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)
Prior to an amendment to the UN Charter in 1965, the Economic and Social Council consisted of 18 seats.
De facto permanent
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
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.
- ^ 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.
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
African Group
Similar to on the Security Council, the African Union is in charge of distributing the African Group's seats based on the African Union's subregions, [9] [10] and the African Group is the only UN regional group to have such an internal seat system. [5] Unlike on the Security Council, the distribution of ECOSOC seats is not strict, and may change if (for example) a subregion does not receive enough applicants in a given year. [11] For example, at the end of 2004, the term of Libya ended and no member from Northern Africa applied. A member from Central Africa effectively replaced Libya. One year later, the term of the Republic of the Congo ended and the seat was given to Mauritania, undoing the 'imbalance' but changing the arrangement of seats (years that are a multiple of 3 now no longer elect any Northern African members).
Legend: Western Northern Central Southern Eastern
1966–1978
Prior to 1979, there were four subregions. An official African Union document from 1972 states how many seats per region are to be doled out, [12] although a specific pattern did not stabilize.
| Year | Western | Northern | Central | Eastern | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1966 |  Sierra Leone |
Dahomey
|
Algeria
|
Morocco
|
Cameroon
|
Gabon
|
Tanzania
|
| 1967 | 
Libya
| ||||||
| 1968 |  Upper Volta |
Chad
|
 Congo (Brazzaville) | ||||
| 1969 | 
Sudan
| ||||||
| 1970 | 
Ghana
|
Tunisia
|
Kenya
| ||||
| 1971 | 
Niger
|
Zaire
|
Madagascar
| ||||
| 1972 | 
Burundi
| ||||||
| 1973 | 
Mali
|
Algeria
|
Uganda
| ||||
| Year | Western | Northern | Central | Eastern | ||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1974 | 
Ivory Coast
|
Liberia
|
Mali
|
Guinea
|
Senegal
|
Algeria
|
Egypt
|
Congo
|
Zaire
[a]
|
Burundi
|
Uganda
|
Ethiopia
|
Kenya
|
Zambia
|
| 1975 |
Gabon
| |||||||||||||
| 1976 | 
Nigeria
|
Togo
|
Tunisia
| |||||||||||
| 1977 | 
Mauritania
|
Upper Volta
|
Sudan
|
Rwanda
|
Somalia
| |||||||||
| 1978 |
Cameroon
|
Central African Empire
|
Lesotho
|
Tanzania
| ||||||||||
1979–1996
With five regions, the distribution of seats eventually stabilized into the following pattern: 4 seats to Western Africa, 3 seats to Eastern Africa, 2 seats to Northern Africa, 2 seats to Southern Africa, and 3 seats to Central Africa.
| Year | Western | Eastern | Northern | Southern | Central | |||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1979 |
Ghana
|
Senegal
|
Mauritania
|
Algeria
|
Tanzania
|
Somalia
|
Lesotho
[a]
|
Sudan
|
Morocco
|
Zambia
|
Upper Volta
|
Cameroon
|
Central African Empire
|
Rwanda
|
| 1980 |
Nigeria
|
Ethiopia
|
Libya
|
Malawi
|
Zaire
| |||||||||
| 1981 |
Kenya
|
Sudan
|
Burundi
| |||||||||||
| 1982 |
Benin
|
Liberia
|
Mali
|
Tunisia
|
Swaziland
| |||||||||
| 1983 |
Sierra Leone
|
Djibouti
|
Algeria
|
Botswana
|
Congo
| |||||||||
| 1984 |
Somalia
|
Uganda
|
Rwanda
|
Zaire
| ||||||||||
| 1985 |
Guinea
|
Nigeria
|
Senegal
|
Morocco
|
Zimbabwe
| |||||||||
| 1986 |
Egypt
|
Mozambique
|
Gabon
| |||||||||||
| 1987 |
Sudan
| |||||||||||||
| 1988 |
Ghana
|
Liberia
|
Libya
|
Lesotho
| ||||||||||
| 1989 |
Niger
|
Kenya
|
Tunisia
|
Zambia
|
Cameroon
| |||||||||
| 1990 | 
Burkina Faso
|
Algeria
| ||||||||||||
| 1991 |
Togo
|
Somalia
|
Morocco
|
Botswana
| ||||||||||
| 1992 |
Benin
|
Ethiopia
|
Madagascar
|
Swaziland
|
Angola
| |||||||||
| 1993 |
Nigeria
|
Libya
|
Gabon
| |||||||||||
| 1994 |
Ghana
|
Senegal
|
Tanzania
|
Egypt
|
Zimbabwe
| |||||||||
| 1995 |
Côte d'Ivoire
|
Sudan
|
Uganda
|
South Africa
|
Congo
| |||||||||
| 1996 |
Togo
|
Tunisia
|
Central African Republic
| |||||||||||
- ^ Changed regions while still on ECOSOC.
