STATEMENT
BY THE GENERAL CONFEDERATION OF TRADE UNIONS
ON THE OCCASION OF THE UN DAY
24 October 2007

The 24th of October is annually observed in the world as the United Nations Day.
     On this Day, the General Confederation of Trade Unions affiliating the national trade union centres in countries of the Commonwealth of Independent States and 31 industrial Trade Union Internationals of the region confirms its high appreciation of the role the United Nations plays as the main instrument of keeping peace and security on Earth.

Trade unions in our countries are pleased that over the last decades the UN has been devoting increasingly more attention to the issues of social policy and their role in maintaining stability on this planet. The world summits it organised on social development, the status of women, sustainable development, environment protection etc., which were attended also by trade unions, have brought social problems to the forefront of world politics. The documents of paramount importance recently adopted by the UN, e.g. the Millennium Development Goals and the Global Compact, have largely contributed to the development of novel, up-to-date approaches to such problems as respect of human rights, compliance with labour standards, social protection of working people, sustainable development etc.; therefore, we believe they concern directly all workers and trade unions as their principal defenders.

The GCTU welcomes the United Nations’ consistent line for involving broad sections of civil society, including trade unions and other nongovernmental organisations, in the process of drawing up important international instruments, in the search for responses to the formidable challenges that globalisation issues to the world community.

At its recent 6th congress the GCTU confirmed that “as an organisation in official status with the ECOSOC and in the UN DPI, the Confederation will support and promulgate the activities by the United Nations and its specialised agencies aiming to strengthen the social dimension of world politics, settle the problems of sustainable development, eradicate abject poverty, put an end to economic underdevelopment and the lack of civil rights as pledged by world leaders at the Copenhagen Summit for Social Development in 1995. The GCTU and its affiliates will help implement the Millennium Development Goals adopted by the UN in 2000, and other initiatives pertaining to social justice, world peace and security, disarmament, and a just settlement and prevention of armed conflicts”.

We are positive that the role and significance of the United Nations and its whole system will only grow as the process of globalisation builds up. Trade unions in the CIS countries have been making, and will continue to make, their tangible contribution to UN activities striving to achieve the above goals.

General Confederation of Trade Unions

Moscow, 24 October 2007