ODU Model United Nations Conference (ODUMUNC)

Committees

Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC)

Topics:

1. Pandemic disease preparedness in developing nations.
2. Sharing science and green technology for sustainable development.
3. Strengthening coordination of efforts to combat human trafficking.

Your Chairman: TBA

Background Material

Welcome to one of the three basic bodies of the United Nations. Besides the Security Council and General Assembly, the UN Charter created the ECOSOC, with the mission of better organizing economic and social policy to improve the lives of people the world over.  It works directly with over a dozen UN technical agencies and commissions. It coordinates the work of several UN programmes and funds.

The work of the ECOSOC stresses:

• promoting higher standards of living, full employment, and economic and social progress;
• identifying solutions to international economic, social and health problems; 
• facilitating international cultural and educational cooperation; and 
• encouraging universal respect for human rights and fundamental freedoms.

This session ECOSOC will discuss strengthening the coordination of emergency humanitarian assistance, the situation of women and girls in Afghanistan, and a comprehensive international convention on the rights and dignity of persons with disabilities.

Improving emergency humanitarian assistance has become a pressing cause for the international community in light of the immense destruction of the December 2004 tsunami in the Indian Ocean, the 2005 earthquake in Pakistan, and the 2008 typhoon in Myanmar.  The education and rights of women and girls in Afghanistan have improved dramatically since the ouster of the Taliban regime in 2001, but more remains to be done in a country still at war. The success or failure of these initiatives will have implications for rights throughout the Muslim world. Discrimination towards the disabled is declining in many countries, but it remains a problem everywhere. ECOSOC works to improve their respect and protection.

 ECOSOC working                           ECOSOC meeting preparation