Social Justice in an Open World: The Role of the United Nations
A similar trend prevails with regard to efforts focused on the rights and situation of children, at least within the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF), and an integrated approach is increasingly being applied in activities undertaken on behalf of indigenous peoples and persons with disabilities. The Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues, a subsidiary of the Economic and Social Council, has a comprehensive mandate and an integrated secretariat. The Department of Economic and Social Affairs, working in close cooperation with the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights, has assisted the General Assembly in the preparation of the Draft Comprehensive and Integral lnternational Convention on Protection and Promotion of the Rights and Dignity of Persons with Disabilities. There is some political support for the idea of allowing the United Nations do meaningful work along these same lines with regard to the issue of migrant workers. At present, there is a relative lack of momentum in this area; the lnternational Convention on the Protection of the Rights of All Migrant Workers and Members of Their F a m i l i e ~which , ~ ~ entered into force in 2003, has been ratified by only a limited number of countries, and the Commission on Population and Development has a mandate to act upon relevant provisions adopted by the International Conference on Population and Development in Cairo in 1994, but there have been few debates within the Commission on the subject of migration. In spite of the various challenges faced over the years, the fundamental commitment to achieving global equality and justice has not wavered. The United Nations contributed significantly to the general lessening of inequalities during the decades following the Second World War, up until the great ideological shift of the mid1980s. As already noted, growth with equity was more than a slogan. The Organization's lnternational Development Strategies reflected a number of intracountry and intercountry distributional objectives. For example, developing countries were to be offered technical assistance in setting up taxation and social security systems. All the world conferences that attempted, in the wake of the landmark United Nations Conference on the Human Environment in Stockholm in 1972, to shape the international agenda and create a global consciousness had at their core the objectives of equity and equality within and between countries. The contribution of the United Nations to social justice has been hindered but not rendered totally ineffective by the split between human rights activities and development activities. The Organization remains in a position to act effectively in the pursuit of justice when it comes to issues of great magnitude, such as the situation of women in the world.
5.3 The World Summit for Social Development: an attempt to reconcile social justice and the protection of human rights The World Summit for Social Development, held in Copenhagen in March 1995, represented an attempt to create a coherent vision of the world and its future through the integration and reconciliation of all the aspirations, interests and ideological cur-