The Sudan has recently acceded to the membership of the UN Economic and Social Commission for Western Asia (UN-ESCWA). The Commission has thus come to include 14 member countries. The accession comes in response to the request of the Sudan and the recommendation of the UN-ESCWA 25th Ministerial Session held in Sana'a, Yemen on 26-29 May 2008.
The UN Economic and Social Council approved the request by the Sudan to be admitted to membership in the Commission. The United Nations does not proscribe a member of one regional commission from being at the same time a member of another regional commission. Furthermore, most of the other regional commissions have as members countries that are not located in the region that they serve.
For his part, UN-ESCWA Executive Secretary, Bader Omar AlDafa, considered that the accession of new members to UN-ESCWA further upholds its position as a regional arm of the UN, and a forum for expertise concerned with the region.
UN-ESCWA thus includes: Bahrain, Egypt, Iraq, Jordan, Kuwait, Lebanon, Oman, Palestine, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, the Syrian Arab Republic, the Sudan, United Arab Emirates and Yemen.
