The Opening Session of the Commission for Social Development’s 63rd Session
The Economic and Social Council of the United Nations (ECOSOC) oversees a variety of subsidiary bodies related to economic and social development in all of its diverse forms. One of the Functional Commissions that ECOSOC oversees each year particularly related to social development is the Commission for Social Development (CSocD). This year, from 10 to 14 February 2025, CSocD held its 63rd Session (CSocD63).
The priority theme for CSocD63 was, “Strengthening solidarity, social inclusion and social cohesion to accelerate the delivery of the commitments of the Copenhagen Declaration on Social Development and Programme of Action of the World Summit for Social Development as well as the implementation of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development.” The Copenhagen Declaration on Social Development was originally adopted back in 1995 when world leaders met in Copenhagen for the World Summit for Social Development. The Declaration listed 10 commitments adopted by consensus to drive social development around the world, and the respective Programme of Action enumerated concrete ways that Member States could implement the 10 commitments included in the Declaration.
Group photo of global leaders attending the World Summit for Social Development in Copenhagen in 1995
Development has always been a core pillar of the United Nations since its founding in 1945. However, economic and environmental development have frequently been prioritized, leaving social development on the backburner. While economic development centers money, and environmental development centers nature, social development takes a “people-centered” approach and centers the human being in development. For example, some of the “people-centered” commitments made in the 1995 Copenhagen Declaration include eradicating poverty, promoting full employment, fostering social integration, achieving gender equality, and accessing quality education.
Side event hosted by the German Youth Delegates at the German Permanent Mission titled, “Strengthening Youth Engagement from the CSocD to the World Social Summit”
The priority of social development is the implementation of and accessibility to social protections. In simple terms, social protections are safety nets provided by governments to people at various points of their lives. CSocD specifically focuses on the provision of social protections as a State duty, and it is the duty of the Member State to ensure that businesses and private individuals are following their commitments. A variety of thematic side events held in alignment with CSocD63 indicated that social protections could/should apply during the following scenarios:
- Social protections could apply during times of crisis, such as when a person is experiencing unemployment, poverty, homelessness, hunger, injury, sickness, disability, disaster, or any other threat that may increase one’s social vulnerability.
- Social protections could also apply during foreseeable events, such as maternity leave after having a baby, affordable childcare, and retirement/pension benefits for older people.
- Social protections also include rights to protections that should apply to everyone throughout the entirety of their normal life cycle, including affordable healthcare, quality education, and decent work.
On the fourth day of CSocD63, Human Rights Now’s UN Youth Representative, Larissa Truchan, was selected by the UN Department of Global Communications to ask a question during the “Ministerial Forum on Strengthening solidarity and social cohesion.” Her question (which can be viewed in the UN Web TV Recording starting around 1:21:00) focused on civil society participation at the upcoming Second World Summit for Social Development, to be held in November 2025 in Qatar. Excerpts from Larissa’s comments and questions, which could not be presented in full due to time constraints, are as follows:
Larissa Truchan (UN Youth Representative)
“The UN Charter opens with ‘we the peoples,’ but will the Second World Social Summit be open for the people to participate in? While the First World Social Summit in 1995 was widely known as the “People’s Summit,” the degree to which civil society will be granted permission to participate in the upcoming summit in Qatar remains undefined. My question – Who will be invited? Whose voices will be prioritized?”
Larissa further highlighted the importance of Member States implementing the commitments defined in the Summits that they host:
“I cannot emphasize enough that Member States who choose to host these Summits rooted in human rights and social development actually live up to the commitments established during the Summits. I applaud Qatar for the huge progress it has made in its levels of social development since the Copenhagen Declaration in 1995. However, we need to ensure that social protections are not only limited to citizens, but to migrants, and in particular migrant workers as well. Social protection is a human right that everyone deserves, no matter where they may come from. My question – how can we ensure host countries to Summits fully implement the commitments of these Summits?”
Rola A. A. H. Dashti of the Economic and Social Commission for Western Asia at the “Ministerial Forum on Strengthening solidarity and social cohesion”
In response, Rodrigo Martinez of the Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC) reaffirmed that civil society participation is key and very important in the process leading up to the Second World Social Summit, as well as after. Both Srinivas Tata of the Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (ESCAP) and Rola A. A. H. Dashti of the Economic and Social Commission for Western Asia (ESCWA) noted that they have hosted regional consultations on priorities of the Second World Social Summit with various stakeholders, including civil society, though liquidity constraints and budget cuts have impacted the depth of these consultations. Magdalena Sepúlveda Carmona, Director of the United Nations Research Institute for Social Development (UNRISD), encouraged Member States to carry out National Consultations ahead of the Second World Social Summit to understand what their own citizens perceive to be social development challenges and better inform the priorities of their delegations.
Larissa Truchan (UN Youth Representative) with youth delegates attending CSocD63 from around the world
Given that Commitment 4 of the Copenhagen Declaration is social integration, it is absolutely necessary that disadvantaged and vulnerable groups are included in CSocD processes as well as in the lead up to the Second World Social Summit, especially groups heavily impacted by social protections. This includes but is not limited to younger and older persons, persons with disabilities, the LGBTQ+ community, persons facing poverty and homelessness, women and girls, racial and ethnic minorities, and persons from developing countries and the Global South. As was reiterated throughout the week, “nothing about these groups, without these groups.”