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For debate in the Standing Committee see Rule 15 of the Rules of Procedure
Pour débat ŕ la Commission permanente – Voir article 15 du Rčglement
Doc. 8730
17 April 2000
Second World Summit on Social Development
Report
Social, Health and Family Affairs Committee
Rapporteur: Mr Andreas Gross, Switzerland, Socialist Group
Summary
In June 2000, the United Nations General Assembly will meet in Geneva for a special session to take stock of countries' progress in giving effect to the undertakings adopted in Copenhagen in 1995 to encourage social development, eradicate poverty and exclusion, and to promote social integration.
The Assembly notes that much remains to be done, in terms of progress to be realised by member states to promote an environment favourable to social development, to promote human development, and to promote social cohesion and social justice, and also as regards the aid allocated by member states to the development of the poorest countries of the planet.
Lastly, the phenomenon of globalisation in its actual form should warrant careful scrutiny of the Organisation, which could perform an evaluation of its social consequences.
I. Draft recommendation
1. At the first World Summit on Social Development, held in Copenhagen in March 1995, heads of state and government of 117 countries pledged to implement ten resolutions.
2. From 26 to 30 June 2000, in Geneva, there will be a special session of the United Nations General Assembly to take stock of countries' action in giving effect to the ten undertakings.
3. Despite progress in the last five years by some countries in combating poverty and exclusion, more particularly in the standard-setting domain, there are still obvious inadequacies: several transition countries are experiencing stagnation - severe retrogression even - in the social sphere, and the process of political and economic transformation is costing them great social upheaval.
4. Ideas on social development have evolved since Copenhagen, emphasising integrated treatment of economic and social matters. They are based on an absolute determination to make the most simultaneously of our societies' economic, social, human and cultural resources.
5. Any sustainable strategy on poverty and exclusion requires that economic expansion go hand in hand with social improvements. There has to be investment in the economy and investment in people. A return to full employment is the major priority for combating exclusion and poverty effectively. All economic policy must be job-creation policy.
6. Social development is grounded, too, in the principle of a society for all, and thus on social justice. It is part of the Council of Europe's function to convert governments to its social achievements and promote social rights in Europe, ensuring that people can fully exercise those rights, making sure that the rights are optimally applied and helping to bring about an eventual broadening of the range of social rights.
7. The Assembly therefore fully endorses the Committee of Ministers initiative of calling on member states, in Recommendation R(2000)3 on the right to the satisfaction of basic material needs of persons in situations of extreme hardship, to recognise a right to the satisfaction of basic material needs covering food, clothing, shelter and basic medical care.
8. It believes, however, that more purposeful action is required and that Europeans need effective social rights which are legally enforceable; in this connection it draws attention to its Recommendation 1415 (1999) on an additional protocol to the European Convention on Human Rights concerning fundamental social rights.
9. As regards development aid to the planet's poorest countries, it notes that only four member states (Denmark, the Netherlands, Norway and Sweden) have actually devoted 0.7% or more of GNP to aiding the developing countries and regrets other states' failure to honour their commitments in the matter.
10. Globalisation is now under scrutiny. In its present form, it has destabilised the economies of some countries, has been disruptive of employment and social structure, and generally has marginalised the poorest countries.
11. It is vital today to examine the mechanisms of economic liberalism carefully and perform a comprehensive assessment of the social effects of globalisation in its present form. It is essential to lay down new common rules and to improve co-ordination of international commercial and financial bodies' strategies so as not to further weaken economic and social institutions in the countries worst affected by poverty.
12. The Assembly therefore invites the governments of member states to:
i. give solid confirmation of the commitments they made in Copenhagen five years ago, in particular the commitment to eliminating severe poverty and combating exclusion;
ii. promote an environment favourable to social development by:
a. focusing economic policy on job creation for sustainable economic development and carrying out whatever structural reform is necessary;
b. supporting investment in education and training;
c. improving and rationalising publicly provided health, social and educational services;
d. more particularly clarifying the levels of governmental decision-making by giving local authorities greater financial responsibility for social, health and educational services with a view to more consistent social policy and improved access to services for all;
e. reinforcing the partnership with civil society, in particular through support to non-governmental organisations, which perform a prime role in combating exclusion;
f. developing active, constructive social dialogue, in particular through more extensive involvement of the social partners in discussions about social development, whether as regards changes in working life, development of employment or combating poverty and exclusion;
iii. promote human development by:
a. introducing active policies to enhance people's wellbeing and promote quality of life for all;
b. arming themselves with the means to fully eliminate poverty, in particular programmes of support to vulnerable groups and effective, well-targeted financial aid;
c. bringing in purposeful education policies and appropriate training and reintegration measures;
d. reorganising social protection systems in accordance with the solidarity principle so as to meet the demographic challenges of the third millennium, such as ageing of the European population, and provide access to basic social and health services for all;
iv. promote social cohesion on the basis of human rights and social justice by:
a. giving increased recognition to social rights, in particular by signing and ratifying both Council of Europe and International Labour Organisation instruments in the matter and guaranteeing their effective implementation;
b. demonstrating a genuine political will to apply Committee of Ministers Recommendation R(2000)3 on the right to satisfaction of basic material needs of persons in situations of extreme hardship.
