Global Social Policy Principles: Human Rights and Social Justice

The processes of globalization have led, in the last years of twentieth century,
to the demand for the development of a universal set of principles to guide
social policy. In the Harvard Lecture of December 1998, the Chancellor of the
Exchequer proposed the development of such principles not only to ensure
minimum standards for every country in times of change but to equip people
to make the most of the new opportunities that globalization engenders
(Brown: 1998). Social policy has, traditionally, been undertaken and
analysed at the national level. Competition between countries to attract
trans national corporation and common markets in capital and labour,
However, have generated the need for supranational social policies
(Deacon 1997). It is suggested in this report that the "global architecture"  
(Eyben 1998) of UN conventions, declarations and world conference
documents provides the most authoritative available source on which
such principle could be constructed. UN documentation provides an
internationally legitimised set of agreements on social, economic and
political issues. The UN framework is constructed upon the concept
of human rights which acknowledges the entitlements and needs
of all people on the basis of their common humanity and the
obligations of all governments to respect, protect and promote
those rights. The object of this report is to assess the implications
of this framework for the construction of global social policy
principles.
Shittu Olayinka
PRO
Committee for The Defence of Human Rights
(cdhr)
Abuja Branch
olayinka2k2@gmail.com