29 May 1985

23rd plenary meeting

Implementation of the Declaration on Social Progress and Development

The Economic and Social Council

Recommends to the General Assembly the adoption of the following draft resolution:

"The General Assembly,

"Recalling the Declaration on Social Progress and Development, based on the Charter of the United Nations and solemnly proclaimed on 11 December 1969,

"Recalling also its resolutions 2543 (XXIV) of 11 December 1969 and 34/59 of 29 November 1979 on the implementation of the Declaration,

"Recalling further its resolutions 3201 (S-VI) and 3202 (S-VI) of 1 May 1974, containing the Declaration and the Programme of Action on the Establishment of a New International Economic Order, 35/56 of 5 December 1980 containing the International Development Strategy for the Third United Nations Development Decade, 33/48 of 14 December 1978 on world social development, and 34/152 of 17 December 1979 and 37/54 of 3 December 1982 on the world social situation,

"Convinced that international peace and security, on the one hand, and social progress and economic development, on the other, are closely interdependent and influence each other,

"Bearing in mind that the ultimate aim of development is the constant improvement of the social situation of entire populations and ensuring their full participation in the process of development and the fair distribution of the benefits therefrom,

"Reaffirming that social progress and development shall be founded on respect for the dignity and value of the human person and shall ensure the promotion of human rights and social justice,

"Aware of the fact that, 15 years after the adoption and proclamation of the Declaration on Social Progress and Development, its main objectives, embodied also in the International Development Strategy for the Third United Nations Development Decade, inter alia, elimination of unemployment, hunger, malnutrition and poverty, eradication of illiteracy, assurance of the right to universal access to culture, provision of health protection of the entire population, provision of free, universal education at the primary level, and promotion of human rights and social justice, have not yet been universally realized,

"Recalling that the peoples of the United Nations expressed in the United Nations Charter their determination to save future generations from the scourge of war and to promote social progress and better standards of life in larger freedom,

"Fully conscious of the urgent need of intensifying the efforts by the international community and relevant organs, organizations and bodies of the United Nations system to achieve the objectives set forth in the Declaration on Social Progress and Development and in the International Development Strategy for the Third United Nations Development Decade,

"1. Reaffirms the lasting validity and importance of the principles and objectives proclaimed in the Declaration on Social Progress and Development;

"2. Urges all States and relevant organs, organizations and bodies of the United Nations system to take the Declaration resolutely into consideration and in their policies, plans, programmes and the implementation machinery increasingly to take into consideration, as far as they are concerned, the principles, objectives, means and methods of the Declaration;

"3. Urges all Governments to take into account the provisions of the Declaration in their bilateral and multilateral relations in the field of development;

"4. Recommends that international organizations and agencies concerned with development should consider the Declaration as an important international document in the formulation of strategies and programmes designed to achieve social progress and development, and that it may be taken into consideration in the drafting of instruments that the United Nations may undertake in the field of social progress and development;

"5. Requests the Secretary-General to prepare a substantive report on possible ways and means of increasing the contribution of the relevant organs, organizations and bodies of the United Nations system, as far as they are concerned, to achieving the full realization of the principles and objectives contained in the Declaration and to submit it, through the Commission for Social Development and the Economic and Social Council, to the General Assembly at its forty-second session;

"6. Further requests the Secretary-General to continue to inform the General Assembly, in a summary form in annexes to the reports on the world social situation, of the measures adopted by Governments - not included in other reports provided on a regular basis - and by the international organizations concerned for the realization of the provisions of the Declaration and for the implementation of the present resolution."