2000
Human Rights Seminar during UN General Assembly Special Session (UNGASS) on Social Development

The Declaration and Programme of Action arising from the World Summit for Social Development (Copenhagen, 6-12 March 1995) is organically and inextricably linked to human rights principles.

GENEVA, JUNE 2000

Concept Paper

The heads of State and Government gathered in Copenhagen committed themselves to a "political, economic, ethical and spiritual vision for social development that is based on human dignity, human rights, equality, respect, peace, democracy, mutual responsibility and cooperation, and full respect for the various religious and ethical values and cultural backgrounds of people."

Human rights are referred to explicitly in, inter alia, Commitments 1 (on an 'enabling environment'), 4 (on social integration), 5 (on equality and equity between women and men), and 6 (on universal and equitable access to education and primary health care etc.).

In addition to these explicit references, human rights principles permeate and undergird the whole concept and framework of social development. The focus on human dignity, non-discrimination, participation, self-determination and people-centred development contained in the Copenhagen Declaration and Programme of Action can be traced directly to pre-existing human rights principles and instruments, and in particular to the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR) and the Declaration on the Right to Development. In addition, many of the concrete objectives of social development are directly mirrored in specific obligations under human rights law. This applies in particular to the social development goals of eradication of poverty, full employment, access to education and to primary health care, adequate shelter, participation in social and cultural life, economic and social protection during unemployment and disability etc., equality and equity between women and men, and an enabling environment.

Insofar as these correlated human rights principles constitute binding legal obligations upon States, and especially where such obligations arise from a treaty which also establishes a monitoring mechanism, the relevant human rights monitoring mechanisms can provide a powerful parallel means of promoting social development goals.

In particular, the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (ICESCR) and its monitoring mechanism through the Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights is of very direct relevance to the promotion of social development goals. Other UN human rights treaties of close relevance to social development are the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (monitored by the Human Rights Committee), the Convention on the Elimination of all forms of Discrimination Against Women (monitored by the Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination Against Women) and the Convention on the Rights of the Child (monitored by the Committee on the Rights of the Child). The Declaration on the Right to Development, although lacking binding legal force or any monitoring or enforcement mechanism, also warrants closer examination in terms of its mutually supportive relationship with the social development process.