UN Human Rights Treaties

United Nations
GENERAL ASSEMBLY
FORTY-THIRD SESSION Official Records*

THIRD COMMITTEE
16th meeting
held on
Friday, 21 October 1988
at 10 a.m.
Now York

SUMMARY RECORD OF THE 16th MEETING
Chairman: Mr. ABULHASAN (Kuwait)
later: Mr. GALAL (Egypt)
CONTENTS
AGENDA ITEM 89: QUESTION OF AGING (continued)
AGENDA ITEM 90: POLICIES AND PROGRAMMES INVOLVING YOUTH (continued)
AGENDA ITEM 92: IMPLEMENTATION OF THE WORLD PROGRAMME OF ACTION CONCERNING DISABLED PERSONS AND THE UNITED NATIONS DECADE OF DISABLED PERSONS (continued)
AGENDA ITEM 93: CRIME PREVENTION AND CRIMINAL JUSTICE (continued)
AGENDA ITEM 107: FAMILIES IN THE DEVELOPMENT PROCESS (continued)
AGENDA ITEM 144: RESPONSIBILITY OF STATES TO BAN IN THEIR TERRITORY, AND TO REFRAIN FROM INSTIGATING OR SUPPORTING IN THE TERRITORY OF OTHER STATES, CHAUVINISTIC, RACIST AND OTHER MANIFESTATIONS THAT MAY CAUSE DISCORD BETWEEN PEOPLES AND INVOLVEMENT OF GOVERNMENTS AND THE MASS MEDIA IN COMBATING SUCH MANIFESTATIONS AND IN EDUCATING PEOPLFS AND YOUTH IN THE SPIRIT OF PEACEFUL CO-OPERATION AND INTERNATIONAL ENTENTE; AND EVALUATION OF THE IMPLEMENTATION OF THE DECLARATION ON THE PROMOTION AMONG YOUTH OF THE IDEALS OF PEACE, MUTUAL RESPECT AND UNDERSTANDING BETWEEN PEOPLES (continued)
AGENDA ITEM 87: IMPLEMENTATION OF THE PROGRAMME OF ACTION FOR THE SECOND DECADE TO COMBAT RACISM AND RACIAL DISCRIMINATION (continued)
AGENDA ITEM 88: ADVERSE CONSEQUENCES FOR THE ENJOYMENT OF HUMAN RIGHTS OF POLITICAL, MILITARY, ECONOMIC AND OTHER FORMS OF ASSISTANCE GIVEN TO THE RACIST AND COLONIALIST REGIME OF SOUTH AFRICA (continued)
AGENDA ITEM 91: ELIMINATION OF ALL FORMS OF RACIAL DISCRIMINATION (continued)
AGENDA ITEM 96: IMPORTANCE OF THE UNIVERSAL REALIZATION OF THE RIGHT OF PEOPLES TO SELF-DETERMINATION AND OF THE SPEEDY GRANTING OF INDEPENDENCE TO COLONIAL COUNTRIES AND PEOPLES FOR THE EFFECTIVE GUARANTEE AND OBSERVANCE OF HUMAN RIGHTS (continued)
Distr. GENERAL A/C.3/43/SR.16 25 October 1988
ORIGINAL: ENGLISH

A/C.3/43/SR.16 English
Page 2
The meeting was called to order at 10.15 a.m.
AGENDA ITEM 89: QUESTION OF AGING (A/43/583) (continued)
AGENDA ITEM 90: POLICIES AND PROGRAMMES INVOLVING YOUTH (continued) (A/43/601)
AGENDA ITEM 92: IMPLEMENTATION OF THE WORLD PROGRAMME OF ACTION 1. 1CERNING DISABLED PERSONS AND THE UNITED NATIONS DECADE OF DISABLED PERSONS (continued) (A/43/3, A/43/634)
AGENDA ITEM 93: CRIME PREVENTION AND CRIMINAL JUSTICE (continued) (A/43/3, A/43/354 and Corr.l, A/43/370, A/43/572)
AGENDA ITEM 107: FAMILIES IN THE DEVELOPMENT PROCESS (continued) (A/43/570)
AGENDA ITEM 144: RESPONSIBILITY OF STATES TO BAN IN THEIR TERRITORY, AND TO REFRAIN FROM INSTIGATING OR SUPPORTING IN THE TERRITORY OF OTHER STATES, CHAUVINISTIC, RACIST AND OTHER MANIFESTATIONS THAT MAY CAUSE DISCORD BETWEEN PEOPLES AND INVOLVEMENT OF GOVERNMENTS AND THE MASS MEDIA IN COMBATING SUCH MANIFESTATIONS AND IN EDUCATING PEOPLES AND YOUTH IN THE SPIRIT OF PEACEFUL CO-OPERATION AND INTERNATIONAL ENTENTE; AND EVALUATION OF THE IMPLEMENTATION OF THE DECLARATION ON THE PROMOTION AMONG YOUTH OF THE IDEALS OF PEACE, MUTUAL RESPECT AND UNDERSTANDING BETWEEN PEOPLES (continued)
1. Mrs. BONDAREVA (Byelorussian Soviet Socialist Republic) said that the Byelorussian SSR had taken an active part in the formulation and adoption of the International Plan of Action on Aging and the World Programme of Action concerning Disabled Persons, and was consistently implementing the principles and recommendations contained in those documents. The experience it had acquired in solving problems of improving the standard of living of the elderly and the disabled demonstrated that such problems needed to be considered at the national level, above all within the context of State economic and social development plans.
2. Under perestroika, priority was being given to the development of the social sphere with the goal of increasingly satisfying the needs of the people and implementing the principles of social justice. Resources from the State budget targeted for public consumption funds were used to improve the material situation of the elderly and the disabled. With the participation of non-governmental organizations and labour collectives, the State ensured the growth and fair distribution of those funds. Virtually every year the Government devoted attention to further improving the social welfare system, increasing pensions and allowances and granting additional allowances to the disabled and war veterans. No contributions were required from the working people. In 1981-1985, expenditure on all types of social welfare had increased 1.3 times. Currently, a new law on pensions was being drafted; the basic goal was to improve the well-being of pensioners and work out a pension scheme which would fully reflect the contribution made by workers to social production. A major programme was being implemented to improve working conditions, reduce the incidence of disability and expand treatment and rehabilitation.

