IMI and the United Nations

Consultative Status – ECOSOC

By recommendation of the UN Committee on Non-Governmental Organizations (NGOs), IMI has been granted Special NGO Consultative Status with the Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC) at their Coordination and Management meeting, held in July in New York.

ECOSOC is a founding UN charter body, established in 1946, that has responsibility for about 70% of the human and financial resources of the entire UN. 3,900 NGOs have achieved Consultative Status with the ECOSOC. The status enables organisations to actively engage with ECOSOC and its subsidiary bodies, and with the United Nations Secretariat, programmes, funds and agencies.

NGOs accredited with ECOSOC may designate official representatives to the United Nations Headquarters in New York and the United Nations offices in Geneva and Vienna, to attend and contribute to sessions of ECOSOC and other UN Inter-Governmental decision-making bodies. They may make written statements relevent to the work of the council and offer expert opinions on subjects where they have a special competency, as well as organize events at the UN.

This status will enable institutions, companies and others associated with IMI to represent the mediation field in deliberations at UN level. IMI is the only mediation body to hold Consultative Status.

For information on ECOSOC Consultative Status, click here

UN Commission on International Trade Law – UNCITRAL

IMI was invited to become an observer to UNCITRAL and participated in the UNCITRAL Session in July in New York.

Debbie Masucci, IMI Chair, and Hal Abramson, of the IMI Independent Standards Commission, represented IMI at the meeting and will support a preliminary proposal now pending within the UNCITRAL Commission for Working Group II (Arbitration and Conciliation) on a multilateral convention on the enforceability of international commercial settlement agreements reached through mediation.

Following a three hour discussion, the Commission asked the Working Group to include the Convention proposal on the agenda of its next Session in February 2015 and to report to the 2015 Annual Meeting on the feasibility of the project and what form any instrument should take. Meanwhile, the UNCITRAL Secretariat will collect additional information about the desirability of the Convention proposal.

For information about UNCITRAL Rules and reports on the work of the commission, click here

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