthening their human, institutional and technological capacity;

Stresses that the international community shall enhance its efforts to create an enabling environment for social development and poverty eradication through increasing market access for developing countries, technology transfer on mutually agreed terms, financial aid and a comprehensive solution to the external debt problem;

Also stresses that international trade and stable financial systems can be effective tools to create favourable conditions for the development of all countries and that trade barriers and some trading practices continue to have negative effects on employment growth, particularly in developing countries;

Acknowledges that good governance and the rule of law at the national and international levels are essential for sustained economic growth, sustainable development and the eradication of poverty and hunger;

Urges developed countries that have not yet done so in accordance with their commitments to make concrete efforts towards meeting the targets of 0.7 per cent of their gross national product for official development assistance to developing countries and 0.15 to 0.2 per cent of their gross national product to least developed countries, and encourages developing countries to build on the progress achieved in ensuring that official development assistance is used effectively to help to meet development goals and targets;

Urges Member States and the international community to fulfil all their commitments to meet the demands for social development, including social services and assistance, that have arisen from the global financial and economic crisis, which particularly affects the poorest and most vulnerable;

Welcomes the contribution to the mobilization of resources for social development by the initiatives taken on a voluntary basis by groups of Member States based on innovative financing mechanisms, including those that aim to provide further drug access at affordable prices to developing countries on a sustainable and predictable basis, such as the International Drug Purchase Facility, UNITAID, as well as other initiatives, such as the International Finance Facility for Immunization and the Advance Market Commitments for Vaccines, and notes the New York Declaration of 20 September 2004, which launched the Action against Hunger and Poverty initiative and called for further attention to raise funds urgently needed to help meet the Millennium Development Goals and to complement and ensure the long-term stability and predictability of foreign aid;

Reaffirms that social development requires the active involvement of all actors in the development process, including civil society organizations, corporations and small businesses, and that partnerships among all relevant actors are increasingly becoming part of national and international cooperation for social development, and also reaffirms that, within countries, partnerships among the Government, civil society and the private sector can contribute effectively to the achievement of social development goals;

Underlines the responsibility of the private sector, at both the national and the international levels, including small and large companies and transnational corporations, regarding not only the economic and financial implications but also the development, social, gender and environmental implications of their activities, their obligations towards their workers and their contributions to achieving sustainable development, including social development, and emphasizes the need to take concrete actions on corporate responsibility and accountability, including through the participation of all relevant stakeholders, inter alia, for the prevention or prosecution of corruption;

Stresses the importance of promoting corporate social responsibility and accountability, encourages responsible business practices, such as those promoted by the Global Compact, invites the private sector to take into account not only the economic and financial implications but also the development, social, human rights, gender and environmental implications of its undertakings, and underlines the importance of the International Labour Organization Tripartite Declaration of Principles concerning Multinational Enterprises and Social Policy;

Invites the Secretary-General, the Economic and Social Council, the regional commissions, the relevant specialized agencies, funds and programmes of the United Nations system and other intergovernmental forums, within their respective mandates, to continue to integrate into their work programmes and give priority attention to the Copenhagen commitments and the Declaration on the tenth anniversary of the World Summit for Social Development, to continue to be actively involved in their follow-up and to monitor the achievement of those commitments and undertakings;

Invites the Secretary-General to submit to the General Assembly at its sixty-sixth session a comprehensive study on the impact of the converging world crises on social development, in particular for the achievement of poverty eradication, mindful of the discussion that will be held during the forty-ninth session of the Commission for Social Development;

Invites the Commission for Social Development to emphasize in its review of the implementation of the Copenhagen Declaration on Social Development and the Programme of Action the increased exchange of national, regional and international experiences, the focused and interactive dialogues among experts and practitioners and the sharing of best practices and lessons learned, and to address, inter alia, the impact of the world financial and economic crisis and the world food and energy crises on social development goals;

Decides to include in the provisional agenda of its sixty-sixth session the sub-item entitled “Implementation of the outcome of the World Summit for Social Development and of the twenty-fourth special session of the General Assembly”, and requests the Secretary-General to submit a report on the question to the Assembly at that session.

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Implementation of the Outcome of the World Summit for Social Development and of the 24th Special Session of the General Assembly

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