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(Mrs. Bondareya, Byelorussian SSR)
3. A number of State bodies, non-governmental organizations and trade union bodies were involved in addressing the issues of the elderly and the disabled in the Republic, providing them with active and socially useful work and improving their living conditions and medical, communal and commercial services.
4. Approaches to solving the problems of the elderly and the disabled varied in accordance with socio-economic conditions in individual countries. An exchange of the varied experience acquired in different countries would help enhance effective international co-operation in that sphere, and should be one of the main tasks of the United Nations, the Centre for Social Development and Humanitarian Affairs and other international bodies concerned with social questions.
5. The Byelorussian SSR supported the conclusions and recommendations reached by the Global Meeting of Experts to Review the Implementation of the World Programme of Action concerning Disabled Persons and also the emphasis in the Secretary-General's report (A/43/634) on the need to ensure maximum efficiency in the activities of social bodies in summarizing and disseminating national experience and improving activities in the field of information. The Byelorussian SSR also supported the proposal to draft an international convention on the elimination of all forms of discrimination against the disabled, which would help intensify activities within the framework of the Decade and promote more complete implementation of the goals of the World Programme of Action concerning Disabled Persons.
6. Mr. VAGLIANI (United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO)) said that youth questions were being accorded priority in the drafting of UNESCO'R Third Medium-Term Plan, 1990-1995. Moreover, immediate programme innovations were being implemented to step up UNESCO's activities as a clearing house for information and research on youth and to improve youth exchange services.

7. In UNESCO, questions such as youth could be dealt with only through a rigorously interdisciplinary approach which placed many skills at the disposal of Member States and professional constituencies for efficient problem-solving. Disciplinary and sectoral barriers had to be broken down to focus the scarce resources on priority activities. The skills and experience acquired in the specialized agencies and programmes of the United Nations must be brought together to a point of efficient co-operation. UNESCO was committed to inter-agency co-operation, both in operational activities at the field level and in clearing-house services and research in the youth field. Its stance was open, co-operative and non-competitive. As had been demonstrated by the International Youth Year, youth issues and young people themselves required a multifaceted approach that could only come from teamwork within the United Nations system.
8. UNESCO was also committed to working more closely with international non-governmental youth organizations and other professional partners, not only in programme formulation but also in implementation and field operations. It hoped to work with Member States, the academic community and professionals in identifying partners throughout the world who could help UNESCO understand youth better in regional and local situations and bring UNESCO's activities to the local level. It

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(Mr. Vagliani, UNESCO)
was in linking UNESCO's global perspective with local concerns that the inventiveness and creativity of young people could be unharnessed for the solution of many of the problems facing them.
0. UNESCO's youth activities would bear the imprint of dignity for each individual and the need for renewed and reinforced solidarity among young people and between the generations, UNESCO's youth programme in the next medium-term plan would be cross-organizational, requiring that a youth dimension be present in each sectoral activity of the organization. Thus, disciplinary or sectoral levels would be less important than the quality of expertise and services and the level of professionalism offered to Member States in the field of youth. One of three "mobilizing projects" under the next medium-term plan was a project entitled "Youth and the Culture of the Future". It would be a special fixed-term, organization-wide effort to intensify research, cultural exchange and services for development among young people; it aimed to increase the ability of young people to know and understand other cultures and peoples through organized exchanges of a serious kind, which too often had been the privilege of the more industrialized countries. Youth from the developing countries needed to learn more about other developing countries, as well as about] the developed world, and there must also be innovative efforts to bridge the gap of possible distrust and misunderstanding that separated the young people of East and Hast.
10. UNESCO was also beginning the process of studying how to adapt the formal education system to the need for young people to find productive work on leaving school or completing their higher education, a problem that existed in both developing and developed societies. Seen from the perspective of sustainable development, work itself, and the ways in which resources were used, might well require entirely new attitudes about the interaction between human beings and nature if the human race was to survive into the next century. A new social and environmental consciousness was needed in which the teachings of scientific investigation could finally be acted on by decision makers and the public at large.
11. Young people's difficulties in getting Governments and other institutional bodies to listen to them sometimes boiled over into frustration and anger. UNESCO was ready to commit itself fully to an interdisciplinary, inter-sectoral and inter-agency response to the needs of Member States. Youth represented such a large proportion of the total world population that it was no longer possible to ignore the influence it was likely to have on the future course of world civilization. All available expertise within the system must be drawn on to help develop the youth policies and services requested by Member States. As the spirit of inter-agency co-operation grew, the multifaceted nature of youth problems would more and more automatically generate a multi-agency response to the needs of Member States.
12. Mr. NOWORYTA (Poland) said that, as the originator of the proposal to proclaim an international year of the family, Poland was gratified by the considerable support which the proposal had received. Critic of the idea had failed to offer alternatives that would have a similar moral authority or provide an equally clear indication of the concern of most Governments.