13. In addition the Assembly makes a further appeal to governments of member states to devote at least 0.7% of GNP to official development aid and to draw up programmes of assistance to the poorest countries, in particular giving priority, in assigning aid, to social infrastructure, education, health, education and employment for women, combating child labour and protecting the environment.
14. It recommends that the Committee of Ministers:
i. urge member states to develop continent-wide solidarity by stepping up bilateral co-operation with transition countries in central and eastern Europe;
ii. resolutely develop the Council of Europe's co-ordination role in the preparation and conduct of major international meetings (United Nations and World Trade Organisation summits) so that member states can make their voice properly heard and put forward carefully thought out positions and joint initiatives;
iii. step up involvement of the Council of Europe Development Bank in educational and social investment;
iv. set up a group of experts regrouping all parties involved to evaluate the actual form of globalisation and to propose reforms and changes, in order to make other forms of globalisation possible, and make them more compatible with the social and ecological needs of the majority of the people of the planet.
II. Explanatory memorandum by Mr Gross
1. In March 1995 the World Summit on Social Development was held in Copenhagen. It concluded with adoption by heads of state and governments of 117 countries of a set of ten undertakings aimed at combating world poverty and exclusion1. To assess the progress of states' action on their undertakings, the United Nations decided to hold a further summit in the form of an extraordinary session of the General Assembly, which will take place in Geneva from 26 to 30 June 2000.
2. The Parliamentary Assembly associated itself with the preparations for the first summit and after the summit it adopted Recommendation 1290 (1996)2, in which it called on member states to combat poverty and social exclusion by adopting a policy of full employment and solidarity-based social policies. It likewise advocated an appreciable increase in official direct aid to the developing countries.
3. Last January, at the instigation of the Irish government, the Council of Europe held a European conference on social development (Dublin, 17 and 18 January 2000) with the aim of agreeing a pan-European strategy for social cohesion throughout Europe that would be Council of Europe member states' contribution to the extraordinary session of the United Nations General Assembly on social development.
4. The conference likewise took stock of measures by member states to fulfil the ten undertakings they had signed up to in Copenhagen, 24 of the 41 member countries having by then, as part of follow-up to Copenhagen, submitted national evaluation reports to the United Nations.
5. The conference's findings were fairly positive, namely that most countries had made encouraging and in some cases considerable progress in their efforts to improve social conditions. Portugal and Ireland, for instance, display renewed economic vigour and have succeeded in reducing poverty and stimulating employment, as witness the fall in Irish unemployment from 15.7% in 1993 to 10.2% in 1997 and under 6% since the start of this year.
6. I do not share that optimism, however, for at least two reasons. The first is that the undoubted economic and social progress by some European countries, in particular in central Europe, which have carried through courageous reforms, made judicious use of, in particular, European Union assistance programmes and succeeded in attracting western investment must not obscure the terrible retrogression of many countries, such as Russia, Ukraine, Moldova, Bulgaria and Romania. The occasional success story cannot - must not - be allowed to hide the overall picture.
7. The second reason for disappointment and pessimism about the future is the lack of genuine effort by the vast majority of states present in Copenhagen to honour the promises of development aid to the least favoured countries.
8. The Copenhagen World Summit on Social Development set new priorities and, even more importantly, gave evidence of a change in language and a change of heart. Five years on, although states' and international organisations' discourse on social questions is well practised, the underlying concepts have yet to be put into effect.
