Economic and Social Council

2008 Substantive Session

47^th & 48^th Meetings (PM)

ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL COUNCIL ELECTS SEVEN MEMBERS TO PEACEBUILDING COMMISSION

Algeria , El Salvador, Guinea-Bissau, Luxembourg

Morocco , Poland, Republic of Korea to Serve Two-Year Terms

Resuming its 2008 session, the Economic and Social Council today elected seven members to the Organizational Committee of the Peacebuilding Commission for two-year terms of office beginning on 1 January 2009.

Filling three seats allocated for the African region were Algeria, Guinea-Bissau and Morocco.  For the seat allocated to Asian States, the Republic of Korea was elected.   Poland, El Salvador and Luxembourg filled the seats for Eastern European, Latin American and Caribbean, and Western European and other States, respectively.

As only members of the Economic and Social Council could be elected to serve on the Organizational Committee, and since the membership of both El Salvador and Algeria will end in 2009, the their respective regional groups endorsed Brazil and Egypt to complete their terms of office from January to December 2010.  Similarly, Luxembourg’s membership to the Council will end in 2009; however, the group of Western European and other States has yet to endorse a candidate.

Prior to the elections, the Council adopted a resolution whereby it decided that, starting in 2009, the two-year term of office of Council members elected to the Organizational Committee shall begin on 1 January, instead of on 23 June, with the possibility of sharing the term within the concerned regional group for the seats allocated to it.

By that text (document E/2008/L.7/Rev.1), the Council also decided that distribution of the seven seats allocated to it on the Organizational Committee shall be 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 seats shall be allocated to the regional group of African States.  Finally by the text, the Council decided that its practice regarding members elected to its subsidiary bodies who are unable to complete their terms of office shall apply to members elected to the Organizational Committee by the Council.

[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.]

Also today, the Council elected the United Kingdom to fill a vacancy created by Ireland’s resignation from the Programme Coordinating Boardof the Joint United Nations Programme on Human Immunodeficiency Virus/Acquired Immunodeficiency Syndrome (UNAIDS), an inter-agency body whose creation was authorized by ECOSOC resolution 1994/24.

The Council also nominated South Africa for election by the General Assembly to the Committee for Programme and Coordination, the main 32-member subsidiary organ of the Council and the General Assembly for planning and coordination between those two bodies.  By that nomination, South Africa fills a vacancy created after Swaziland withdrew its candidacy for the three-year term of office, which begins 1 January 2009.

In other action, the Council adopted a decision contained in document E/2008/32 (Part II), whereby it took note of the report of the Committee on Non-Governmental Organizations on its 2008 resumed session.

Prior to adoption, the Secretary informed the Council of two corrections in that report, saying first that in paragraph 41 (page 22 in the English version), the roll-call vote should read “13 to 4, with 2 abstentions”.  In the corresponding list of countries voting against the proposal, Peru should be inserted between Israel and the United States.

The representative of Cuba, referring to chapter VII of that report, which discussed the organization Liberal International, clarified that his delegation would disassociate from consensus in that case, as the United Kingdom-based group was not a non-governmental organization, but an association of political parties involved with politically motivated actions against United Nations Member States.   Cuba would continue to monitor that organization’s activities, with a view to understanding whether it met the requirements of resolution 1996/31.

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For information media • not an official record