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(Mr. Noworyta. Poland)
13. Everyone could agree on the need to strengthen the family as the basic unit and foundation of society and the only possible means of souring social development in its total sense. Previous international years on such themes as woman, youth, disabled parsons and the child related to the family; it was time for the international community to look at the family in its totality. Everything possible must be done to strengthen the family and prepare it to face the challenges and pressures of the times: stronger families were the most effective preventive measure against instability, crime, juvenile delinquency, drug and alcohol addiction and insensitivity to the needs of dependent family members such as aged and disabled persons. The family helped instill a set of values, norms of behavior and knowledge of the outside world. It must be aided by appropriate institutions in the exercise of its socio-educational function and share responsibility for shaping a system of values embodying the idea of the peaceful coexistence of nations and respect for customs and cultural, religious and racial diversity. Because of the emotional factor of mutual trust, the family was a unique institution in the social initiation of children and young people; it must take on a much greater role in enhancing awareness of community and of the responsibility of the entire world for the fate of the planet, and it must give priority to the preservation of peace, coexistence and the elimination of the nuclear threat.
14. Individual societies gave rise to different forms of family life and differing problems and family philosophies were therefore dominant in different regions of the world. An international year of the family should be based on a broad definition of family and should include single parent families as well as other families that ware not typical nuclear families; it should also be sensitive to cultural differences.
15. The discharge of the educational and socializing functions of the family was inconceivable without the necessary material resources. Families' material needs and methods of meeting them were closely linked with socio-economic factors and the problems afflicting the world economy. The precarious international economic situation aggravated disparities between living conditions. Unemployment in some countries contributed to external migration and interfered with the normal functioning of the family. It led to disintegration of the family, deteriorating living conditions and negative social phenomena such as ghettos,rime, alcoholism and drug addiction. Comprehensive methods needed to be elaborated to offset the negative effects of migration and assist emigrant families.
16. Changes in social structure were occurring at a rate unknown to earlier generations and inevitably affected faintly life. Matrimonial conflicts, divorce and out-of-wedlock childbirth tended to increase the number of fatherless families and led to grave social problems; such problems also resulted from cohabitation. Hew principles and standards must be worked out for the family, in harmony with new conditions in the world, and must be given preferential treatment in educational activities and social policies. There was a compelling need for a more comprehensive and sustained research effort to identify the needs of the family, the underlying causes threatening its welfare and the phenomena which tended to

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(Mr. Noworyta. Poland)
Disintegrate it. There were a number of common factors relevant to most of the world's families, and an exchange of experience between different countries would therefore produce positive results in the form of specific family-related projects. The proclamation of an international year of the family would be instrumental in achieving such goals.
17. An important objective of such a year should be to draw world-wide attention to the importance of the family as the basic unit of society and to increase the awareness of Governments, policy makers, administrators and researchers of the importance of the family, the various forms of families and the need to support and assist families. The needs of the family should be reflected in all areas of policy-making, with special emphasis on the importance of individual family members, particularly the need to improve the status of women. Governments should be encouraged to improve public policies in order to provide more effective support and programmes for families; studies should be undertaken of the development of a country and its economy in order to ensure that the basic needs and conditions of survival of families were met.
18. Mrs. NOSE (Japan) said that there were some 500 million disabled persons throughout the world; they must be assured full participation and equality. It was of the utmost significance that the Global Meeting of Experts held at the mid-point of the United Nations Decade of Disabled Persons had given further impetus to the World Programme of Action by adopting a report containing various proposals for action. Those proposals needed to be adequately reviewer", however, to determine how urgent and necessary they were to the effectiveness of the Decade. Unfortunately, the Voluntary Fund for the United Nations Decade of Disabled Persons, which was important in supporting innovative projects and activities had been considerably depleted. Her Government, following contributions totaling
$US 200,000 in 1981 and 1982, had made a contribution of $US 100,000 for 1988 and was considering a further contribution.
19. In 1987, following the establishment of the Long-term Plan for Measures for Disabled Persons in 1982, her Government had adopted a new set of measures for the second half of the Decade of Disabled Persons based on the core concepts of rehabilitation and prevention of disability and covering numerous important areas. It was essential that each Government should have a coherent system for co-operating both with disabled persons themselves and with non-governmental organizations; her Government had continued its co-operation with non-governmental organizations at both the international and national levels. It had made a financial contribution of approximately $US 70,000 to the Second Asian Pacific Regional Assembly Leadership Training Seminar, held in August 1988 and sponsored by the Disabled People's International, a non-governmental organization. In September 1988, the sixteenth World Congress of Rehabilitation International had been held at Tokyo under the auspices of her Government, with 2,800 participants.
20. The adoption in 1982 of the International Plan of Action on Aging had confirmed the importance of the participation of the aged in economic and social activities and had emphasized that the elderly should be integrated as fully as