A. COMBATING POVERTY AND EXCLUSION IN EUROPE
9. Many countries' progress in the last five years in combating exclusion and strengthening social cohesion - and here the western countries are in the forefront - is undoubted but must not obscure the great economic and social difficulties in which some countries have been trapped for several years and whose grip on them tightens a little with every day that passes.
10. The Assembly, in particular at the instigation of the Social, Health and Family Affairs Committee, has issued repeated reminders about the situation, constantly calling on member states to give genuine political priority to combating exclusion and poverty and adopting a policy of full employment.
1. A picture of stark contrasts
11. Since 1995 a number of member states have been highly active on the unemployment front and in combating exclusion. On the one hand they have adopted active policies and strategies to encourage employment and bring the unemployed and excluded back into the labour market, in particular through promotion of training and retraining, direct encouragement of job creation (in the form of grants, loans and tax incentives) and carefully targeted measures in support of youth and female employment. On top of that, in the standard-setting domain, they have brought in a large amount of legislation on such matters as social rights, sickness insurance, unemployment insurance and minimum income. Lastly they have set up social security systems to which all have access, together with quality health and social services.
12. However there are some worrying trends in the western countries no less than in central and eastern Europe. It was long believed, for example, that poverty existed only amongst certain groups (the unemployed, retired people, migrants, single-parent families and so on) but so-called economic poverty is a phenomenon that undoubtedly affects those in work, including those with steady jobs but whose wages are too low to allow a decent standard of living.
13. In central and eastern Europe the last ten years, economically and socially, have seen huge structural change necessitated by transition to the market economy.
14. Certainly economic growth was experienced in central and eastern Europe in 1999. According to EBRD forecasts growth in the 26 transition countries should rise to 5% by 2003.
15. But in most of those countries, economic transition has brought great social upheaval, which, in some people's view, has led to social collapse and retrogression with a lower general standard of living, growing inequality of earnings, lower wages, non-payment or delayed payment of wages and pensions, increased poverty and loss of social cover. Earnings, for example, have regained 1989 levels in only four countries - Hungary, Poland, the Slovak Republic and Slovenia. In most of the CIS, Russia in particular, earnings are barely half what they used to be.
16. Other statistics are equally telling. In Russia, for example, social inequalities have steadily grown: 10% of the population accounts for almost one-third of earnings while 35% live below the poverty line, which is put at around 36 dollars per month. 50% of the population live on less than 50 dollars per month.
17. The 8th Copenhagen undertaking required states to ensure that multilateral development banks, in addition to adjustment lending, developed loans for specific investment in the social-development sphere. If, today, there were to be a thorough evaluation of social action by the Bretton Woods institutions (the IMF and the World Bank), they would necessarily be found wanting in this area.
18. IMF stabilisation programmes and neo-liberal policy and World Bank structural-adjustment, financial-austerity and expenditure-reduction policies, imposed on indebted or transition countries, are coming in for increasingly virulent criticism because the reality is that they inflict a huge economic burden on already weakened societies and have led to a drop in standard of living and in social protection.
19. he World Bank would recently seem to have acknowledged the force of the criticism and to be keen to give more weight to social-development and poverty issues.3
20. At all events it is important that the various international financial and commercial institutions (WTO, the World Bank and IMF) co-ordinate their policies better in future so as not to further weaken the economies and societies of countries which are having difficulty finding their feet.
2. New horizons
21. On the basis of a detailed survey of poverty and exclusion in Europe, the European Conference on Social Development also highlighted interesting moves by countries to remove the obstacles to continued social development in Europe.
22. The new watchword would seem to be "Investment in people, investment in the economy". What it is saying is that there cannot be any real economic development or lasting economic growth unless it is accompanied by social development. Economic development and social development go hand in hand and are inseparable ingredients of nationally sustainable development.
23. In this connection the conference called on states to invest in people through education and training. To be more specific, it considered it essential for countries to stake their future on youth education, vocational training and equal access to education, as being the crucial weapons in effectively combating poverty and exclusion.
24. In this connection it should be pointed out that in June 1999 the Assembly adopted Resolution 1193 (on second-chance schools or how to combat unemployment and exclusion by means of education and training), which contained numerous proposals for promoting access to training, and therefore employment, for young people without qualifications.
25. The European Conference on Social Development stressed the vital necessity of improving social rights and ensuring their recognition and proper protection. Proper, non-discriminatory implementation, in Europe, of human rights generally and social rights in particular was regarded in Dublin as a sine qua non of social development. Governments should accordingly endeavour to give more effect to the European conventions which protect standards of social provision, in particular the European Social Charter and the European Code of Social Security.
