Finland to head the United Nations Economic and Social Council
Press Release 18/2004
21 January 2004
H. E. Ambassador Marjatta Rasi, Finland’s Permanent Representative to the United Nations in New York, is to be elected President of the UN Economic and Social Council, or ECOSOC, on Wednesday, 21 January. The Presidency will last the entire calendar year, during which the most important event will be the ECOSOC Substantive Session scheduled to be held in New York in July.
The United Nations Economic and Social Council is one of the UN’s main intergovernmental organs alongside the United Nations General Assembly and the United Nations Security Council. A total of 54 members serving a three-year term are elected to ECOSOC. This year ECOSOC includes eleven current and future Member States of the European Union; of the Nordic countries, aside from Finland, Sweden is currently a member of ECOSOC.
The Economic and Social Council’s primary task is to coordinate the UN’s development efforts and, at the intergovernmental level, to promote economic and social affairs falling under the scope of UN activities. Subordinate to ECOSOC are expert bodies and committees dealing with sustainable development, human rights, equality, international forestry cooperation or combating drugs. In recent years the Council has been delegated additional tasks, including supervision and promotion of the UN Millennium Development Goals approved at the Millennium Development Summit as well as practical implementation of the objectives set during international development conferences such as the International Conference on Financing for Development held in Monterrey, Mexico and the Johannesburg World Summit on Sustainable Development.
The most important event in 2004 will be the ECOSOC Substantive Session, which will take place in New York on 6–30 July. It will begin with a High-Level Segment, the topic of which is the least developed countries. The traditional annual meeting to follow up on the International Conference on Financing for Development will be held in late April together with the Bretton Woods institutions – the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund – and the World Trade Organisation.
Ambassador Marjatta Rasi has been Finland’s Permanent Representative to the United Nations since 1998. During her previous assignment to the United Nations in New York, she acted as Deputy for the Permanent Representative in 1987–1991. Finland’s membership of the United Nations Security Council occurred during this interval; at that time, Ambassador Rasi chaired the UN Sanctions Committee on Iraq subordinate to the Security Council. She served as the Ambassador of Finland in New Delhi in 1991–1995 and afterwards in the Ministry for Foreign Affairs of Finland as Director General of the Department for Development Policy before her present posting to New York.
Additional information: Kirsti Aarnio, Head of the Unit for Economic and Social Development of the Department for Global Affairs of the Ministry for Foreign Affairs of Finland, tel. +358 40 7588 408; and Minister-Counsellor Eeva-Liisa Myllymäki, Permanent Mission of Finland to the United Nations, New York, tel. +1 212 355 2100