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(Mrs. Nose. Japan)
possible into the economy, the local community and the family. In Japan, pursuant to the Plan of Action, the Ministerial Meeting for the Welfare of the Elderly was continuing its efforts to promote comprehensive measures for restructuring the overall socio-economic system in preparation for Japan's rapidly aging society. In particular, attention was being given to the elaboration of social welfare policies, including the optimum balancing of self-help and communal or public assistance, as well as cost-effective control of social security systems. The International Conference on Population Aging in the Context of Urbanization, held at Sendai, Japan, in September 1988 under the auspices of the United Nations Population Division and sponsored by the Government of Japan, had studied problems related to the aging of society and urbanization and had adopted a declaration on guidelines to enable cities to deal with the issue. She hoped that the report on the Conference would prove useful to all Member states.
31. Healthy growth of youth and their active participation in society were crucial to the attainment of peace and the development of mankind. In Japan, the National Co-ordinating Committee worked for the objectives of the International Youth Year through the implementation of a variety of plans and programmes. Among the policies adopted by her Government, greater importance had been attached to the promotion of mutual understanding through international exchanges of youth. Under the Japan Overseas Co-operation Volunteers plan, many young people had been sent to developing countries to use their knowledge and technical skills for the benefit of the people there. The great value of the plan lay in its educational impact on young people and its deepening of mutual understanding and friendship abroad.
22. In the field of crime prevention and the treatment of offenders, her Government had always co-operated with the international community. Japan had hosted the United Nations Congress on the Prevention of Crime and the Treatment of Offenders held at Kyoto and, since the Milan Congress in 1985, had taken action to follow up the achievements of the Congress through the various activities of the United Nations Asia and the Far East Institute in Tokyo. Her delegation believed that the exchange of views and experiences among Member States was extremely valuable. Japan was therefore participating actively in preparations for the Eighth Congress, to be held in 1990. She reiterated her Government's determine "-.ion to spare no effort in tackling social and crime issues in full co-operation with the United Nations.
23. Ms. FJELLANGER (Norway) said that, for many years, her delegation had included two youth representatives and accordingly had a particular interest in agenda
item 90. The most important task of those representatives was to share their knowledge and impressions of the work of the United Nations with young people in Norway and to inform them, through the media and their respective organizations, about the unique role which the United Nations played in world society. That the United Nations enjoyed such high standing in Norway was due partly to such direct contacts with it. The second task of the youth representatives in the delegation was to present the perspective of the young generation on the issues under consideration and to advocate a stronger youth involvement in nearly all areas of society.

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(Ms. Fjellanger, Norway)
2i. Youth should be given an opportunity to participate in a meaningful way in political activities at the international level. Separate international conferences for youth could be useful but were not an alternative to direct participation in already established political structures. She therefore hoped that more countries from all regions would in the future include youth representatives in their delegations.
25. If racism and racial discrimination were to be eradicated and solidarity and understanding among peoples promoted, it was important that youth should have the opportunity of international contacts and participation. Participation had been one of the main issues of the International Youth Year, which had involved youth more actively in a broad range of political questions. Political issues such as education, employment, health and housing affected youth in a particularly direct manner and she believed that youth should be more actively involved in solving such problems. That young people had the will and courage to transform their care and concern into action had been proved through such arrangements as Band Aid and Live Aid.
26. Drug abuse and illicit trafficking represented a dangerous threat not only to the young generation but also to the sovereignty and security of States. Information and education were the most important tools to combat drug abuse and it was important that, at both the national and and international levels, youth should participate in the struggle to combat the demand for drugs. Information and education were also the most important tools to control and prevent the spread of AIDS, which was killing a large share of the population aged between 20 and
40 years.
27. The interrelated issues of environment and sustainable development, which had been highlighted by the World Commission on Environment and Development, had come to the top of the global political agenda and would have to be dealt with as a matter of urgency at all levels - national, regional and international - not least within the United Nations system. In its report "Our Common Future", the World Commission had laid particular emphasis, on the participation of youth in promoting the message of sustainable development. The report of the Secretary-General had also stressed the importance of the active participation of youth in following up that report. The majority of the population of the third world were young people and there could be no effective follow-up without their involvement. The emphasis placed by the World Commission on the need for a comprehensive and integrated approach to meeting environmental and developmental challenges was very much in line with the concepts and attitudes of young people.
28. The main task of the United Nations was to stimulate, co-ordinate and provide policy guidance for environmental action throughout the world. One small step by way of example would be for the United Nations to eliminate from its cafeteria the packaging and drinking cups which were a threat to the ozone layer. A reduction of documentation would also help to conserve forests, as would the use of recycled paper.