26. In this context the Assembly cannot but endorse Committee of Ministers Recommendation R(2000)3 on the right to the satisfaction of basic material needs of persons in situations of extreme hardship, adopted in January of this year, which calls on member states to deal with individual hardship in legislation and practice by recognising the right to a minimum standard of living, covering food, clothing, shelter and basic medical care.
27. At the same time, clearly only vigorous economic development, encouragement of employment and enterprise to stimulate growth, and, in some countries, putting the economy and public finance on a sounder footing can generate sufficient financial resources for investment in social integration. Economic forecasts predict 2% average growth in Europe in the year 2000 - the kind of opportunity which many countries have not had for years to bring in growth-promoting measures (tax reductions, public aid, etc), undertake the structural reforms needed for a healthy economy, take determined steps to combat poverty and introduce social-cohesion policies.
28. The key idea of a society for all, making every citizen - the young, the old, the poor, the excluded - fully participant, is a third consideration with a crucial bearing on social development.
29. In particular it presupposes development of genuine partnership between government and civil society and fresh impetus for social dialogue.
30. At the same time it entails rethinking the use of resources for social development, and in particular trying to rationalise state-provided social, health and education services and make them more coherent and effective. Similarly, priority needs giving to fairer, selective allocation of direct financial aid and service provision so that assistance goes to those who need it most.
31. Promoting the subsidiarity principle nationally would ensure reasonably coherent social development: by giving local authorities greater responsibilities in the social, health, education and training fields, we would avoid central-government/local-government duplication of action and services and assist a more homogeneous distribution of social services nationwide.
B. AID TO DEVELOPING COUNTRIES
32. In Recommendation 1290 the Assembly said that "in spite of repeated requests to developed countries to allocate 0.7% of their GNP to development aid, the majority of Council of Europe member states [had] not only failed to reach this target, but [had] actually reduced their aid".
33. Five years on from this negative finding, there has unfortunately been no reversal of the trend. It is perhaps the 9th Copenhagen undertaking which has been least honoured. Only four member countries (Denmark, Norway, the Netherlands and Sweden) have achieved the objective. Thus it is medium-sized countries which are making most effort in this area. Nevertheless, it has to be deplored that two out of four of these countries declined in their objectives to be at the avant-garde of the co-operation for development.
34. Official development aid is at its lowest level for 20 years, having fallen from an average of 0.35% of donor countries' GNP in 1981 to 0,33 % in 1992 and then to 0.23 % in 1998.
35. It is of fundamental importance not only that the Council of Europe countries repledge themselves to the Copenhagen undertakings but above all that they actually fulfil the objective of stepping up official development aid and allocating at least 0.7% of GNP to it.
36. It must be borne in mind that in the last five years many countries have experienced a further deepening of poverty. The financial crisis in Asia in 1998 produced a sharp 10% increase in poverty in the countries hit. Africa is alas not the only continent suffering from the effects of globalisation.
37. New approaches and new partnerships are necessary to give the poorer countries a new lease of life and reassure donor countries that aid is being used effectively.
38. Official development aid needs to be made available under bilateral partnerships between a donor country and a beneficiary country and in a spirit of sustainable development. As a matter of priority it needs to be channelled into policies of support for growth and employment and combating poverty.
39. Donor states must endeavour to lay down detailed programmes, giving priority in the allocation of funding to setting up social services, education, health, preventive health care (in particular measures to combat maternal and child mortality) development of infrastructure (such as roads, supply of drinking water, schools and dispensaries), rural development, support to agriculture, environment protection and improving the lot of women and children (in particular by assisting female access to education, training and employment and through such measures as stepping up the war on child labour).
40. It is legitimate to ask questions about the use being made of development-money aid. What is the actual percentage of aid which genuinely goes to reducing poverty?
41. That was the concern of the proposal put forward at Copenhagen in 1995 to adopt 20/20 pacts, with 20% of developing countries' budgets and 20% of development aid going to meet basic needs.
42. It is therefore worth making the point that aid needs basic transparency and a sense of responsibility on the part of beneficiary countries.
43. Cancelling some of the debt of the poorer countries is another priority objective. Debt, the servicing of which places a heavy financial strain on poorer countries, is an obstacle to any sustainable development there. It inevitably forces them to make cuts in spending on such provision as social programmes, the education system and public health. It is therefore important to drive home the case for lightening developing countries' debt burden.
