Economic and Social Council

2008 Organizational Session

11^th Meeting (PM)

ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL COUNCIL, AS INTERIM MEASURE, EXTENDS TERMS

OF OFFICE OF PEACEBUILDING COMMISSION MEMBERS

 

Pending further consultations, the Economic and Social Council, today, as an interim measure, agreed on a three-week extension for seven members of the United Nations Peacebuilding Commission, whose terms of office were to expire on Monday. 

The Council, which has the responsibility to elect seven States to serve on the two-year-old Peacebuilding Commission, extended through 11 July the terms of office of the seats allotted to it, currently held by Angola, Brazil, Czech Republic, Guinea-Bissau, Indonesia, Luxembourg and Sri Lanka.

Taking this decision, the Economic and Social Council also decided to postpone consideration of a draft resolution which would have had it recognize the important role performed by the Peacebuilding Commission towards recovery, reintegration and reconstruction in countries emerging from conflict.  Thus far, the Peacebuilding Commission has put four post-conflict countries on its agenda:   Burundi, Sierra Leone, Guinea-Bissau, and, just last week, it added the Central African Republic.

The resolution would have also set the distribution of the next set of seats allocated to the Economic and Social Council on the Commission’s Organizational Committee as follows:  one seat for each of the five regional groups, namely, African States, Asian States, Eastern European States, Latin American and Caribbean States and Western European and Other States.

The two remaining would be allocated as follows:  one seat would be rotated between the regional groups of African States and Asian States, starting in 2008 with the African States; and one seat would be rotated between the regional groups of Latin American and Caribbean States, Western European and Other States and Eastern European States, starting in 2008 with the Latin American and Caribbean States, in 2010 with the Western European and Other States, and in 2012 with the Eastern European States.

[Resolution E/2006/L.2/Rev.2, which laid out the allocation of the Council’s inaugural seven members to the Peacebuilding Commission’s Organizational Committee, decided that five of the seven seats on the Organizational Committee would be given to each of the five regional groups:  African States, Asian States, Eastern European States, Latin American and Caribbean States, and Western European and Other States.  For the purpose of the first election, the two remaining seats would be allocated to the regional groups of African States and Asian States.]

Under the General Assembly and Security Council resolutions that established the Peacebuilding Commission in 2005, the Organizational Committee would be made up of 31 Member States, to set the Commission’s agenda, including the establishment of the medium-term calendar for its wide-ranging activities, and the development of Integrated Peacebuilding Strategies (IPBS) for the countries on its agenda.  Those resolutions also decided that the Committee’s members would serve renewable two-year terms, as applicable.

The members of the Organizational Committee were distributed among the United Nations three main organs as follows:  seven members elected by the General Assembly (Burundi, Chile, Egypt, El Salvador, Fiji, Georgia and Jamaica); seven members selected by the Security Council (Belgium, China, France, Russian Federation, South Africa, United Kingdom and the United States); and seven members elected by the Economic and Social Council (Angola, Brazil, Czech Republic, Guinea-Bissau, Indonesia, Luxembourg and Sri Lanka).

Further, selection of the Committee’s final 10 members fell to:  five of the top providers of assessed contributions to United Nations budgets and of voluntary contributions to United Nations funds, programmes and agencies, including the Peacebuilding Fund (Germany, Italy, Japan, Netherlands and Norway); and to five of the top providers of military personnel and civilian police to United Nations missions (Bangladesh, Ghana, India, Nigeria and Pakistan).

The Economic and Social Council will reconvene at a time and date to be announced.

* *** *

For information media • not an official record