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(Ms. Fjellanger. Norway)
29. The importance of education in the field of human rights must also be stressed) the young generation must be informed about the rights of individuals and the obligations of States under established human rights instruments.
30. Disabled youth experienced special problems and were in a particularly disadvantageous position; much could be done to alleviate their problems, however. In implementing activities under the United Nations Decade of Disabled Persons, special efforts should be made to secure the participation of the young people and the social integration of the young disabled from an early age.
31. Mr. WOTAWA (Austria) said that his delegation strongly supported the request for additional resources made by the Director-General of the United Nations Office at Vienna (UNOV) in her introductory statement. In particular, further support should be given to UNOV in its capacity as a focal point for youth issues, particularly in assisting Governments in enhancing national capacities for youth work through the provision of policy guidance, technical expertise and direct operational support. The recommendations in paragraphs 17 (e) and (h) of the Secretary-General's report (A/43/601) should be implemented.
32. The Secretary-General had also referred to the work of HOPE 87, to which the Austrian Government had allocated 1.5 million Austrian schillings for the Secretariat's budget in 1989. The project had been designed to promote the participation of youth in income-generating activities. Talks had been initiated between the United Nations and the Government of Austria concerning a proposed letter of understanding, with emphasis on exchanges of information, regular reporting on the work of the Secretariat and the provision of technical assistance to the Secretariat's activities and projects.
33. It was clear from the success of the negotiations concerning the introduction of a single resolution on youth that it was the wish of all delegations to promote the work of the United Nations in that field.
34. His delegation had noted with concern the failure of the Secretariat to implement resolutions calling for the strengthening of the Centre's Aging Unit, which had therefore been frustrated in its central co-ordinating and global focal point role. Despite numerous resolutions, the Aging Unit had suffered staff cuts to the point where its viability was seriously at risk; it could not fulfill its mandate with its current staffing level. Attempts to merge the Aging Unit with other branches in the centre would not improve the situation and would contradict the frequently expressed wish of Member States to maintain the Aging Unit's separate identity. His delegation accordingly urged the Secretariat to give the aging programme the priority requested in recent years. In that connection, Member States should commit themselves to reaching the target of $2 million in contributions to the Trust Fund by 1992, as recommended by the Secretary-General. His delegation supported the Secretary-General's recommendation for a new strategy to revitalize the implementation of the International Plan of Action on Aging through the formulation of national agendas on aging, regional consultations, international technical meetings and high-level intergovernmental meetings.

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(Mr. Wotawa. Austria)
35. The plan for the second half of the United Nations Decade of Disabled Persons was a good basis for discussion; the action called for was the minimum required to ensure progress in the implementation of the World Programme of Action. The possibility of launching a second United Nations Decade of Disabled Persons (1903-2003) should not be excluded. Efforts at the national level must also be strengthened through the establishment of national co-ordinating mechanisms which would function as focal points on disability matters. Disability issues should be reflected not only in special projects but also in overall national planning and programme. It would be highly desirable if an advisory body, such an the one for the International Year of Disabled Persons, could oversee activities for the Decade and meet in conjunction with the General Assembly or the Commission for Social Development until the end of the Decade.
36. Austria favored the holding of. an international year of the family. It was important that awareness of family issues should be increased, in particular at the national, regional and interregional levels. The relevant guiding principles for development of social welfare policies and programmes adopted by the Interregional Consultation held at Vienna in 1987 should be a starting point.
37. The specialized and technical nature of the United Nations programme of work in the area of crime prevention and criminal justice and the importance attached by Member States to those issues should be fully reflected in future measures taken by the Secretary-General. **** had made every effort to implement the Milan Plan of Action. His delegation was optimistic about the success of the forthcoming Eighth United Nations Congress on the Prevention of Crime and the Treatment of Offenders and hoped that the Secretariat would be provided with the resources necessary to ensure a successful outcome.
38. In conclusion, he reiterated the importance of providing UNOV with resources commensurate with its mandated tasks. The work of the Centre for Social Development and Humanitarian Affairs (CSDHA) was of a priority nature; its staff was already overextended and programme implementation would be impaired if additional resources were not made available.
39. Mrs. OUSENKO (Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic) said that her delegation welcomed item 107 because of the family's fundamental importance tot only as the basic unit of society and a repository of human values but also as an increasingly important factor in international life. It was in the family context that an understanding of and respect for the needs of children, youth, the aged and the disabled were learned, and discussion of the question of the family in the development process would promote an integrated approach to all the interrelated problems of social development by recognizing that the family mirrored the basic economic, social and demographic problems of the day.
40. International co-operation to protect the family must first help it survive in a climate of social change, particularly in countries where hunger, unemployment and migration caused great social misery, including the destruction of the family. The importance of the family in society, and the need to support it in every way,

