Social issues

Concluding its fiftieth session today, the Commission for Social Development recommended seven draft resolutions for adoption by the Economic and Social Council, covering topics that ranged from the mainstreaming of disability into the international development agenda, to the priority theme for the next session.

In a brief meeting today, the Commission for Social Development considered a proposed programme of work for the Division for Social Policy and Development for the biennium 2014-2015, which was to be “more precise, transparent, and measurable” than in previous years.

Young people around the world are deeply concerned about a lack of job opportunities and are calling for increased investment in that area, according to the latest World Youth Report, issued today by the United Nations. In the aftermath of the economic crisis, the global youth unemployment rate saw its largest annual increase on record in 2009, resulting in around 75.8 million unemployed youth.

Speakers in the Commission for Social Development stressed today the importance of tackling youth unemployment, which was one of the main drivers of mass protests around the world, affecting both developed and developing countries. While youth had previously been disproportionately affected by unemployment, the current crises and trends had exacerbated the severity of the problem, they said.

Sidelined for too long, the rights of people with disabilities must be fully integrated into the development policy road maps to be hammered out at the upcoming United Nations Conference on Sustainable Development and at next year’s General Assembly High-level Meeting on Disability and Development, Shuaib Chalklen, Special Rapporteur on Disability, told the Commission for Social Development today.

Decent and productive employment — coupled with safety nets for protecting the most vulnerable — should be at the core of efforts to eradicate poverty, speakers said today as the Commission for Social Development continued its general debate, while warning that global economic woes now threatened the very existence of such initiatives.

As the gap between rich and poor widened and one third of the global workforce remained either unemployed or mired in poverty, the international community must ramp up action to create jobs, ensure social protection and foster economic recovery, Deputy Secretary-General Asha-Rose Migiro told the Commission for Social Development as it opened its fiftieth session today.

Poverty eradication, full and productive employment and socially inclusive policies will take centre stage at the fiftieth session of the Commission for Social Development when it meets at United Nations Headquarters in New York from 1 to 10 February.

The Commission for Social Development wrapped up its forty-ninth session today by approving without a vote five draft resolutions calling for wide-ranging steps, from support for the New Partnership for Africa’s Development and the upcoming review of the action plan on ageing to improving the lot of youth, persons with disabilities and families.

The Commission for Social Development took up five draft resolutions today as it approached the end of its forty-ninth session, built around the theme of poverty eradication.