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 (1946–1965)
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.[3]
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.).[4]
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:[3][5]
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.[3][6][7]
↑Various nonstandard, inconsistent names, including also "Near and Middle East", were used before Africa and Asia became Regional Groups. Sources published after the introduction of the Regional Groups retroactively name this group "Asia-Africa" or similar, but this name was not used at the creation of ECOSOC.[8][3][5]
↑In October 1947, India proposed the creation of a group named "Australasia and the Far East", which would match the third seat if including India and then-East Pakistan, but the proposal was not taken up.[3]
↑Greece's seat has also been called a "Near East" seat,[8] which would make Spain the exception instead of Iran.
↑Belgium was elected to receive a 3-year term starting in 1946. However, as Greece's 1-year term was ending, Turkey and the Netherlands deadlocked as successor candidates. The deadlock was resolved when Belgium agreed to give the remaining 2 years of its term to the Netherlands.
↑Considered part of the Middle East due to being a member of the Arab League.[8]
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.[8][3] 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.[8][5]) 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.[3] This changed pattern would continue until 1965 when ECOSOC was expanded.
(Ten deadlocked rounds occurred on 9 December 1960,[9] and three more occurred on 20 December 1960.[10] 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.[11] The fourteenth round occurred on 18 April 1961, electing Italy.[12])
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.
↑Retroactively counting the United States as a WEOG member, even though it did not join WEOG until 1970.
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.[13] 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 60–44 vote that the President would randomly draw lots to determine which three would get 1-year, 2-year, and 3-year initial terms.[14] 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.[15]
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,[16][17] and the African Group is the only UN regional group to have such an internal seat system.[8] 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.[18] 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:WesternNorthernCentralSouthernEastern
1966–1978
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,[19] but in practice this pattern changed over time and did not stabilize until approximately the late 1980s.
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.[20]
↑Zaire lost re-election in November 1973, but was then elected to one of the newly created ECOSOC seats and drew a 1-year term.[20] It then won re-election in this new seat in December 1974.[21]
1979–1996
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.
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.)[16] 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 1998–1999. No changes to the seat distribution have occurred since 2006.
Formally, South Yemen and Thailand were elected in place of outgoing Lebanon and Malaysia, while Iran and Jordan were elected to newly created seats.[20]
↑The Islamic Republic of Afghanistan was elected in June 2021,[23] and retains its UN seat despite losing control over its territory in September 2021.
↑Yugoslavia was de facto expelled from the UN General Assembly in 1992, but continued to sit on ECOSOC under its former flag in 1993.
↑East Germany ceased to exist ten months into its term. In a special election in November 1990, Romania was elected in its place and was seated immediately (before the other members which were seated January 1991).[24]
↑The Soviet Union was (re-)elected to a 3-year term starting in 1990. Russia first appeared on ballots for the 1993 term.
↑North Macedonia and Russia have deadlocked over this seat for twenty-five rounds of balloting, with neither candidate able to obtain a two-thirds majority. This is the only vacancy to have lasted more than a year. (Six rounds took place on 10 June 2022,[25][26] five rounds took place on 16 June 2022,[27] five rounds took place on 11 July 2022,[28] three rounds took place on 2 September 2022,[29] three rounds took place on 20 December 2022,[30] one round took place on 8 June 2023,[31] one round took place on 5 December 2023,[32] and one round took place on 7 June 2024.[33])
Latin American and Caribbean Group
In 1965, formally, Panama was elected in place of outgoing Argentina, while Venezuela was elected to a newly created seat.[22]
The Western European and Others Group contains three caucusing subgroups (Benelux, the Nordic countries, and CANZ[a]). In practice, since 1976, this has created seats that 'belong' to a subgroup with few exceptions, as well as seats that never go to any of the subgroups. Iceland joined the Nordic caucus in 1998.[34][35]
Since 2000, the Group has engaged in a large number of special elections, with members voluntarily giving part of their 3-year term to another member. In many cases, the newly elected member then runs for re-election, only to again give part of their new 3-year term to another member, creating an 'offset' effect where members' terms do not align with the usual cycle. Below, all re-elections are shown as separate table cells. To prevent distorting or stretching the table, special elections resulting in 1-year terms are abbreviated to the country's ISO 3166-1 alpha-3 code.
↑Switzerland was not re-elected; Norway gave the last two years of its term to Switzerland just before the regular election.[36] (Switzerland then gave the rest of its term to Sweden a year later.)
↑In June 2021, Finland gave the last year of its term to Denmark.[37] In December 2021, Norway gave the last year of its term to Finland.[38]
List by number of years as ECOSOC member
A total of 176 United Nations member states have been elected to ECOSOC. Out of these, 5 have ceased to exist and 1 has been expelled, leaving a total of 170 members. Combined with the 23 current members that have never been elected to ECOSOC (see #Non-members below), these make up the 193 current members of the UN.
1234567Gregg, 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.
123Padelford, 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.
↑UN Document A/PV.389 General Assembly, 7th session: 389th plenary meeting, Saturday, 25 October 1952, Headquarters, New York
↑UN Document A/PV.390 General Assembly, 7th session: 390th plenary meeting, Monday, 27 October 1952, Headquarters, New York
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Republic of China 
France 
Soviet Union 
United Kingdom 
United States 
