Yearbook of the United Nations, 2004. Part 3, Economic and social questions. Chapter 9, Social policy, crime prevention and human resources development

Abstract

In 2004, the United Nations continued to promote social, cultural and human resources development, and to strengthen its crime prevention and criminal justice programme. The Commission for Social Development considered as its priority theme improving public sector effectiveness, and adopted agreed conclusions on that topic. Preparations continued for the ten-year review by the Commission in 2005 of the 1995 World Summit for Social Development and the five-year review of the General Assembly's twenty-fourth (2000) special session. The Assembly endorsed the conclusions of the World Commission on the Social Dimension of Globalization, entitled A Fair Globalization: Creating Opportunities For All, which called for a people-centred globalization process. The Assembly stressed the importance of supporting the efforts of developing countries to achieve economic growth, sustainable development, poverty reduction and the strengthening of their democratic systems. In December, the tenth anniversary of the International Year of the Family was observed at UN Headquarters. Also observed during the year were the second World Day for Cultural Diversity for Dialogue and Development in May and the Olympic Truce during the twenty-eighth Olympic Games in August. On the issue of persons with disabilities, work continued by the Ad Hoc Committee on the Comprehensive and Integral International Convention on the Protection and Promotion of the Rights and Dignity of Persons with Disabilities, while consideration by the Assembly of the proposed supplement to the Standard Rules on the Equalization of Opportunities for Persons with Disabilities was postponed until its sixty-first (2006) session. Also during the year, efforts to promote religious and cultural understanding continued under the guidance of the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization, and preparations were made to usher in the International Year of Sport and Physical Education and the International Year of Physics in 2005. In the area of crime prevention, the Commission on Crime Prevention and Criminal Justice considered crimes against cultural property, preparations for the Eleventh United Nations Congress on Crime Prevention and Criminal Justice, the rule of law, implementation of technical assistance projects in Africa, strengthening the technical cooperation capacity of the United Nations Crime Prevention and Criminal Justice Programme, promoting the implementation of the universal conventions and protocols related to terrorism, corruption, transnational organized crime, kidnapping, trafficking in human organs, money laundering, fraud, urban crime, UN norms and standards in crime prevention, the second World Summit of Attorneys General and General Prosecutors, and the Commission's functioning. The Secretary-General reported on activities undertaken to implement the International Plan of Action for the United Nations Literacy Decade (2003-2012). Concerned about meeting the goals of the Decade, the Assembly appealed to Governments to mobilize enough resources to achieve those goals and called for increased investments in education. The Secretary-General also reported on the work of the United Nations Institute for Training and Research and the United Nations University.