All these have been clearly condemned by a new international convention adopted just three months ago. Friends, The problem of mass unemployment and under employment especially of young men and women - affects countries all across the globe. In the European Union, the unemployment rate has been over ten per cent for the past decade. In the countries of the former Soviet Union, widespread unemployment has been an unfortunate by-product of economic restructuring programmes. In Latin America, rising production has brought a rise in the demand for skilled labour, but also a decline in the demand for unskilled labour.
Urban unemployment is in double digits in most Latin American and Caribbean countries.
In Africa, more and more rural households are headed by women, as the men leave to look for work in the cities or the mines. In South Asia, more and more people are moving into the cities, but even so the number of landless people in the countryside goes up and up. The economies of East Asia are showing signs of recovery, but it will take a long time to recover the jobs that have been lost and to absorb the newcomers into the labour force. In short, this is a world-wide problem. Solutions to it must be found mainly at the national level, but the international environment also plays an important part.