If you’re attending AMUN 2017, then you may have a role with the ECOSOC Plenary session on Tuesday afternoon.

The Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC) is the United Nations organ that provides a forum for economic and social issues, as well as for the implementation of internationally agreed upon development goals. The Council also supervises regional and functional commissions and other specialized bodies. The role of these bodies is to investigate specific topics and present their findings to ECOSOC in the form of reports that review the deliberations of the body and provide recommendations for action by ECOSOC in the form of draft resolutions suggested for consideration.

AMUN 2017 will simulate two report-writing bodies that will present their findings to ECOSOC at the Tuesday afternoon plenary session: the Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (ESCAP) and the Committee of Experts on Public Administration (CEPA).

Why does AMUN simulate ECOSOC subsidiary bodies?

Simulating report-writing ECOSOC subsidiary bodies provides a realistic simulation of the United Nations. The experience of representatives in these bodies is a unique and valuable educational experience. Representatives must collaborate with dozens of their peers to research topics, deliberate on issues, and agree on recommended actions, while concurrently drafting a single report for each topic that outlines the proceedings and may be adopted by the body. The body, ideally, adopts its reports by consensus.

What is the ECOSOC Plenary at AMUN?

Subsidiary bodies present the report of their findings to the ECOSOC at the Plenary Session on Tuesday afternoon. Each subsidiary body will select representatives to present the body’s work. ECOSOC considers a resolution that is associated with each report presented during the session. These resolutions acknowledge the work done by the reporting body and thank it for its work, but do not endorse the content or make decisions regarding the recommended actions. Simulating this plenary session allows us to fully simulate the reporting process–to include some rubber-stamping of resolutions–as it happens at the United Nations. The ECOSOC plenary session also allows representatives to present their work to each other and to engage in substantive question and answer sessions about what a particular body has done over the course of the Conference.

Who attends the ECOSOC Plenary? It could be you…

The ECOSOC plenary session is formally composed of the the 54 Members of the Council. Delegations with a seat on ECOSOC that are in attendance at AMUN are requested to assign a representative to attend the ECOSOC plenary. They will hear the presentation of reports and adopt the ECOSOC resolutions acknowledging the work done by the subsidiary bodies. A representative of Japan on the General Assembly First Committee, for example, could be assigned by the delegation to represent Japan at  the ECOSOC plenary session on Tuesday afternoon.

All representatives seated on ECOSOC subsidiary bodies (CEPA and ESCAP) also attend and participate in the discussion at the ECOSOC plenary session. Representatives seated on the subsidiary body may elect to participate in the plenary session as a member of the ECOSOC if their delegation is an ECOSOC Member.