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(Mrs. Ousenko. Ukrainian SSR)
was acknowledged in a number of international instruments, and United Nations bodies dealing with social problems could help develop the potential of the family as a factor in promoting development and human rights.
41. Primary emphasis should be placed on the family's educational role and, in countries in the throes of social and economic crisis, its role in combating the spread of such social ills as crime, alcoholism and drug addiction. Specific measures must be taken to help solve problems affecting the family, and her delegation supported the views on that subject expressed in the report of the Interregional Consultation on Developmental Social Welfare Policies and Programmes held at Vienna in September 1967 (E/CCNF.80/10).
42. The development of international co-operation in protecting the family would benefit greatly from the proclamation of an international year of the family. The goals of an international year should be carefully defined, and in that connection her delegation supported the views expressed in paragraph 14 of the Secretary-General's report (A/43/570). Measures taken as part of an international year should help strengthen value systems and models of behavior that would promote the welfare of the family, with due regard for the existence of various types of families. Family policy must take care to strengthen rather than weaken the proper functions of families. The proposal to prepare an international declaration on the rights of the family also deserved attention. Measures to help the family must include provision for such essential needs as housing, water, food, health care and child care assistance; in helping the family, however, Governments should not take over its functions. There also must be no discrimination against any member of the family, including in the distribution of family obligations. That meant primarily ensuring the equality of women in the family so that they could play an important role outside the family as well.
43. The most important goal of an international year should be to encourage Governments to take the interests of the family into account in their political decisions at all levels and in many other areas, from economic development to town planning and architecture. The international year should encourage Governments and the public to focus on the problems of the family and promote exchanges of national experience and the dissemination of information. Such an international year would also contribute to achieving the goals of other earlier international years devoted to the same or other problems of social development, because they all had an impact on the situation of the family. The experience of other international years showed that effective long-term follow-up once the year was over was essential. Her country was prepared to contribute to the preparation and celebration of an international year of the family and to participate in the exchange of information on questions relating to the family.
44. Mrs. DIEGUEZ (Mexico) said that there was still an argent need in most countries, regardless of their level of development, for policies designed to predict the social and economic effects of demographic change and aging and to deal with them in a timely manner. Her delegation agreed with the Secretary-General as to the usefulness of national, regional and international co-ordinating mechanisms

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(MM, Diegues, Mezigo)
for promoting the International Plan of Action on Aging and supported the suggestions in paragraphs 5 and 6 of his report (A/43/583).
45. On the national level, Mexico had established a National Institute on Aging to identify problems and provide solutions related to aging. It felt that strengthening International co-operation was equally important, however, and was concerned that the United Nations Trust Fund for Aging had been able to deal with only 30 of the more than 100 appeals for assistance submitted to it since its inception. Her delegation welcomed the establishment of the International Institute on Aging, which would promote erotological training and research. She hoped in that connection that the 1989 review of the International Plan of Action on Aging would take into account the recommendations of the Congress of Gerontology which was to meet in June 1989 in Mexico, with the participation of governmental and private institutions and concerned non-governmental organizations, to exchange experience among experts on aging from the whole world.
46. One quarter of Mexico's population consisted of young people under the age of 24. That explained the priority which Mexico attached to integration of youth in development, and her delegation noted with satisfaction the Secretary-General's report (A/43/001) describing additional activities being conducted in connection with the International Youth Year. She particularly commended United Nations efforts to give youth access to the benefits of social development, and her delegation supported the recommendations in paragraph 17 of the Secretary-General's report. Her own country had spared no effort in implementing the objectives of the International Youth Year and understood participation as young people's Involvement in the democratic development of the nation.
47. Problems of the family also deserved international attention and her delegation was interested in the suggestion that the United Nations should proclaim an international year of the family. A recent UNESCO-sponsored meeting on the family and development in Latin America and the Caribbean had stressed that the steadily deteriorating quality of life in most countries of the region had made social policy and its reform a development priority for the region and had concluded that economic and social answers were needed to overcome the adverse effects on families of adjustment policies that disregarded social justice.
48. The international economic crisis had become a social one and economic and social development must be given priority in the work of the United Nations. Peace and security required economic and social development and that must be reflected as a priority in the medium-term plan currently being prepared by the Secretary-General. The United Nations Office at Vienna must also be strengthened. Its activities were extremely important and her delegation was concerned that a process of administrative adjustment was establishing priorities there that did not correspond to those established by Member States.
49. The United Nations had failed to mobilise the political will of the industrialized countries to deal with the economic and social problems of the third world and it was time to take advantage of the current climate of detente and dialogue to do so.