C. QUESTION MARKS AGAINST GLOBALISATION
44. The phenomenon of globalisation in its actual form warrants careful scrutiny, on the one hand in view of its effects on individual countries as a destabiliser of the employment market and of commercial and financial institutions and on the other hand because it undermines more and more the political ability of the states to socially and ecologically balance the market forces and the effects of the market in the interest of the majority of the people. The effect of today's globalisation has been to further marginalise the poorer countries while at the same time increasing the concentration of wealth in the hands of certain companies and certain individuals of the North. The combined wealth of the three richest people in the world exceeds the GNP of the world's 48 poorest nations. This is the expression of unequal life chances of a nearly obscene dimension.
45. These considerations are not without relevance to the raison d'ętre and functioning of international financial and commercial institutions such as WTO and IMF.
46. Ultimately, globalisation in its actual form has triggered a crisis of economic models and traditional nation based democratic models. It has become essential to think hard about the mechanisms of liberal economics and about all-out liberalisation of the financial and commercial markets.
47. It is time to adopt a "post-Seattle" mentality, lay down new democratically legitimated rules for the operation of world trade and international financial markets and agree a common strategy for all international commercial and financial institutions, with the aim of really diminishing world poverty. We have to overcome poverty, so that no human being could be marginalised because he or she could not afford a decent standard of living. This inevitably entails conducting a full preliminary evaluation of the social effects of today's globalisation.
Reporting committee: Social, Health and Family Affairs Committee
Budgetary implications: none
Reference to committee: Doc. 8571, Reference No. 2456 of 4 November 1999.
Draft recommendation unanimously adopted by the committee on 4 April 2000
Members of the committee: Mr Cox (Chairman), Mrs Ragnarsdóttir, Mr Hegyi, Mrs Gatterer (Vice-Chairs), Mrs Albrink , MM. Alis Font, Arnau, Mrs Belohorská, Mrs Biga-Friganovic, Mrs Björnemalm, Mrs Böhmer, Mr Cesário, Mrs Chikhradze, MM. Christodoulides, Chyzh, Dees, Dhaille, Duivesteijn, Evin, Flynn, Gamzatova, Gibula, Glesener, Gregory, Ms Gülek, MM. Gusenbauer, Gustafsson, Haack, Hancock, Mrs Hřegh, Mr Hrebenciuc, Mrs Jirousová, Mr Kalos, Ms Lakhova, Mrs Laternser (Alternate: Mr Brunhart), Mr Liiv, Mrs Lotz, Mrs Luhtanen, Mr Lupu, Mrs Markovska, MM. Marmazov, Martelli, Marty, Mattei, Monfils, Mozgan, Mularoni, Mr Ouzky, Mrs Paegle, Mrs Poptodorova, Mrs Pozza Tasca, Mrs Pulgar (Alternate: Mr Herrera), MM. Raskinis, Rizzi, Santkin, Skoularikis, Mrs Stefani, MM. Surján, Tahir, Telek, Troncho, Vella, Mrs Vermot-Mangold (Alternate: Mr Gross), MM. Volodin, Voronin, Wójcik
NB: The names of those members present at the meeting are printed in italics.
Secretaries to the committee: Mr Dronov a.i., Mrs Meunier and Mrs Clamer
1 1. To create an economic, political, social, cultural and legal environment conducive to social development;
2. to eradicate world poverty through action at national level and international co-operation;
3. to make full employment a basic priority and provide everyone with reliable, lasting means of subsistence;
4. to promote social integration through protection of human rights, non-discrimination, tolerance, equal opportunity, solidarity and participation for all in society;
5. to promote respect for human dignity and achieve equality and fair treatment between men and women;
6. to provide access for all to education and health care;
7. to speed up economic, social and human development in Africa and the less-developed countries;
8. to incorporate social-development aims, such as eradication of poverty and full employment, into structural adjustment programmes;
9. to step up and make better use of resources earmarked for social development;
10. to step up international co-operation in social development.
2 See Doc.7492, Follow-up to the Copenhagen Summit on Social Development (Rapporteur: Mr Andreas Gross, Switzerland, SOC).
3 Interesting light is shed on this question in a draft report under discussion in the Committee on Economic Affairs and Development (see Bretton Woods and the new world economy: towards reform of the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank (Rapporteur: Mr Gusenbauer, Austria, SOC).