24 May 1989

15th plenary meeting

Guiding Principles for Developmental Social Welfare Policies and Programmes in the Near Future and follow-up of the Interregional Consultation on Developmental Social Welfare Policies and Programmes

The Economic and Social Council,

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

"The General Assembly,

"Recalling the Universal Declaration of Human Rights proclaimed by the Assembly in its resolution 217 A (III) of 10 December 1948, the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights and the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, adopted by the Assembly in its resolution 2200 A (XXI) of 16 December 1966, and the Declaration on Social Progress and Development, proclaimed by the Assembly in its resolution 2542 (XXIV) of 11 December 1969, as well as other relevant international instruments,

"Reaffirming the importance and value of strategies and plans of action concerning the situation of women, aging, youth, the disabled, crime prevention and drug abuse,

"Recalling its resolution 42/125 of 7 December 1987, in which, inter alia, it endorsed the Guiding Principles for Developmental Social Welfare Policies and Programmes in the Near Future and requested the Secretary-General to take the necessary steps to ensure follow-up action to the Guiding Principles,

"Stressing the importance of Economic and Social Council resolution 1987/48 of 28 May 1987, by which the Secretary-General was requested to redeploy resources to ensure adequate and appropriate follow-up of the Interregional Consultation on Developmental Social Welfare Policies and Programmes,

"Mindful of the critical importance of practical social welfare questions and the need to provide adequate resources to deal with them,

"Further concerned about the lack of follow-up in the regions of Asia and the Pacific, Latin America and the Caribbean, Africa and Western Asia,

"1. Reaffirms the validity of the Guiding Principles for Developmental Social Welfare Policies and Programmes in the Near Future as an appropriate framework for future action in the field of social welfare and development;

"2. Calls upon Governments to make use of the Guiding Principles, to apply the recommendations contained in the Guiding Principles, as appropriate, within their national structures, needs and objectives, to inform the Secretary-General of problems in the national implementation process and to accelerate the follow-up of the Interregional Consultation;

"3. Requests the executive secretaries of the regional commissions to give particular attention to the recommendations for action at the regional level contained in the Guiding Principles;

"4. Urges the Secretary-General and all organizations of the United Nations system concerned to include the implementation of the Guiding Principles in their respective programmes of work and to assist Governments, particularly those of the developing countries, in formulating appropriate social welfare policies and in setting up effective programmes according to their needs;

"5. Requests the Secretary-General to strengthen the follow-up of the Interregional Consultation, focusing on, inter alia, integrated, family- and community-oriented cost-effective innovations in the design of social welfare policies and programmes;

"6. Requests the Secretary-General to strengthen technical support and co-operation to Governments, especially those of developing countries, focusing on the policy, planning, administration and training aspects of developmental social welfare;

"7. Reiterates the request to the Secretary-General to redeploy resources for undertaking measures to follow up the Interregional Consultation;

"8. Recommends the organization of further regional expert group meetings devoted to issues raised in the Guiding Principles, such as the first regional follow-up international expert meeting, held at Bonn in January 1989;

"9. Recommends that the efforts to reinforce the functioning of intergovernmental machinery in the social sector of the United Nations should continue in line with the view expressed in paragraph 95 of the report of the Interregional Consultation;

"10. Decides that social issues as conceived in the Guiding Principles should become a major part of the international development strategy for the fourth United Nations development decade;

"11. Welcomes the report of the Secretary-General on the results and follow-up of the Interregional Consultation on Developmental Social Welfare Policies and Programmes;

"12. Takes note of the progress made so far in developing the United Nations Office at Vienna as the nucleus for social policy and development;

"13. Invites funding agencies within the United Nations system to consider readjustment and appropriate increase of their input of resources in the field of social development to fully reflect the changing world situation and actual requirements;

"14. Requests the Secretary-General:

"(a) To enhance the monitoring functions of and within the United Nations Office at Vienna and to maintain effective co-ordination between its individual units;

"(b) To summarize, maintain and publicize an overview of social components and internationally accepted norms of the many international plans, covenants, declarations and strategies in the social field;

"(c) To ensure that all United Nations organizations consult the Centre for Social Development and Humanitarian Affairs on the social components of their developmental programmes and projects;

"(d) To reflect appropriately the recommendations of the Guiding Principles in the draft medium-term plan for the period 1992-1997 and in the draft programme budget for the biennium 1990-1991;

"(e) To report to the General Assembly at its forty-sixth session on the progress achieved in implementing and following up the Guiding Principles and the present resolution;

"15. Decides to include in the provisional agenda of its forty-sixth session an item entitled 'Implementation of the Guiding Principles for Developmental Social Welfare Policies and Programmes in the Near Future'."