COURTEY HT SEPT 16
India wins elections to 3 key UN bodies
Yashwant Raj
letters@hindustantimes.com
washington : India was elected to key posts in three bodies of the United Nations on Monday, including one that involved beating China to the seat, on the eve of the start of the UN General Assembly’s historic 75th session and its first to be held virtually amid the Covid-19 pandemic.
India beat China to win a four-year term to the UN’s Commission on the Status of Women (CWS), a prestigious wing of the world body’s Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC). It also won a seat each through endorsements to two other ECOSOC bodies — the Committee for Programme and Coordination (CPC) and the Commission on Population and Development (CPD).
The terms will begin 2021 when India will also start its two-year stint on the UN Security Council as a non-permanent member.
“India wins seat in prestigious #ECOSOC body!” TS Tirumurti, India’s permanent representative to the UN, announced in a tweet on Monday. “India elected Member of Commission on Status of Women #CSW. It’s a ringing endorsement of our commitment to promote gender equality and women’s empowerment in all our endeavours.”
Elections to the two other bodies were announced in another tweet by K Nagaraj Naidu, the deputy permanent representative, on Tuesday. “India gets elected to three #ECOSOC bodies,” he wrote.
India, Afghanistan and China were in the fray for the two seats to the CWS from the Asia-Pacific group. With all 54 members of the Economic and Social Council voting, Afghanistan and India were elected with 39 and 38 votes, respectively. China ended with 27, one short of the cut-off tally of 28.
Others who also went through were Argentina, Austria, Dominican Republic, Israel, Latvia, Nigeria, Turkey and Zambia.
The CWS is the principal global intergovernmental body dedicated to empowerment of women. It was established in June 1946 as a functional commission of the Economic and Social Council.
The CPC is the main subsidiary organ of the ECOSOC and the UN’s General Assembly for planning, programming and coordination. The CPD assists ECOSOC in the implementation of the Programme of Action of the International Conference on Population and Development