GENEVA -- After intense negotiations on social remedies for poverty and other destructive side effects of globalization, the United Nations has hammered out an international policy pact that can make the world economy less turbulent, less cruel and much more fair.
The agreement, which capped the General Assembly's five-day special session at the Palais des Nations, is a turning point in a process that began at the 1995 World Summit on Social Development in Copenhagen. At that time, 117 heads of state declared war on world poverty, unemployment and social disintegration. The U.N. meeting here this week was a five-year followup session to assess world social trends since Copenhagen -- many of which are alarming -- and to endorse unprecedented measures to intensify a coordinated antipoverty effort.
Worldwide, 1.2 billion people survive on less than $1 per day. Recent financial speculation has caused chaos in economies in Asia, Russia and Brazil. Social services such as health and education have been slashed by fledgling democratic governments faced with bankers' demands that they repay loans incurred by repressive regimes in the past. Diseases such as HIV/AIDS and environmental damage are taking a devastating toll on poor countries' populations. Meanwhile, overseas development assistance from wealthy countries has declined far below announced targets.