Implementing Rio+20: ECOSOC’s New Role and Its Old Culture
▻http://www.globalpolicy.org/component/content/article/225-general/52530-implementing-rio20-ecosocs-new-role-and-its-old-culture.html
Implementing Rio+20: ECOSOC’s New Role and Its Old Culture
posted on: Monday, October 28th, 2013
by: Harris Gleckman, Center for Governance and Sustainability, University of Massachusetts – Boston
Almost since the Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC) was created, there have been ECOSOC reform efforts. Most of these efforts have been preceded by a build-up of political enthusiasm and followed by quite minor changes. One then could be quite skeptical of the 2013 version of ECOSOC reform adopted this September [1]. The timing of this round of ECOSOC reform was based on the last time “ECOSOC was reformed” (General Assembly decision 61/16), but now supplemented by the Rio+20 outcome document’s call for the mainstreaming of sustainable development by ECOSOC.
ECOSOC has always been the weakest piece of the UN charter. Unlike the Security Council, there are no obligations for Member States or the UN system to act on ECOSOC’s decisions. As the opening paragraphs of the new resolution repeat three times, ECOSOC‘s job is “to coordinate” the economic, social, environmental and related activities of the UN system. But it was not given any ability to sanction UN-related organizations that ignore its advice, nor has it received any real role in budget decisions. And, unlike the Security Council and the General Assembly, ECOSOC has not been a place where governments bring pressing external economic, social or environmental threats to their security or development. Further, in spite of its name, it is not a place where economic counsel is given to global economic actors or where coordination of globalization’s challenges is forthrightly discussed.
voir ▻http://uncsd.iisd.org/guest-articles/implementing-rio20-ecosocs-new-role-and-its-old-culture