India has been elected to four key bodies of the UN Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC).

What is ECOSOC?

• The UN Charter established ECOSOC in 1945 as one of the six main organs of the United Nations.

• ECOSOC consists of 54 members, 18 of which are elected each year by the General Assembly for a three-year term.

• The Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC) coordinates the work of UN agencies related to economic, social and environmental development. 

• ECOSOC links a diverse family of subsidiary bodies and UN entities dedicated to sustainable development, providing overall guidance and coordination. These include regional economic and social commissions, functional commissions facilitating intergovernmental discussions of major global issues, expert bodies establishing important global normative frameworks, and specialised agencies, programmes and funds at work around the world to translate development commitments into real changes in people’s lives.

• It is the central platform for fostering debate and innovative thinking, forging consensus on ways forward, and coordinating efforts to achieve internationally agreed goals. It is also responsible for the follow-up to major UN conferences and summits.

• Each year, ECOSOC structures its work around an annual theme of global importance to sustainable development. This ensures focused attention, among ECOSOC’s array of partners, and throughout the UN development system.

• By emphasising combined economic, social and environmental concerns, ECOSOC encourages agreement on coherent policies and actions that make fundamental links across all three.

ECOSOC has the powerful mandate to promote international cooperation on economic, social, cultural, educational, health and related issues. Specifically, it is tasked with the promotion of:

i) Higher standards of living, full employment, and conditions of economic and social progress and development.

ii) Solutions of international economic, social, health, and related problems, and international cultural and education cooperation.

iii) Universal respect for, and observance of, human rights and fundamental freedoms for all without distinction as to race, sex, language or religion.

India gets elected to four committees

• India gets elected to Commission for Social Development, Committee on NGOs, Commission on Science & Technology for Development and Committee for Economic, Social and Cultural Rights.

i) Since the World Summit for Social Development in Copenhagen in 1995, the Commission for Social Development (CSocD) has been the key United Nations body in charge of the follow up and implementation of the Copenhagen Declaration and Programme of Action. Its purpose was to advise ECOSOC on social policies of a general character and, in particular, on all matters in the social field not covered by the specialised inter-governmental agencies.

ii) The Committee on Non-Governmental Organisations is a standing committee of the Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC), established by the Council in 1946. The main tasks of the Committee are consideration of applications for consultative status and requests for reclassification submitted by NGOs and consideration of quadrennial reports submitted by NGOs in General and Special categories among others.

iii) The United Nations Commission on Science and Technology for Development (CSTD) is a subsidiary body of the Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC). It holds an annual inter-governmental forum for discussion on timely and pertinent issues affecting science, technology and development. Outcomes of the CSTD include providing the United Nations General Assembly and ECOSOC with high-level advice on relevant science and technology issues.

iv) The Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (CESCR) is the body of 18 independent experts that monitors implementation of the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights by its State parties.

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