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50. Mrs. GALAL (Egypt) said that the question of aging was espacially important because it dealt with a particularly vulnerable social group, involved the cherished human value of gratitude to those who had taken an active role in the building of the nation and was related to the attitude of each generation towards preceding or succeeding generations.
51. For those reasons, Egypt had issued a decree entitling every citizen to a special pension even if he or she had not subscribed to the Government pension fund. It also paid special attention to retired people and the aged and was making every effort to implement the International Plan of Action on Aging, taking into account the fact that the percentage of the aged in the population of developing cuuntries was increasing as a result of better medical care and improved standards of living. The advice of retired civil servants and intellectuals, particularly in cultural research centres and universities, was sought in Egypt so that the accumulated experience and knowledge of the outgoing generation would not be lost in the process of change. Older people who had enriched the country's life deserved recognition, and Egypt had established an award of appreciation for older people with outstanding accomplishments in science and letters. One had gone to Naguib Mahfouz, the 77-year-old Egyptian novelist who had recently been awarded the 1988 Nobel Prize for Literature, an international recognition that made his delegation feel honored and proud.
52. Mrs. SYAHRUDDIN (Indonesia) said that aging had important social and economic dimensions; its effect on development and on society's ability to meet increased demands such as health care, and the effect of changing social values on the elderly, required further study. Her delegation therefore welcomed the establishment of the International Institute on Aging, whose services would include the analysis and dissemination of information on aging appropriate to developing countries, where most of the world's aged population lived. On the question of research and analysis, she drew attention to paragraphs 17 and 19 of the Secretary-General's report (A/43/583). She commended the Secretary-General's recommendations in that report and endorsed the conclusion in paragraph 66.
53. In her own country, the basic problem faced by the aged was destitution, whether because of poverty or because of lack of care from their families - the traditional support of the elderly - and until recently efforts had been concentrated on providing assistance within the family unit, with the participation of the local community. Efforts were now being made to strengthen the physical infrastructure for caring for the elderly and a national census scheduled for 1990 would clarify the current demographic situation in Indonesia.
54. Turning to agenda item 90, she was pleased that follow-up activities for the International Youth Year continued to be implemented despite financial restraints', and welcomed the achievements referred to in paragraph 11 of the Secretary-General's report (A/43/601). Optimism had to be tempered, however, by the reality of persisting difficulties in funding follow-up activities, and her delegation had read with great interest the suggestions in paragraph 17 of the report. With respect to paragraph 17 (g), she noted that her country's delegation already included leaders of the country's youth organization. Her delegation was

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(Mrs. Syahruddin, Indonesia)
also encouraged by the UN0V7CSDHA activities described in paragraph 40 of the report.
55. Indonesia placed emphasis on the role of youth in development, particularly the effect of unemployment on the social and economic aspirations of youth. It had made the improvement of general and vocational education a priority goal and remained committed to the implementation and follow-up of the International Youth Year.
50. Turning to agenda item 92, she said that in 1983 a national co-ordinating body on the disabled had been established in Indonesia to direct cross-sectoral activities at every level in the relevant government agencies, and that her delegation noted with satisfaction the Secretary-General's endorsement of such an approach in paragraph 8 of his report (A/43/034). Indonesia was committed to the goal of full participation and equality for the disabled and its education system sought to ensure equal access for the disabled.
57. Concerning agenda item 93, she said that crime prevention and criminal justice concerned the entire international community because international criminal organizations, particularly in the area of narcotics trafficking and abuse, reaped huge profits, siphoning off resources from development and threatening social mores and values. Her delegation was encouraged by the results of the preparatory meetings for the forthcoming Eighth United Nations Congress on the Prevention of Crime and the Treatment of Offenders and supported the view expressed in the final sentence of paragraph 29 of the Secretary-General's report (A/43/572). Social welfare programmes must give greater attention to delinquent behavior and its social consequences, and in her country special attention was given to rehabilitating juvenile delinquents and drug addicts and to treating the problem of crime and its prevention within the overall context of social development.
58. On agenda item 107, she said that her delegation supported the proclamation of an international year of the family because the family was an excellent vehicle for improving social welfare. Through it, generations were raised with a sense of social conscience and responsibility, without which both individual and national development became very difficult. Given the rapid technological and economic changes in all societies and the threat to moral values posed by such phenomena as narcotics abuse, the role of the family had to be strengthened.
AGENDA ITEM 87: IMPLEMENTATION OF THE PROGRAMME OF ACTION FOR THE SECOND DECADE TO COMBAT RACISM AND RACIAL DISCRIMINATION (continued) (A/C.3/43/L.7)
AGENDA ITEM 88: ADVERSE CONSEQUENCES FOR THE ENJOYMENT OF HUMAN RIGHTS OF POLITICAL, MILITARY, ECONOMIC AND OTHER FORMS OF ASSISTANCE GIVEN TO THE RACIST AND COLONIALIST REGIME OF SOUTH AFRICA (continued) (A/C.3/43/L.11)
AGENDA ITEM 91: ELIMINATION OF ALL FORMS OF RACIAL DISCRIMINATION (continued) (A/C.3/43/L.8, L.9 and L.14)

