Belarus attaches great importance to the role of the UN Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC) in such areas as protection of children, counteracting human trafficking, energy security, forests preservation, BelTA learnt from the press service of the Foreign Ministry of Belarus. On January 14, 2008 Permanent Representative of the Republic of Belarus in the UN Andrei Dapkiunas was elected Vice-President of the United Nations Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC) and will represent the Eastern Europe group of UN member-states in the ECOSOC Bureau in 2008. In 2006 Belarus was elected ECOSOC member for the 2007-2009 term. Belarus takes an active part in enhancing the ECOSOC role in such issues as mitigating the consequences of the Chernobyl catastrophe and other humanitarian crises, eradicating poverty, improving the efficiency of the UN assistance to developing countries, organizing the financial and technical support for the economies in transition. ECOSOC is the key UN body in charge of coordinating economic, social and other respective activities of the UN as well as activities of specialized institutions known as the UN family of organisations. ECOSOC includes 54 countries, which are elected for a three-year term.