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.UN Economic and Social Council Members list (official site)
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 (19461965) The original UN Charter stated that 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 the end of 1960, when it failed to get a two-thirds majority vote for re-election.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.
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.).
Year De facto permanent seats 19461960 19611965see below
Non-permanent 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: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. 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. As candidates do not run for a specific seat, the arrangement of columns is slightly arbitrary. For example, at the end of 1952, the terms of Czechoslovakia, Pakistan, and Iran were ending, and the outgoing seats were contested by Czechoslovakia, Pakistan, Yugoslavia, India, and Turkey (the former two running for re-election). India and Turkey won election, causing the last seat to deadlock between Czechoslovakia, Pakistan, and Yugoslavia. After thirteen rounds, Yugoslavia finally obtained a two-thirds majority. Had Pakistan won re-election instead, the table may have ended up arranged so that India succeeded to Czechoslovakia's seat. Due to being a pattern instead of an agreement or rule, some deviations occurred without comment. For example, during the above 1952 deadlock, no member of the General Assembly (including the Soviet Union) made any complaint about the Soviet bloc being potentially deprived of a seat. (In contrast, the Soviet Union frequently made complaints as early as 1947 when the Eastern European seat on the Security Council threatened to go to a non-Soviet-aligned member.) In the table below, deviations from the pattern that were successfully elected are highlighted with a star.UN Document A/PV.389 General Assembly, 7th session: 389th plenary meeting, Saturday, 25 October 1952, Headquarters, New YorkUN Document A/PV.390 General Assembly, 7th session: 390th plenary meeting, Monday, 27 October 1952, Headquarters, New York
Year Latin American seats Eastern European seats Commonwealth seat "Near and Far East" seats Western European seats Chinese seat 1946 Czechoslovakia Ukrainian SSR * * 1947 1948 * 1949 1950 Czechoslovakia * 1951 1952 1953 1954 Czechoslovakia 1955 1956 1957 1958 1959 1960 1961 * 1962 * 1963 Czechoslovakia 1964 * 1965 *
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. 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.) 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. This changed pattern would continue until 1965 when ECOSOC was expanded.
(Ten deadlocked rounds occurred on 9 December 1960, and three more occurred on 20 December 1960. 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. The fourteenth round occurred on 18 April 1961, electing Italy.)
Membership by regional group 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.
Table The heading 3N+1 refers to years that are a multiple of 3 plus one, and so on.
19621965 19661973 1974present 3N 3N+1 3N+2 3N 3N+1 3N+2 3N 3N+1 3N+2 African Group 1 0 1 3 1 3 5 4 5 Asia-Pacific Group 1 1 1 2 2 1 4 4 3 Eastern European Group 1 2 0 1 2 0 2 3 1 Latin American and Caribbean Group 1 1 2 1 2 2 3 3 4 Western European and Others Group 2 2 2 2 2 3 4 4 5
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. 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 6044 vote that the President would randomly draw lots to determine which three would get 1-year, 2-year, and 3-year initial terms. 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.
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, and the African Group is the only UN regional group to have such an internal seat system. 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. 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:
19661978 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, but in practice this pattern changed over time and did not stabilize until approximately the late 1980s.
Year Western Northern Central Eastern1966 Sierra Leone 1967 1968 Upper Volta Congo(Brazzaville)1969 1970 1971 1972 1973
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.
Year Western Northern Central Eastern1974 Congo 1975 1976 1977 Upper Volta 1978
19791996 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 Central1979 Upper Volta 1980 1981 1982 1983 1984 1985 1986 1987 1988 1989 1990 1991 1992 1993 1994 1995 1996
1997present 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.) 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 19981999. No changes to the seat distribution have occurred since 2006.
Year Western Northern Central Southern Eastern1997 1998 1999 2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 20152016 2017 2018 2019 2020 2021 2022 2023 2024 2025
Asia-Pacific Group In 1965, formally, the Philippines were elected in place of outgoing Japan, while Iran was elected to a newly created seat.
1966 1967 1968 1969 1970 1971 1972 1973
Formally, South Yemen and Thailand were elected in place of outgoing Lebanon and Malaysia, while Iran and Jordan were elected to newly created seats.