ECOSOC General Segment 2006

19 July - 27 July 2006

Geneva

In the 2006 general segment of its substantive session, the Economic and Social Council considered the reports of its subsidiary bodies, namely its functional commissions, expert bodies and ad hoc advisory groups. It also addressed the integrated and coordinated implementation of the outcomes of and follow-up to major United Nations conferences and summits , for which it has a specific mandate from the General Assembly. A report of the Secretary-General on the integrated follow-up was submitted to the Council under this item and makes recommendations on how the Council and its subsidiary bodies can operate as a unified system around the single framework of the United Nations development agenda. For a summary of the general debate on the item please click here.

The Council also considered the implementation of the Programme of Action for the Least Developed Countries (LDCs) for the Decade 2001-2010 and, in that context, held a panel discussion entitled "Mobilizing resources and creating an enabling environment for poverty eradication in the LDCs: implementation of the 2004 Ministerial Declaration" . For a summary of the event please click here.

Other thematic issues which was considered included the follow-up process to the World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS) and mainstreaming a gender perspective into all policies and programmes in the United Nations system.

Reports of United Nations system coordination mechanisms were also submitted to the Council under this segment, including the annual overview report of the United Nations System Chief Executives Board for Coordination and the report of the Ad Hoc Inter-Agency Task Force on Tobacco Control.

The work of the Ad Hoc Advisory Groups of the Council on Haiti, Guinea-Bissau and Burundi were reviewed by the Council. This year, in addition to the Groups' reports, the Council also presented the report of the Secretary-General on the assessment of the work of the Guinea-Bissau and Burundi Groups.

The Council also considered standing agenda items, including the implementation of the Declaration on the granting of Independence to Colonial Countries and Peoples by the United Nations specialized agencies, and the Economic and social repercussions of the Israeli occupation on the living conditions of the Palestinian people in the occupied Palestinian territory, including Jerusalem, and of the Arab population in the occupied Syrian Golan.