Meeting – United Nations Third Committee of the 68th Session of the General Assembly:

Date and Time – Monday, October 7th 2013 at 3pm to 6pm.

Place – Conference Room 1 Speakers – Chair of the 68th Session of the General Assembly H.E. Stephan Tafrov of Bulgaria, Bureau of the Third Committee of 68th Session of the General Assembly, Laos Ambassador, H.E. Saleumxay Kommasith, Chinese Ambassador Wang Min, Delegates from Dominican Republic, Israel, South Africa, Romania, Germany, Sweden, Senegal, Colombia, Kenya, Finland, Iran.

Attended by- Modou Cham

Summary by – Modou Cham

Chair of the 68th Session of the General Assembly H.E. Stephan Tafrov of Bulgaria, Bureau of the Third Committee of 68th Session of the General Assembly.

Image Rights; Euronews.com

The newly elected Chair as well as members of the Bureau of the Third Committee of the 68th session of the General Assembly held a Social Development meeting with emphasis of young persons, old persons, and persons with disabilities. Young men and women represented mostly all attended nations. Apart from that, the meeting also incorporated social integration, social cohesion, and social inclusion. Young delegates spoke of education and employment.

Delegate of Germany and Kenya pushed for employment of young people in to high paying jobs. They objected on the amount of experience asked for by employers, making decent jobs unreachable to the young generation. Delegate of Germany, asked the United Nations to set an example by paying its interns. Kenya asked for the same respected to given to blue-collar jobs that white-collar jobs have. Delegate of Sweden, Kenya, and Finland asked for opportunities to be created for people with disabilities.

Delegate of South Africa raised concerns of the treatment of older persons. “Rights of older persons are also Human Rights” (Delegate of South Africa). On the other hand, Delegate of Dominican Republic proposed for education to be an important matter to the General Assembly.

Delegate of China and Laos aligned their statements with the representative of Fiji on behalf of G77 and China. Ambassador of China, suggested “poverty eradication, social inclusion and full employment should be promoted in an integrated manner”. Laos Ambassador advocated gender equality and pushed for the necessity for advancement of women in education, public, and private sectors. Though every nation had its singular agenda, the social development problems are always uniformed.

Edited by: Wayne Dean Doyle