India elected chair of 62nd session of UN Commission for Social Development

India has been voted to chair the 62nd session of the United Nations Commission for Social Development (CSocD).

Ambassador Ruchira Kamboj, India’s Permanent Representative to the United Nations, assumed the chairpersonship on Thursday at the UN Headquarters in New York. According to a press statement released by the Indian Permanent Mission to the United Nations, this is the first time India has served as Chair of the Commission for Social Development since 1975.

The Commission for Social Development is an Economic and Social Council functional commission. According to the official release, the Commission is the principal inter-governmental forum for deliberating on and strengthening international collaboration on social development concerns.

The 62nd session’s theme is “Fostering Social Development and Social Justice through Social Policies to accelerate Progress on the Implementation of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and to achieve the overarching goal of poverty eradication”.

The theme emphasises the critical link between social development and social justice as prerequisites for achieving the Sustainable Development Goals.

The Commission for Social Development’s primary responsibility is to review on a regular basis issues related to the follow-up and implementation of the Copenhagen Declaration on Social Development, the World Summit on Social Development’s Programme of Action, and the outcome of the General Assembly’s twenty-fourth special session.

Ruchira Kamboj, India’s Permanent Representative to the United Nations, stated at a recent UN briefing that as the G20 chair, India will continue to engage proactively with the global south, incorporating the goals of the south into the G20 process.

“We greatly appreciate this briefing on your priorities for the resumed segment of the 77th session (of UNGA)… To say that we are perhaps witnessing the most difficult phase since the Second World War is not an exaggeration but a reality. The road ahead is, therefore, difficult and challenging. As you rightly pointed as members of the United Nations we have an onerous responsibility. We need to work collectively in a collaborative manner to find sustainable solutions to the development challenges,” she said.

Ruchira Kamboj said India’s philosophical ethos sees the world as one large interconnected family.