The United Nations Economic and Social Commission for West Asia (ESCWA; ar, الإسكوا) is one of five regional commissions under the jurisdiction of the
United Nations Economic and Social Council
The United Nations Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC; french: links=no, Conseil économique et social des Nations unies, ) is one of the six principal organs of the United Nations, responsible for coordinating the economic and social fields ...
. The role of the Commission is to promote economic and social development of Western Asia through regional and subregional cooperation and integration.
The Commission is composed of 20
member states, all from the regions of
North Africa
North Africa, or Northern Africa is a region encompassing the northern portion of the African continent. There is no singularly accepted scope for the region, and it is sometimes defined as stretching from the Atlantic shores of Mauritania in ...
and the
Middle East
The Middle East ( ar, الشرق الأوسط, ISO 233: ) is a geopolitical region commonly encompassing Arabia (including the Arabian Peninsula and Bahrain), Asia Minor (Asian part of Turkey except Hatay Province), East Thrace (Europ ...
.
The Commission works closely with the divisions of the
Headquarters in New York and
United Nations specialized agencies
United Nations Specialized Agencies are autonomous organizations working with the United Nations and each other through the co-ordinating machinery of the United Nations Economic and Social Council at the intergovernmental level, and through th ...
, as well as with international and regional organizations. Some of its regional partners include: the
League of Arab States
League or The League may refer to:
Arts and entertainment
* ''Leagues'' (band), an American rock band
* ''The League'', an American sitcom broadcast on FX and FXX about fantasy football
Sports
* Sports league
* Rugby league, full contact footba ...
, the
Gulf Cooperation Council
The Cooperation Council for the Arab States of the Gulf ( ar, مجلس التعاون لدول العربية الخليج ), also known as the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC; ar, مجلس التعاون الخليجي), is a regional, interg ...
and the
Organisation of Islamic Cooperation
An organization or organisation (Commonwealth English; see spelling differences), is an entity—such as a company, an institution, or an association—comprising one or more people and having a particular purpose.
The word is derived from ...
.
History
The Commission was first established by the Economic and Social Council on 9 August 1973 as the United Nations Economic Commission for Western Asia (ECWA). The Commission was the successor to the United Nations Economic and Social Office in Beirut (UNESOB), which was absorbed into the framework of ECWA. Its main mandate was to "initiate and participate in measures for facilitating concerted action for the economic reconstruction and development of Western Asia."
On 26 July 1985, in recognition of the social component of its work, the Commission was renamed to the United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Western Asia (ESCWA) by the Economic and Social Council.
Member States
![United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Western Asia Member States](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/8/8d/United_Nations_Economic_and_Social_Commission_for_Western_Asia_Member_States.svg)
The following are all member States of the Commission:
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
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*
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Locations
![UNbeirut](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/7/71/UNbeirut.jpg)
The Commission's headquarters have been located in the
Central District of Beirut, Lebanon since 1997. Prior to this, the headquarters moved between multiple cites. The first headquarters of the Commission were located in Beirut from 1974–1982. They then moved to
Baghdad
Baghdad (; ar, بَغْدَاد , ) is the capital of Iraq and the second-largest city in the Arab world after Cairo. It is located on the Tigris near the ruins of the ancient city of Babylon and the Sassanid Persian capital of Ctesiphon. I ...
, Iraq, from 1982–1991. Finally, they were located in
Amman, Jordan, from 1991–1997 before moving back to Beirut.
Executive Secretaries
The following is a list of the Executive Secretaries of the Commission since its foundation:
Funding
The budget of Commission comes mainly from contributions from the United Nations, but also from donations from governments, regional funds, private foundations and international development agencies. In 2017, the total budget of the Commission was $27.4 million.
Additionally, since 2014, the Commission has received $7.1 million in voluntary contributions to help implement national and regional activities.
The Commission has four main budgets: the regular budget, the regular programme of technical cooperation (RPTC), the development account and the extrabudgetary projects account.
Regular budget
The regular budget line item is voted on by the
United Nations General Assembly
The United Nations General Assembly (UNGA or GA; french: link=no, Assemblée générale, AG) is one of the six principal organs of the United Nations (UN), serving as the main deliberative, policymaking, and representative organ of the UN. Curr ...
on a biennial basis and provides the Commission with resources fulfill its mandate as laid out in the Strategic Framework. In 2017, the regular budget was $19.9 million.
Regular programme of technical cooperation (RPTC)
The regular programme of technical cooperation line item works to support member States in formulating sustainable socioeconomic development policies. It fosters cooperation, creates knowledge networks and promotes the sharing of experience between countries. In 2017, the regular programme of technical cooperation budget was $2.3 million.
Development account
The development account line item helps fund capacity building projects at national, subregional, regional and interregional levels. In 2017, the development account budget was $1.9 million.
Extrabudgetary projects
The extra budgetary projects line item supports economic and social development under the seven subprograms of the Commission: Economic Development and Integration, Gender and Women Issues, Governance and Conflict Issues, Natural Resources, Social Development, Statistics and Technology for Development. In 2017, extra budgetary projects budget was $3.2 million.
