Should ECOSOC Be Reformed?

• Author: Disney, Julian
• Position: Economic and Social Council system

The United Nations has a clear mandate and responsibility to play a major role in international economic cooperation, especially through its Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC) system. Yet from its earliest years, the Council has largely failed to do so. Instead, the major roles have been played by organizations such as the International Monetary Fund (IMF), the World Bank, the G-7 and the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), which are dominated by the wealthiest countries and usually give insufficient attention to social development and environmental sustainability. The World Trade Organization (WTO) has behaved in a similar way, although its recent Seattle meeting suggests that some improvements may be achievable where developing countries have majority voting power, organize themselves effectively and enjoy strong civil society support.

The Seattle confrontations were seen widely as a powerful challenge to WTO. But they also presented a challenge--and opportunity--for the United Nations. A central debate was whether WTO, the International Labour Organization or some combination of the two should be responsible for resolving possible conflicts between trade rules and labour standards. Concerns were also expressed about how environmental considerations would be taken into account. Of course, many other issues such as health, education and poverty reduction can also be crucially affected by trade rules.

The mechanisms for resolving such conflicts should not be determined by ad hoc responses to particular political forces at particular moments in time. Instead, they should be part of an ongoing and coherent framework, which is established and overseen by an organization that recognizes the full range of relevant issues and interests. At the national level, this is the role of the head of Government, cabinet, or other whole-of-government authority. At the global level, ECOSOC's mandate, composition and location within the UN system make it the most appropriate body for the task. It is the Council which should have overarching responsibility for determining the mechanisms by which particular conflicts in international rules and standards between, say, trade, labour and environmental agencies should be resolved.

The Council needs to become more closely and centrally involved in international discussions and decisions concerning key issues such as financial market regulation, tax policy and administration, and corporate...