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AGENDA ITEM 96: IMPORTANCE OF THE UNIVERSAL REALIZATION OF THE RIGHT OF PEOPLES TO SELF-DETERMINATION AND OF THE SPEEDY GRANTING OF INDEPENDENCE TO COLONIAL COUNTRIES AND PEOPLES FOR THE EFFECTIVE GUARANTEE AND OBSERVANCE OF HUMAN RIGHTS (continued) (A/C.3/43/L.6 and L.12)
Draft resolutions A/C.3/43/L.7. L.ll and L.6
59. Mrs. BUTTKU (United Republic of Tanzania), introducing draft resolutions A/C.3/43/L.7, L.ll and L.6 on behalf of the African Group, said that draft resolution A/C.3/43/L.7 stressed the need for the adoption of more effective and sustained measures for the elimination of all forms of racism and racial discrimination, the eradication of apartheid in South Africa and the protection of the human rights of migrant workers and their families. She drew attention to operative paragraphs 15 and 16 concerning the implementation of the Programme of Action for the Second Decade to Combat Racism and Racial Discrimination, which should be kept on the Assembly's agenda throughout the Second Decade and be considered as a matter of highest priority at its forty-fourth session, and the implementation of the plan of activities proposed for the period 1990-1993. She also drew attention to paragraph 19 concerning the situation of migrant workers and their families, and to paragraphs 21-23 appealing for contributions to the Trust Fund for the Programme for the Decade for Action to Combat Racism and Racial Discrimination.
60. Draft resolution A/C.3/43/L.6 reflected the African Group's deep concern at the continued terrorist acts of aggression committed by the Pretoria regime against independent African States in the region, at that regime's staging of fraudulent elections designed to further entrench white supremacy, and at the serious threat to international peace and security posed by the denial of the inalienable rights of the Palestinian people, the brutal suppression by the Israeli forces of the Palestinian uprising, and repeated Israeli aggression against the population of the region. She drew attention to operative paragraphs 1, 3, 14, 27, 31, 36, 45 and 46.
61. Referring to draft resolution A/C.3/43/L.U, she drew attention to the
omission of a paragraph, which should be inserted as the seventh preambular
paragraph, reading as follows:
"Noting with regret that the request contained in General Assembly resolution 41/95 of 4 December 1966 with regard to the making available to the Special Rapporteur of two economists was not implemented;".
She drew attention to operative paragraphs 1 and 3, and also to paragraphs 7, 11, 17 and 16, expressing appreciation to the Special Rapporteur of the Sub-Commission on Prevention of Discrimination and Protection of Minorities for his updated report and calling for co-operation with the Special Rapporteur and for wide publicity to be given to the updated report. Lastly she drew attention to paragraph 20. In conclusion, she said that it was a crime to allow colonialism and racism to continue and that history would judge the United Nations by its record of effective implementation of policies and programmes that dealt with human beings as human beings.

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Pratt resolution A/C.3/13/L.12
62. Mrs. GARUBA (Nigeria), introducing the draft resolution on behalf of the sponsors, said that Benin, Bulgaria, Cameroon, Guinea, India, Mongolia, Peru and Sierra Leone had become sponsors. The draft resolution was very similar in content to previous resolutions on the use of mercenaries. she drew attention to operative paragraphs 5 and 10. The question of mercenaries was not peculiar to any one region and their use should consequently be condemned by all States, Recalling her previous request that the discussion on item 96 should remain open until the report of the Special Rapporteur was discussed, she said that the sponsors reserved the right to revise the draft resolution in the light of that report at a subsequent stage in the debate.
63. Mr. Galal (Egypt) took the Chair.
Draft resolution A/C.8/43/L.8
64. Miss FCSTIER (Belgium), introducing the draft resolution On behalf of the
sponsors, said that the process of ratification of or accession to the
International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination
had scarcely progressed since 1984, despite its being the international human
rights convention with the largest number of States parties. The commitment of the
international community as a whole was essential to achieving the aims of the
Convention, and universal ratification of or accession to that instrument and the
application of its provisions were necessary in order to achieve the objectives of
the Second Decade. The sponsors had therefore deemed it desirable to invite States
that had not yet done so to ratify or accede to the Convention.
Draft resolution A/C.3/43/L.9
65. Mrs. NIKOLIC (Yugoslavia), introducing the draft resolution on behalf of the
sponsors, said that its main aim was to help overcome the continuing financial
problems of the Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination (CERD), which
threatened CERD's proper functioning, by appealing to all States parties to fulfill
their financial obligations. Referring to paragraph 8, she said that the object of
the decision of the 12th meeting of States parties to the Convention had been to
avoid uncertainty about the convening and duration of CERD's sessions, to ensure
continuity in its work and effect savings, particularly in air fares. She drew
attention to operative paragraphs 6 and 9. Should CERD be prevented from meeting
and functioning adequately as a result of insufficient financial resources, a
lasting solution would have to be found in co-operation with the United Nations
Secretariat. That was why the Secretary-General was requested in operative
paragraph 10 to report not only on CERD's financial situation but also on possible
measures for improving it.
Draft resolution A/C.43/L.14
66. Mr. CANTQK (Uruguay), introducing the draft resolution on behalf of the
sponsors, pointed out that its purpose was to amend the draft resolution contained

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(Mrs. Canton. Uruguay]
in document A/C.3/43/L.8 in order to include a reference to the declaration provided for in article 14 of the International Convention on the Elimination of All Forme of Discrimination, recognizing the competence of the Committee on the Elimination of Facial Discrimination to receive and consider communications from individuals or groups of individuals. All the sponsors had made that declaration and wished to call on other * ates parties to the Convention to consider doing likewise.
The meeting rose at 12.55 p.m.