ABSTRACT
Figure 31.1 The OPEC cartel of oil-exporting countries (1960) 486
1969: social progress and development
Due to political pressure from UNCTAD and the G77, by the end of the 1960s the needs and demands of developing states were heard within the UN, where development aid had turned into a Cold War weapon. The wish to make UN policies more coherent was the reason for the General Assembly of December 1969 adopting the Declaration on Social Progress and Development. This was intended to constitute the common basis for national and international policies through its aims of continuously raising the material and spiritual living standards of all members of society, with respect for, and in compliance with, human rights and fundamental freedoms. The real problem however was that the UN Development Decade was not achieving its purpose, as had already become clear halfway through the Decade. Therefore debates had started on new policies and an extension of the Decade.