1997–present
With Namibia, South Africa, and Angola all joining the Southern Africa region within a short period of time, the Southern Africa region gained a third seat, first at the expense of Northern Africa and then eventually Central Africa. (Angola's region change took place in 1995, so the first affected applications to the African Union took place in March 1996, in time for the October 1996 ECOSOC elections for the 1997 term.) [9] The first years to match the modern seat distribution (4 seats to Western Africa, 2 seats to Northern Africa, 2 seats to Central Africa, 3 seats to Southern Africa, 3 seats to Eastern Africa) were 1998–1999. No changes to the seat distribution have occurred since 2006.
Asia-Pacific Group
| 1966 | 
Philippines
|
Iran
|
India
|
Pakistan
|
Iraq
|
| 1967 | 
Kuwait
| ||||
| 1968 | 
Japan
| ||||
| 1969 | 
Indonesia
|
Pakistan
| |||
| 1970 | 
Ceylon
| ||||
| 1971 | 
Lebanon
|
Malaysia
| |||
| 1972 | 
China
|
Japan
| |||
| 1973 | 
Mongolia
|
Eastern European Group
| 1966 | 
Czechoslovakia
|
Romania
|
Soviet Union
|
| 1967 | |||
| 1968 | 
Bulgaria
| ||
| 1969 | 
Yugoslavia
| ||
| 1970 | |||
| 1971 | 
Hungary
| ||
| 1972 | 
Poland
| ||
| 1973 |
- ^ East Germany ceased to exist ten months into its term. In a special election in November 1990, Romania was elected in its place and was seated immediately (before the other members which were seated January 1991). [15]
- ^ The Soviet Union was (re-)elected to a 3-year term starting in 1990; Russia first appeared on ballots for the 1993 term.
- ^ North Macedonia and Russia have deadlocked over this seat for twenty-three rounds of balloting, with neither candidate able to obtain a two-thirds majority. This is the only vacancy to have lasted more than a year. (Six rounds took place on 10 June 2022, [16] [17] five rounds took place on 16 June 2022, [18] five rounds took place on 11 July 2022, [19] three rounds took place on 2 September 2022, [20] three rounds took place on 20 December 2022, [21] and one round took place on 8 June 2023. [22])
Latin American and Caribbean Group
| 1966 | 
Panama
|
Venezuela
|
Peru
|
Chile
|
Ecuador
|
| 1967 | 
Guatemala
|
Mexico
| |||
| 1968 | 
Argentina
| ||||
| 1969 | 
Jamaica
|
Uruguay
| |||
| 1970 | 
Brazil
|
Peru
| |||
| 1971 | 
Haiti
| ||||
| 1972 | 
Bolivia
|
Chile
| |||
| 1973 | 
Trinidad and Tobago
|
Western European and Others Group
Since 2000, the Western European and Others Group has engaged in a large number of special elections, with members voluntarily giving part of their 3-year term to another member. In many cases, the newly elected member then runs for re-election only to again give part of their 3-year term to another member, creating an 'offset' effect where members' terms do not align with the usual cycle. Below, all re-elections are shown as separate table cells. To prevent distorting or stretching the table, special elections resulting in 1-year terms are abbreviated to the country's ISO 3166-1 alpha-3 code.
| 1966 | 
Sweden
|
United Kingdom
|
Canada
|
United States
|
France
|
Luxembourg
|
Greece
|
| 1967 |
France
|
Belgium
|
Turkey
| ||||
| 1968 | 
Ireland
|
United States
| |||||
| 1969 | 
Norway
|
United Kingdom
| |||||
| 1970 |
France
|
Italy
|
Greece
| ||||
| 1971 | 
New Zealand
|
United States
| |||||
| 1972 | 
Finland
|
United Kingdom
| |||||
| 1973 |
France
|
Netherlands
|
Spain
|
- ^ Switzerland was not re-elected; Norway gave the last two years of its term to Switzerland separately from the regular election. [23] (Switzerland then gave the rest of its term to Sweden a year later.)
- ^ In June 2021, Finland gave the last year of its term to Denmark. [24] In December 2021, Norway gave the last year of its term to Finland. [25]
Non-members
The list is a summary of all countries that have never been a member of United Nations Economic and Social Council. [26]
| 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
See also
- 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
- ^ 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 f 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 Endeley, Isaac (2009). Bloc Politics at the United Nations: The African Group. University Press of America. ISBN 978-0761845584.
- ^ Endeley, Isaac (1998). Le Groupe africain à l'ONU dans l'après-guerre froide (PDF) (PhD thesis) (in French). Université de Montréal. Retrieved 2024-03-30.
- ^ "Note of Presentation of the Document on Candidatures" (PDF).
- ^ "Report of the Administrative Secretary-General on African Candidatures to the United Nation and its Specialized Agencies and to other International Organizations" (PDF).
- ^ "A/PV.2177".
- ^ "A/PV.2306".
- ^ "A/45/PV.41".
- ^ "A/76/PV.81".
- ^ "A/76/PV.82".
- ^ "A/76/PV.83".
- ^ "A/76/PV.93".
- ^ "A/76/PV.98".
- ^ "A/77/PV.56".
- ^ "A/77/PV.77".
- ^ "A/66/PV.39".
- ^ "A/75/PV.73".
- ^ "A/76/PV.52".
- ^ "Economic and Social Council Membership". Economic and Social Council.
External links
- Official Document System of the United Nations – source of UN electoral records
