The www site http://www.icsw.org/ contains more information on the
Copenhagen Consensus.  Copies of the document are available from
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In 1995, world leaders agreed to implement the ten main commitments of the
Copenhagen Declaration at the World Summit for Social Development.
Signatories included Canada and the United States.  If you thought that
social determinants of health were generally ignored by policy makers and
the media, wait until you DON'T hear about these commitments!

I.   A commitment to create an enabling economic, political, social,
cultural and legal environment that will enable people to achieve social
development.

II.  A commitment to the goal of eradicating poverty in the world through
decisive national actions and international cooperation, as an ethical,
social, political and economic imperative of humankind.

III.  A commitment to promote the goal of full employment as a basic
priority of our economic and social policies, and to enable all people to
attain secure and sustainable livelihoods through freely-chosen productive
employment and work.


IV.   A commitment to promote social integration by fostering societies
that are stable, safe and just, and are based on the promotion and
protection of all human rights, and on non-discrimination, tolerance,
respect for diversity, equality of opportunity, solidarity, security and
participation of all people, including the disadvantaged and vulnerable
groups and persons.

V.    A commitment to promote full respect for human dignity and to achieve
equality and equity between women and men, and to recognize and enhance the
participation and leadership roles of women in political, civil, economic,
social and cultural life and in development.

VI.   A commitment to achieving universal and equitable access to quality
education, the highest attainable standard of physical and mental health
and universal access to primary health care; to respecting and promoting
our common and particular cultures; and to striving to strengthen the role
of culture in development.

VII.  A commitment to accelerate the economic, social and human resource
development of Africa and the least developed countries.

VIII. A commitment to ensuring that when structural adjustment programmes
are agreed to they should include social development goals, in particular
of eradicating poverty, promoting full and productive employment and
enhancing social integration.

IX.   A commitment to increase significantly and/or utilize more
efficiently the resources allocated to social development to achieve goals
of the Summit.


X.    A commitment to an improved and strengthened framework for
international cooperation for social development, in a spirit of
partnership, through the UN and other international institutions.


For a full summary of the principal commitments made at the Summit,
see “The Copenhagen Consensus” booklet, which is available from ICSW.







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  Long have I looked for the truth about the life of people together.
  That life is crisscrossed, tangled, and difficult to understand.
  I have worked hard to understand it and when I had done so
  I told the truth as I found it.

  - Bertolt Brecht
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Dennis Raphael, Ph.D.
Associate Professor and Associate Director,
Masters of Health Science Program in Health Promotion
Department of Public Health Sciences
Graduate Department of Community Health
University of Toronto
McMurrich Building, Room 101
Toronto, Ontario, CANADA M5S 1A8
voice:    (416) 978-7567
fax: (416) 978-2087
e-mail:   [log in to unmask]