Israel-Palestine report controversy
On March 15, 2017, UNESCWA released a report accusing Israel (not a UNESCWA member state) of being an "
apartheid regime" due to Israel's relations with Palestinians both inside and outside Israel.
The report was officially withdrawn and removed from UN websites after criticism from the Secretary-General who said it had been issued by ESCWA without approval.
The document was co-authored by
Richard Falk
Richard Anderson Falk (born November 13, 1930) is an American professor emeritus of international law at Princeton University, and Euro-Mediterranean Human Rights Monitor's Chairman of the Board of Trustees. In 2004, he was listed as the autho ...
, professor of International Law and Practice Emeritus at Princeton University and a former UN
human rights
Human rights are moral principles or normsJames Nickel, with assistance from Thomas Pogge, M.B.E. Smith, and Leif Wenar, 13 December 2013, Stanford Encyclopedia of PhilosophyHuman Rights Retrieved 14 August 2014 for certain standards of hu ...
investigator for the Palestinian territories, and
Virginia Tilley
Virginia Tilley (born 1953) is an American political scientist specialising in the comparative study of ethnic and racial conflict. She is Professor of Political Science at Southern Illinois University-Carbondale in the US.
Background
Tilley's ...
, professor of Political Science at Southern Illinois University. It criticised Israel's law of return for Jews.
Falk and Tilley wrote: "Israel defends its rejection of the Palestinians' return in frankly racist language: alleging that Palestinians constitute a 'demographic threat' and that their return would alter the demographic character of Israel to the point of eliminating it as a Jewish state".
Rima Khalaf, United Nations Under-Secretary-General and Executive Secretary of ESCWA, had said it was the first to accuse Israel of being a
racist state which had established an apartheid system.
The report itself said it had established on the "basis of scholarly inquiry and overwhelming evidence, that Israel is guilty of the crime of apartheid". Israel has condemned the report. "We expected of course that Israel and its allies would put huge pressure on the Secretary-General of the United Nations so that he would disavow the report, and that they would ask him to withdraw it," Khalaf said to
AFP.
The UN Secretary-General
António Guterres had distanced himself from the report
and the document was removed from UN website on Friday, March 17, 2017. The report
Executive Summary was also deleted from the
United Nations Information System on the Question of Palestine The United Nations Information System on the Question of Palestine (UNISPAL) is an online collection of texts of current and historical United Nations decisions and publications concerning the question of Palestine, the Israeli–Palestinian confl ...
(UNISPAL).
On March 17, Khalaf submitted her letter of resignation to Guterres. Following the strong response from Israel, she wrote: "It is only normal for criminals to pressure and attack those who advocate the cause of their victims." She continued to stand by the report.
Women in the Judiciary
In 2019, ESCWA reported regarding the situation of women in the judiciary system, in which only three countries had not appointed female judges yet, including Oman, Saudi Arabia and Somalia. Other countries which already had female judges were: Iraq (1959), Morocco (1961), Algeria (1962), Sudan (1965 or 1976), Lebanon and Tunisia (1966), Yemen (1971), Syria (1975), Palestine (1982), Libya (1991), Jordan (1996), Egypt (2003), Bahrain (2006), the United Arab Emirates (2008), Qatar (2010), Mauritania (2013), and Kuwait (2020). In June 2021, Egypt announced that female judges would take seats in Public Prosecution and State Council in October that year.
See also
*
United Nations System
The United Nations System consists of the United Nations' six principal organs (the General Assembly, Security Council, Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC), Trusteeship Council, International Court of Justice (ICJ), and the UN Secretariat) ...
*
United Nations Economic Commission for Africa
The United Nations Economic Commission for Africa (UNECA or ECA; french: link=no, Commission économique pour l'Afrique, CEA) was established in 1958 by the United Nations Economic and Social Council to encourage economic cooperation among its ...
(overlapping membership)
References
Bibliography
* Paul Berthoud
A Professional Life Narrative 2008, worked with UNESOB and offers testimony from the inside of th
early yearsof the organization.
External links
UN Economic and Social Commission for Western AsiaESCWA Executive SecretaryInformation about ESCWAOfficial Document System of the United Nations
{{Authority control
1973 establishments in Lebanon
United Nations Development Group
Economic and Social Commission for Western Asia
The United Nations Economic and Social Commission for West Asia (ESCWA; ar, الإسكوا) is one of five regional commissions under the jurisdiction of the United Nations Economic and Social Council. The role of the Commission is to promote e ...
Economic and Social Commission for Western Asia
The United Nations Economic and Social Commission for West Asia (ESCWA; ar, الإسكوا) is one of five regional commissions under the jurisdiction of the United Nations Economic and Social Council. The role of the Commission is to promote e ...
Organizations established in 1973
International organisations based in Lebanon
Israeli–Palestinian conflict and the United Nations