THE WORLD SUMMIT ON SOCIAL DEVELOPMENT
The World Summit on Social Development was held in Copenhagen from March 6-12 1995.
Detailed information on the Summit can be found at www.undp.org/wssd/wssd.html.
The Summit adopted the Copenhagen Declaration on Social Development and the Programme of
Action, which was endorsed by the General Assembly on 22 December 1995. Over 14,000
participants attended the Summit, among them delegates from 186 countries and some 2,300
representatives from 811 non-governmental organizations (NGOs). Additionally, 12,000 NGO
representatives and others gathered daily for the parallel NGO Forum '95.
Among the ground-breaking agreements made by the world's leaders in the Declaration were
ten commitments to:
- eradicate absolute poverty by a target date to be set by each country;
- support full employment as a basic policy goal;
- promote social integration based on the enhancement and protection of all human rights;
- achieve equality and equity between women and men;
- accelerate the development of Africa and the least developed countries;
- ensure that structural adjustment programmes include social development goals;
- increase resources allocated to social development;
- create "an economic, political, social, cultural and legal environment that will enable people to achieve social development'';
- attain universal and equitable access to education and primary health care; and
- strengthen cooperation for social development through the UN.
The Summit's Relationship to Other World Conferences
Although the Social Summit was the first major UN conference specifically on social
development issues, its goals were closely linked with the objectives of earlier United
Nations conferences. The Copenhagen Declaration and Programme of Action drew extensively
on the recommendations for sustainable development agreed at the 1992 UN Conference on
Environment and Development in Rio de Janeiro,
and the 1994 International Conference on Population and Development in Cairo
(gopher.undp.org/1/ungophers/popin/icpd).
In turn, Copenhagen was reinforced by the subsequent work of the 1995 Fourth World
Conference on Women in Beijing (http://www.undp.org/fwcw/fwce2.htm),
and the 1996 UN Conference on Human Settlements-Habitat II in Istanbul
(http://www.un.org/conferences/habitat/).
Other Sources of World Summit and Follow-Up Information
The Earth Negotiations Bulletin published daily reports on the official negotiations from
Copenhagen, Volume 10, numbers 37 through 44. They are available online at
http://www.iisd.ca/linkages/vol10/1037000e.html
The UN Department of Public Information prepared press releases during the summit, which
are located at gopher://gopher.undp.org/11/unconfs/wssd/summit/press.
PREPARATION FOR THE FIVE-YEAR REVIEW
At its fifty-first session, the General Assembly requested that a report be made in the
year 2000 on the implementation of the Summit's outcome. Accordingly, a Special Session of
the General Assembly on the Implementation of the Outcome of the World Summit for Social
Development and Further Initiatives will be held in Geneva on 26-30 June 2000 (WSSD+5).
For general information on preparations for this five-year review, go to
http://www.un.org/esa/socdec/geneva2000/index.html.
The General Assembly decided that the Commission for Social Development would undertake preparations
in 1999-2000 for the Special Session. It also decided that a Preparatory Committee of the
whole of the Assembly would be established, which would initiate its activities in 1999 on
the basis of inputs by the Commission and ECOSOC, and take into account contributions by
other relevant organs and agencies of the UN system.
Information on the organization session held by the preparatory Committee for the Special Session on
3-14 April 2000 can be found at http://www.un.org/esa/socdev/geneva2000/events/prepcom/index.html
The Preparatory Committee convened its first formal session on 17-28 May 1999. It also
convened inter-sessional open-ended informal consultations during the week of 30 August to
3 September 1999. The purpose of the consultations was to consider the Chairman's revised
working draft text (A/AC.253/L.5/Rev.1) with a view to preparing a new, integrated
Chairman's working draft text by January 2000. The Committee was also to continue
consideration of the accreditation and modalities of participation of NGOs in the Special
Session.
NGO Participation in WSSD+5 (As of 21 September 1999)
Subject to the approval of the General Assembly, NGOs will be given accreditation for the
Special Session, as decided by the Preparatory Committee. That decision was made by one of
two drafts approved without a vote during the Committee's resumed first session.
By that draft (A/AC.253/L.12) on the Special Session, the Committee decided to open
accreditation to all NGOs enjoying consultative status with the Economic and Social
Council, and to all NGOs accredited either to the World Summit for Social Development or
to the Preparatory Committee. There would be no further examination of credentials unless
the application to either had been rejected by the Committee on NGOs.
Further by the draft, the Preparatory Committee recommended that the Assembly accredit any NGOs
which had not participated in either the World Summit or the Preparatory Committee through
a Credentials Committee set up by 7 April 2000 and composed of the Preparatory Committee's
Bureau and members of the Secretariat. Based on information received from NGOs by March
2000, the Committee will present its recommendations at the Preparatory Committee's second
regular session to be held in New York from 3 to 14 April 2000. Recommendations will be
based on such information as the organization's purpose, its activities at the national,
regional or international levels and its annual or other reports.
By another draft (A/AC.253/L.13), the Preparatory Committee recommended that the Assembly
decide that NGO representatives may make statements in the Ad Hoc Committee of the Whole
of the Special Session. Further, the Assembly would decide that a limited number of NGOs
in consultative status with ECOSOC would make statements in the plenary debate of the
special session. The General Assembly President was to present a list of selected NGOs to
Member States and to ensure the timeliness and transparency of the selection. Finally, the
Assembly would decide that such accreditation and participation arrangements would not
create a precedent for other special sessions of the General Assembly.
NGO Facilitation and Information Activities
On 6 September 1999 about 20 Geneva-based NGOs decided to form a Facilitating and
Coordinating Committee under the chairmanship of Henry Volken, Chair of the CONGO NGO
Committee on Development (Geneva). This Facilitating and Coordinating Committee is open to
all NGOs, and will maintain close contact with relevant NGO committees and caucuses in New
York, including the NGO Committee on Social Development, which has played a key role in
New York-based planning for the Summit. A representative of the official organizing
process was also present at the Geneva meeting, and will coordinate with the NGO planning
effort as appropriate.
Other NGO Websites of Interest
