The State, the community and society in social development

The World Summit for Social Development, held in Copenhagen on 11 and 12 March 1995, brought up once more the ideals which gave rise to the United Nations at the San Francisco Conference and which have since been reasserted in many forums of the Organization. The maintenance of peace and security, although an irreplaceable element in the peaceful coexistence of nations, was not the only objective of that Conference, however: it also sought to lay the foundations for a form of coexistence which would make possible more harmonious development. The United Nations Charter which emerged from that meeting was the clear expression of a humanistic spirit and of the quest for democratic ideals and values which made human beings the centre of governments’ concern.