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Mr. Chairman:

During the last decade the United Nations has held several major world conferences or summits on children, drugs, education, environment and development, human rights, social development and women. These conferences focused on preparing plans or platforms of action that would promote social progress, raise standards of living, and enlarge the realm of human freedom, as called for in the Charter of the United Nations.

Whether this will happen in the year 2000 and beyond could very much be determined by what we do now, in 1995, to prepare the way. For we are called upon to set a course for the United Nations that will steer it toward that goal and shore it up against the challenges it will face.

We shall not be working in isolation, for the eyes of the world will be on us. Watching most intently will be the poor, the unemployed, children, older people, the illiterate, people with disabilities, refugees, displaced persons and men and women everywhere who, for whatever reason, are unjustly excluded from sharing fully in the life of society. All will be watching to see if the United Nations' and Governments' commitments and pledges made at these conferences will be fulfilled. Ultimately, they - those without a voice - will judge whether the allocation of enormous human and financial resources to these meetings was worthwhile.

Mr. Chairman:

ECOSOC established the Commission for Social Development in 1946 to advise it on social policies of a general character and, in particular, on all matters in the social field not covered by the specialized inter-governmental agencies. The commission met annually up to 1971, and since then biennially. We believe that in order for the Commission for Social Development to fulfill all its functions and new responsibilities, including the follow-up to the Summit, it is now necessary to revert to annual meetings.

The Copenhagen Programme of Action invited the Economic and Social Council to review the mandate, agenda and composition of the Commission for Social Development, including the possibility of strengthening it. At its thirty-fourth session, the Commission adopted some recommendations which would strengthen and revitalize it, better preparing it to implement and follow-up the Summit agreements.

The Economic and Social Council discussed this issue in its substantive session in July and adopted resolution 34/4 which requested the Secretary General to convene a special session of the Commission to review the mandate, agenda and composition of the Commission, including consideration of an expansion of its membership and the annualization of its meetings, as well as of its reporting system and effectiveness of its methods of work. The resolution also recommended that the mandate of the Commission should be adapted, taking into account the relationship between social and economic development.

In this context, Mr. Chairman, my delegation would like to note that the Commission for Social Development is the focal point for dealing with the issue of ageing within the United Nations system. One of the mandates of the Commission is the monitoring of international plans and programmes of action, including the International Plan of Action and Ageing.

My delegation, which has been a member of the Commission since 1987, has been especially concerned with championing the integration of older persons into the life of society, an issue that had been for too long overlooked.

In the resolution 48/98 of December 1993, the General Assembly requested the Secretary-General to draft a conceptual framework of a programme for the preparation and observance of the International Year of Older Persons in 1999 and to submit it to the General Assembly, through the Commission of Social Development, for its consideration at its 50th session.

The observance of the Year in 1999 is the next stage in the evolution of the United Nations Programme on Ageing. The all-encompassing theme of "towards a society for all ages" opens the Year wide for the participation of all generations and organizations, large and small, from all sectors of society. It will send a message that we value contributions to the social good from all ages, at the same time helping to foster dialogue between the generations, thus strengthening social harmony. This celebration should bring us closer to the goal of an inclusive society -- one that maximizes everyone's potential for everyone's benefit.

Our delegation welcomes and endorses the conceptual framework of the programme for the preparation and observance of the Year (document A/50/114) as a first and most important step.

As the focal point on ageing within the system, the Commission for Social Development, which is served by the Department of Policy Coordination and Sustainable Development, will have to contribute substantially to the preparation and observance of the Year. In order to be equipped to handle this task and facilitate its work, our delegation will be making a number of proposals when the Commission meets for its special session, probably at the beginning of February 1996.

The main aspects of our proposals will be the following:

(1) Putting the item entitled "International Year of Older Persons: towards a society for all ages" in its agenda in every session up to the year 2000 because the preparation and observance of the Year in 1999 requires yearly consideration.

(2) The overall monitoring of the implementation of the Summit, notable on the three core issues - poverty, employment, integration - should make explicit reference, as appropriate, to the situation of older persons.

(3) Relationships should be established between the Commission for Social Development and other functional bodies, including the Commission on Population and Development as well as programmes and specialized agencies of the United Nations.

(4) Non-governmental organizations and representatives of the private sector having a particular interest in the question of ageing or having an impact on the situation of the elderly, should be invited to participate, in a manner to be elaborated, in the work of the Commission.

(5) There should be an intergovernmental working group of the Commission, ad hoc and open-ended, and as informal as possible, to assist the Commission in this domain.

Mr. Chairman:

My delegation again reiterates the importance of resolution 34/4 of the Commission for Social Development and trusts that the proposals that our delegation will make in the special session of the Commission will have the support of all Member States.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman.