Economic and Social Council

This issue covers the remainder of the work of the thirteenth session of the Economic and Social Council. The Council met in Geneva from July 30 to September 21, 1951.Organization of the Council: During the thirteenth session great importance was attached to the necessity of insuring that business reached the Council in a well-prepared state and that Members had adequate time to study it. An effort was made to spread the work-load over the year in a pattern which would best facilitate the operations of all the international organizations concerned. Although the Ad Hoc Committee on the Organization and Operation of the Council and its Commissions had suggested three annual sessions of the Council, the majority of members were agreed that the existing arrangement of two regular annual sessions was sufficient — with the qualification that, henceforth, the second session should not be closed before the opening of the annual session of the General Assembly, but should be resumed towards the end of the session. The resumed ECOSOC session would decide how questions referred to the Council by the General Assembly should be handled and plan the basic program of work for the following year. As far as possible, major economic items would be considered in the first regular session of the year, with the bulk of the major social and human rights questions falling in the second regular session. The Council's agenda procedure was modified so that each year the Council would plan its basic work program and calendar of conferences for the following year; moreover, at each regular session, the Council would in the future settle the detailed provisional agenda for the following session — with appropriate provisions for the insertion of urgent items at a later date.