List of members of the United Nations Economic and Social Council
The United Nations Economic and Social Council has 54 member states which are elected by the United Nations General Assembly for overlapping three-year terms, with terms ending on 31 December of the third year. Seats on the Council are based on United Nations Regional Groups, with fourteen seats allocated to the African Group, eleven to the Asia-Pacific Group, six to the Eastern European Group, ten to the Latin American and Caribbean Group, and thirteen to the Western European and Others Group.[1]
Unlike the UN Security Council, outgoing members are eligible for immediate re-election. Like the Security Council, getting elected to a seat requires a two-thirds majority vote, so it is possible for two candidates to deadlock with approximately half the vote each, needing negotiations to resolve.
Membership (1946–1965)[edit]
Prior to an amendment to the UN Charter in 1965, the Economic and Social Council consisted of 18 seats.
De facto permanent[edit]
The UN General Assembly agreed in 1946 that the Security Council's permanent five should be given de facto permanent ECOSOC seats. The Republic of China kept its seat renewed until 1961, when it failed to get a two-thirds majority vote for re-election.[2]
The United States renewed its seat in 1947, 1950, and so on; the United Kingdom and Soviet Union renewed their seats in 1948, 1951, and so on; and France and the Republic of China renewed their seats in 1949, 1952, and so on; making it so six out of eighteen total seats are up for election each year (until the ECOSOC was expanded in 1965).
Year | De facto permanent seats | |||
---|---|---|---|---|
1946–1965 | France | Soviet Union | United Kingdom | United States |
Non-permanent[edit]
Unlike the Security Council, there was no specific agreement on how many ECOSOC seats would go to each of the then-informal United Nations Regional Groups, and seat arrangements instead came from "unwritten rules" and "habits" that eventually stabilized into a documented pattern. For example:[2][3]
- The first election for the 1946 term ended up electing three members from Eastern Europe. However, Yugoslavia and New Zealand had deadlocked on one of the seats until New Zealand withdrew. When Yugoslavia's term ended, New Zealand was elected in its place; that seat effectively became a Commonwealth seat going forward. Meanwhile, the 'original' Commonwealth seat that went to Canada in 1946 eventually became a Middle Eastern seat, so this change did not increase the number of Commonwealth seats long-term.
- One of the Western European seats went to a Scandinavian country and another to a Benelux country, with one exception per seat after the pattern broke.
- Due to being a pattern instead of an agreement or rule, deviations sometimes occurred without comment. For example, at the end of 1947, Czechoslovakia's outgoing seat was contested by both Poland and Iran, but no member of the General Assembly made any complaint about Eastern Europe being potentially deprived of a seat.[4] Successfully elected deviations from the pattern are highlighted with a star below.
The pattern broke at the end of 1960, after fifteen ungrouped[a] nations from Africa joined the United Nations in the span of one month, increasing the number of nations without a group from four to nineteen.[5][2] The new members gave Africa, Asia, and Latin America together a commanding 66 out of 99 seats on the General Assembly (with Cyprus and Turkey caucusing with Asia, while the Republic of China, Israel, and South Africa did not caucus with Asia or Africa).[5][3] In the election for the 1961 term, the Republic of China (Taiwan) failed to obtain a two-thirds majority for re-election, while Ethiopia received a two-thirds majority. Belgium, the Republic of China, and India all deadlocked on the Netherlands' outgoing seat, which was left vacant for over four months, well into the 1961 term.[6] After negotiations, all three members withdrew in place of Italy, with an agreement that next year, Spain's outgoing seat would go to a candidate from either Africa or Asia.[2] This changed pattern would continue until 1965 when ECOSOC was expanded.
As candidates do not explicitly run for a specific seat, the arrangement of columns is slightly arbitrary. For example, at the end of 1952, the terms of Czechoslovakia, Iran, and Pakistan were ending, with India and Turkey elected in their place. The last seat deadlocked for thirteen rounds between Czechoslovakia, Pakistan, and Yugoslavia, with Yugoslavia finally obtaining a two-thirds majority. Had Pakistan won re-election instead, Turkey may have ended up placed in the Eastern European column for the 1953 term (similar to it doing so on the Security Council).[2][7][8]
Membership by regional group[edit]
African Group[edit]
2010 | Cameroon | Congo | Mozambique | Niger | Comoros | Egypt | Ghana | Rwanda | Zambia | Cote d'Ivoire | Guinea-Bissau | Mauritius | Morocco | Namibia |
2011 | Gabon | Malawi | Senegal | |||||||||||
2012 | Burkina Faso | Ethiopia | Nigeria | Libya | Lesotho | |||||||||
2013 | Benin | Mauritius | South Africa | Sudan | Tunisia | |||||||||
2014 | Botswana | Congo | Democratic Republic of Congo | Togo | ||||||||||
2015 | Burkina Faso | Ghana | Mauritania | Uganda | Zimbabwe | |||||||||
2016 | Algeria | Nigeria | Rwanda | Somalia | South Africa | |||||||||
2017 | Benin | Cameroon | Chad | Eswatini | ||||||||||
