|
| |
The Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC)
of the United Nations
Together
with the General
Assembley,
the
ECOSOC is responsible for the tasks detailed in Chapter IX of UN
Charter.
According
to Article 62, it can become active in the following areas: international
economic, social, cultural, educational, health, and related matters. The ECOSOC
is considered the organ of coordination for economic and social issues. This
corresponds to the regional key for its composition, which is characterised by
an over-proportional representation of developing nations, as the following
diagram shows:
|
|
The
General Assembly elects a third of the members for a term of three years each
year. In contrast to the Security
Council,
immediate
re-election is not excluded, meaning that several states have been able to
establish themselves as quasi-permanent members. The ECOSOC forms the binding
link between specialist institutions with their own set of members, and, as
such, fulfils an important role within the widely branching system of the United
Nations, which Basic Course 4
deals
with in detail. In addition, it maintains consultative relations with over 1,500
NGOs (non-governmental organisations).
The
ECOSOC meets once a year for four weeks. A large part of its work is performed
in numerous parallel organisations, the uncontrolled growth of which has
continually led to criticism concerning the efficiency of its work [see
Basic Course 5 for more information on problem areas and points of criticism].
These
parallel organisations can be divided up into six categories:
 |
1)
Special
organs:
Drug
Control Programme (INDCB), Research Institute for the Advancement of Women
(INSTRAW)
|
|
2)
Standing
committees:
Commission
on Population and Development, Committee for Non-State Organisations, Commission
for Negotiations with Intergovernmental Organisations, Commission for
Transnational Businesses
|
|
3)
Special
committees:
Programme
and Coordination Committee (CPC, together with the General Assembly),
Administrative Committee on Coordination (ACC)
|
|
4)
Expert
committees:
Committees
manned by independent experts: Committee on Development Planning, Committee
on the United Nations Programme for Public Administration and Finances, Ad-Hoc
Expert Group on International Cooperation in Tax Matters
Committees
manned by government experts:
Committee for New and Renewable Energy Sources for Development, Committee
on Natural Resources, Committee on the Transport of Dangerous Goods, United
Nations Expert Group for Geographic Names, Intergovernmental Working Group on
International standards in Accounting
|
|
5)
Regional
Commissions:
Economic
Commission for Africa (ECA), Economic Commission for Europe (ECE), Economic
Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC), Economic and Social
Commission for Asia and the Pacific (ESCAP), Economic and Social Commission for
Western Africa (ESCWA)
|
| 6)
Functional
Commissions:
Commission
for Sustainable Development, Population Commission, Commission for Social
Development, Statistical Commission, Commission on Human Rights, Commission
for the Legal Status of Women, Narcotic Drugs Commission, Commission for
Crime Prevention and Criminal Justice
|
Despite
the mass of parallel organs, the importance of the ECOSOC has become less.
Gareis and Varwick conclude: "According to the goals of the United Nations
stipulated in Article 1, Item 3, and the interests stipulated in Article 55, the
ECOSOC deals mainly with questions concerning development in poor countries
(...). However, its powers here are limited and are subject to the authority of
the General Assembly, whose 'organ of aid (...) it has more and more become.
What is
more, with the creation of special organs such as the Development Programme (UNDP),
or the Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD), the General Assembly has
deprived the ECOSOC of further powers in the field of development, so that
hardly any operative fields of duty remain, except that of human rights."
[taken from: Sven Gareis/Johannes Varwick, Die Vereinten Nationen. Aufgaben, Instrumente und Reformen;
Bundeszentrale für politische Bildung Schriftenreihe Band 403, Bonn 2003, P.
54]
More pages on UN Bodies:
[Author: Ragnar Müller]
[Back to
top of page]
|
