Recently, the latest round of 2006 elections in the United Nations bodies of interest for Romania took place. Here ends an unprecedented year as for the number and fields in which Romania’s electoral campaigns were finalized with success, under conditions of an ever-increasing competitive environment in general and, in particular, within the Eastern European Group, the Romanian Ministry of Foreign Affairs informs in a press release.
Romania was elected in all the seven responsibility posts for which it submitted its candidacy. Election campaigns were part of an overall strategy adopted to complete Romania’s presence in leadership bodies or in the ones with a limited membership within the UN system, following the conclusion of its two-year mandate as non-permanent member of the Security Council.
Similarly remarkable with the number of successful election campaigns were the diversity of fields where Romania is to be represented at the governmental or experts’ level: socio-economic, human rights, international law, cultural, telecommunications and financial.
As such, starting with 2007, Romania secured its representation at the governmental level in the following UN governing bodies:
The Economic and Social Council – 54 members, main Charter body, with prerogatives in the economic, social, educational and cultural fields, including the mandate of drawing up some international conventions in its field of competence.
The Human Rights Council – 47 members, inter-governmental body created in the framework of the reform process that was approved by the 2005 Summit with the largest competence in matter of promotion and protection of human rights and, especially, as regards its responsibilities on drawing up international pacts and conventions in the field.
The UNESCO’s Intergovernmental Committee for the Safeguarding of the Cultural Heritage – 18 members, established for the promotion and implementation of the objectives set by the Convention for the Safeguarding of the Cultural Heritage, having as its main objective the promotion of identity and observance of cultural diversity and of human creativity.
The International Telecommunications Union Council – 48 members, the most important international body with prerogatives in the field of telecommunication regulation and major protagonist in managing evolutions generated by the development of the Information Technology, including the aspect of Internet governance.
This Governmental level representation is doubled through the posts obtained in 2006 by a Romanian presence in experts’ bodies in key-fields:
The International Law Commission – 34 members, main body with prerogatives as for codification of international law, among whose recent achievements is the International Criminal Court statute.
The Human Rights Committee – 18 members, monitoring body of the most important judicial instrument in human rights field, the International Pact on Civil and Political Rights.
The Committee on Contributions – 18 members, one of the oldest bodies within the United Nations system, having as main object the scale of assessment of members’ contributions towards the world organization’s regular budget.
The seven election campaigns all successfully concluded represent both the recognition of Romania’s contribution and potential in the specific fields and the fruit of an exemplary mobilization effort made by the Romanian diplomacy both at the level of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, of Romania’s Permanent Mission in New York and of the other diplomatic missions involved in bilateral or multilateral approaches in order to get the needed backing for the respective Romanian candidatures. ROMPRES
