The United Nations Economic and Social Council has 54 member states which are elected by the United Nations General Assembly for three-year terms, with terms ending on 31 December of the third year. Terms are staggered so that 18 members are elected each year. Seats on the Council are based on the 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][2]
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.
The original UN Charter stated that the Economic and Social Council consisted of 18 seats.
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.[3]
To prevent the permanent members from occupying 5 out of 6 seats up for election in one year, the permanent five agreed to stagger their terms by English alphabetical order. The Republic of China and France received 3-year initial terms (renewed in 1949, 1952, etc.), the United Kingdom and Soviet Union received 2-year initial terms (renewed in 1948, 1951, etc.), and the United States received a 1-year initial term (renewed in 1947, 1950, etc.).[4]
Unlike the Security Council, there was no specific agreement between the superpowers on how many ECOSOC seats would go to each of the then-informal United Nations Regional Groups. Instead, seat arrangements came from "unwritten rules" and "habits" that eventually stabilized into a pattern documented after the fact. For example:[3][5]
The pattern broke at the end of 1960, after fifteen nations from Africa outside the Arab League joined the United Nations in the span of one month, increasing the number of nations in this unrepresented group from four to nineteen.[8][3] The new members gave Africa, Asia, and Latin America together a commanding 66 out of 99 seats on the General Assembly. (Cyprus and Turkey caucused with Asia, while the Republic of China, Israel, and South Africa did not caucus with Asia or Africa.[8][5]) 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 deadlocked on the Netherlands' outgoing seat for fourteen rounds, which was left vacant for over four months, well into the 1961 term. 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.[3] This changed pattern would continue until 1965 when ECOSOC was expanded.
(Ten deadlocked rounds occurred on 9 December 1960,[9] and three more occurred on 20 December 1960.[10] A fourteenth round was scheduled for 13 April 1961, but was postponed by the President of the General Assembly with no objections while "the interested delegations and groups" negotiated.[11] The fourteenth round occurred on 18 April 1961, electing Italy.[12])
An amendment to the UN Charter in 1965 expanded the Economic and Social Council from 18 to 27 seats. A rule was also adopted to officially distribute the seats according to the Regional Groups. The 9-seat expansion added 5 African seats, 2 Asian seats, 1 Latin American seat, and 1 WEOG seat.
Another Charter amendment in 1973 further expanded the Economic and Social Council to 54 seats.
The heading 3N + 1 refers to years that are a multiple of 3 plus one, and so on.
After the original 18 members of ECOSOC were elected, the General Assembly decided by a simple majority which six members would get 1-year, 2-year, and 3-year initial terms.[13] This determined the seat staggering pattern (for example, the Eastern European seats were imbalanced because no Eastern European member was originally elected to a 3-year term).
After nine new seats were added in 1965 and members were elected to the seats, the General Assembly decided by a 60–44 vote that the President would randomly draw lots to determine which three would get 1-year, 2-year, and 3-year initial terms.[14] This created an imbalance in the African Group.
After 27 new seats were added in 1973, the President consulted with the chairs of the Regional Groups and it was agreed that term lengths would be distributed evenly for each Regional Group. For example, since the Asian Group had six new seats, two would go to each term length. Since the Latin American and Caribbean Group had five new seats while the African Group had seven, the two Groups agreed to draw lots to determine the uneven distribution. As a result, the African Group would obtain three 1-year, two 2-year, and two 3-year initial terms for their new seats, while the Latin American and Caribbean Group would obtain one 1-year, two 2-year, and two 3-year initial terms. After the consultations, members were elected to the seats. The President then proposed to the General Assembly to draw lots again in order to assign term lengths to the specific members, with no objections.[15]
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,[16][17] and the African Group is the only UN regional group to have such an internal seat system.[8] 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.[18] 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
Prior to 1979, there were four subregions. An official African Union document from 1972 states a pattern of how many seats per region are to be doled out,[19] but in practice this pattern changed over time and did not stabilize until approximately the late 1980s.
Formally, Liberia, Congo, and Zambia were elected in place of outgoing Niger, Zaire, and Madagascar, while Ivory Coast and Egypt were elected to newly created seats.[20]
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.
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.)[16] 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.
In 1965, formally, the Philippines were elected in place of outgoing Japan, while Iran was elected to a newly created seat.[22]
Formally, South Yemen and Thailand were elected in place of outgoing Lebanon and Malaysia, while Iran and Jordan were elected to newly created seats.[20]
Formally, Romania was elected in place of outgoing Hungary, while East Germany was elected to a newly created seat.[20]
In 1965, formally, Panama was elected in place of outgoing Argentina, while Venezuela was elected to a newly created seat.[22]
Formally, Mexico was elected in place of outgoing Haiti, while Colombia and Jamaica were elected to newly created seats.[20]
The Western European and Others Group contains three caucusing subgroups (Benelux, the Nordic countries, and CANZ[a]). In practice, since 1976, this has created seats that 'belong' to a subgroup with few exceptions, as well as seats that never go to any of the subgroups. Iceland joined the Nordic caucus in 1998.[34][35]
Since 2000, the 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 new 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.
Formally, Australia was elected in place of outgoing New Zealand, while Belgium and Italy were elected to newly created seats.[20]
A total of 175 United Nations member states have been elected to ECOSOC. Out of these, 5 have ceased to exist and 1 has been expelled, leaving a total of 169 members. Combined with the 24 current members that have never been elected to ECOSOC (see #Non-members below), these make up the 193 current members of the UN.
This lists all current UN members that have never been a member of the Economic and Social Council.