2018 | Ghana | Malawi | Morocco | Sudan | Togo | |||||||||
2019 | Angola | Egypt | Ethiopia | Kenya | Mali | |||||||||
2020 | Benin | Botswana | Congo | Gabon | ||||||||||
2021 | Liberia | Libya | Madagascar | Nigeria | Zimbabwe | |||||||||
2022 | Cote d'Ivoire | Eswatini | Mauritius | Tanzania | Tunisia | |||||||||
2023 |
Asia-Pacific Group[edit]
Eastern European Group[edit]
2010 | Moldova | Poland | Russian Federation | Estonia | Slovakia | Ukraine |
2011 | Latvia | Hungary | Russian Federation | |||
2012 | Bulgaria [f] | Belarus | ||||
2013 | Albania | Croatia | ||||
2014 | Georgia | Serbia | Russian Federation | |||
2015 | Estonia | |||||
2016 | Czech Republic | Republic of Moldova | ||||
2017 | Azerbaijan | Romania | Russian Federation | |||
2018 | Belarus | |||||
2019 | Armenia | Ukraine | ||||
2020 | Latvia | Montenegro | Russian Federation | |||
2021 | Bulgaria | |||||
2022 | Croatia | Czech Republic | ||||
2023 |
- ^ i.e. not part of the Arab League and therefore not caucusing with the Middle East subgroup[5]
- ^ Various inconsistent names were used before the proper introduction of Africa and Asia as Regional Groups, including also "Near and Middle East". Sources that were published after the introduction of the Regional Groups retroactively name this group "Asia-Africa" or similar, but this name was not used at the creation of ECOSOC.[5][2][3]
- ^ In October 1947, India proposed the creation of a group named "Australasia and the Far East", which would match the third seat if including South Asia, but the proposal was not taken up.[2]
- ^ The third seat has also been called a "Near and Middle East" seat, with Spain as the exception instead of Pakistan.[5]
- ^ Belgium was elected to receive a 3-year term starting in 1946. However, as Greece's 1-year term was ending, Turkey and the Netherlands deadlocked as successor candidates. The deadlock was resolved when Belgium agreed to give the remaining 2 years of its term to the Netherlands.
- ^ Bulgaria finished the remainder of Hungary's term
Latin American and Caribbean Group[edit]
Western European and Others Group[edit]
- ^ Malta finished the remainder of Greece's term
- ^ Spain finished the remainder of Portugal's term
- ^ Turkey finished the remainder of Portugal's term
- ^ Spain finished the remainder of Greece's term
- ^ Switzerland finished the remainder of Liechtenstein's term
- ^ Spain finished the remainder of Turkey's term
- ^ Switzerland finished the remainder of Norway's term
- ^ Netherlands finished the remainder of Belgium's term
- ^ New Zealand finished the remainder of Australia's term
- ^ Denmark finished the remainder of Finland's term
- ^ Sweden finished the remainder of Switzerland's term
- ^ Austria finished the remainder of Germany's term
Non-members[edit]
The list is a summary of all countries that have never been a member of United Nations Economic and Social Council.[13]
UN Member state | Regional Group |
---|---|
Brunei | Asia-Pacific |
Dominica | GRULAC |
East Timor | Asia-Pacific |
Eritrea | African |
Grenada | GRULAC |
Kiribati | None |
Maldives | Asia-Pacific |
Marshall Islands | Asia-Pacific |
Micronesia | Asia-Pacific |
Monaco | WEOG |
Myanmar | Asia-Pacific |
Nauru | Asia-Pacific |
North Korea | Asia-Pacific |
North Macedonia | E. European |
Palau | Asia-Pacific |
Samoa | Asia-Pacific |
São Tomé and Príncipe | African |
Seychelles | Asia-Pacific |
Singapore | Asia-Pacific |
South Sudan | African |
Tonga | Asia-Pacific |
Tuvalu | Asia-Pacific |
Uzbekistan | Asia-Pacific |
Vanuatu | Asia-Pacific |
Notes[edit]
See also[edit]
- United Nations Regional Groups
- List of United Nations member states
- List of members of the United Nations Security Council
- List of members of the United Nations Commission on Human Rights
References[edit]
- ^ UN Economic and Social Council Members list (official site)
- ^ a b c d e f g Gregg, Robert W. “The Economic and Social Council: Politics of Membership.” The Western Political Quarterly, vol. 16, no. 1, 1963, pp. 109–32. JSTOR, https://doi.org/10.2307/445962. Accessed 5 Mar. 2024.
- ^ a b c Padelford, Norman J. “Politics and the Future of ECOSOC.” International Organization, vol. 15, no. 4, 1961, pp. 564–80. JSTOR, http://www.jstor.org/stable/2705552. Accessed 24 Mar. 2024.
- ^ http://undocs.org/en/A/PV.94
- ^ a b c d e Agam, Hasmy; Sam Daws; Terence O'Brien; Ramesh Takur (26 March 1999). What is Equitable Geographic Representation in the Twenty-First Century (PDF) (Report). United Nations University. Retrieved 5 March 2019.
- ^ http://undocs.org/en/A/PV.987
- ^ http://undocs.org/en/A/PV.389
- ^ http://undocs.org/en/A/PV.390
- ^ a b The United Nations currently recognizes the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan as the government of Afghanistan instead of the de facto ruling government, the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan.
- ^ a b Gladstone, Rick (2021-12-01). "U.N. Seats Denied, for Now, to Afghanistan's Taliban and Myanmar's Junta". New York Times. Archived from the original on 2021-12-28. Retrieved 2021-04-07.
- ^ Scharioth, Nicolas (2010). Western Democracies in the UN, Nomos Verlagsgesellschaft, ISBN 978-3-8329-5374-4 Statistical Data Appendix
- ^ Members of the Economic and Social Council for 2007
- ^ "Economic and Social Council Membership". Economic and Social Council.
External links[edit]
- Official Document System of the United Nations – source of UN electoral records