Dag Hammarskjöld Library at Uppsala University
Economic and Social Council - ECOSOC
- © United Nations
Most people associate the United Nations with the maintenance of peace and security. However, most of the organization's resources are spent on the promotion of higher standards of living, full employment and economic and social progress as formulated in the UN Charter.
The Economic and Social Council, ECOSOC - coordinates the economic and social work of the United Nations and the specialized agencies and institutions known as "the United Nations family" of organizations.
Functions and powers of the ECOSOC:
- to serve a the central forum for discussions on international economic and social issues
- to promote higher standards of living, full employment and economic and social progress
- to find solutions of international economic , social, health and related problems, and international cultural and educational cooperation
- to encourage universal respect for and observance of human rights and fundamental freedoms
- to assist the organization of major international conferences in the field of economic and social and related fields
- to make or initiate studies and reports with respect to international economic and social matters
- to prepare draft conventions for submission to the General Assembly
- to coordinate the work of the specialized agencies and programmes
- to make arrangements for consultations with non-governmental organizations
Structure
ECOSOC has 54 members elected by the General Assembly for a three-year term. Every year 18 new members are elected according to a geographical distribution. ECOSOC has no permanent members, but a country can be reelected immediately. The political and economic superpowers are elected every year, and, consequently, they are "permanent" members.
Documentation
Documents from the ECOSOC carry the following symbols:
E/ Economic and Social Council |
-/year |
-/consecutive number |
Ex. E/2004/18 Economic and Social Council, 2004, document no 18 |
Before 1978 the ECOSOC did not incorporate the year into the symbols of its documents.
Rules of Procedure of the Economic and Social Council are posted at the official web site of the ECOSOC.
Databases and Indexes
The official web site of ECOSOC provides information about its structure and programmes. It includes full text documents for recent years and a search engine to relevant subject areas.
For more information on the structure of the Economic and Social Council, see UN Official web site, Structure and Organization
Documents from 1993 onwards are stored in the United Nations Official Document system - ODS.
References to ECOSOC documents from 1979 onwards with links to full texts for recent years can be accessed through
the United Nations online catalogue - UNBISnet.
A web portal to the ECOSOC documents is posted at the UN official web site, section Documents, Economic and Social Council.
Printed Indexes
References to all ECSOC documents are published in the United Nations Documents Index. A complete collection of indexes is held by the Dag Hammarskjöld Library, Uppsala, and the Libraries at UN Headquarters in New York and Geneva.