Personnel questions

The General Assembly,

I

Recalling Articles 100 and 101 of the Charter of the United Nations,

Recalling its resolutions 35/210 of 17 December 1980, 41/206 A of 11 December 1986 and 41/213 of 19 December 1986,

Taking note of the report of the Secretary-General on the composition of the Secretariat,

Recognizing the importance of maintaining a qualified, independent and geographically balanced international civil service,

Concerned about the negative effect of the reduction of posts and of the recruitment freeze on the geographical distribution of the Secretariat,

1.         Urges the Secretary-General to keep under review the freeze on the recruitment of external candidates with a view to lifting the freeze at the earliest possible date and to report to the General Assembly on possible alternatives to the policy of suspending such recruitment;

2.         Requests the Secretary-General, whenever appointments are made to posts subject to geographical distribution, to make every effort to recruit nationals of unrepresented and underrepresented Member States and candidates successful in the national competitive examinations, taking into consideration also paragraph 4 of resolution 41/206 A;

3.         Also requests the Secretary-General, as part of the elaboration of the career development policies and practices in the Secretariat and bearing in mind Article 101 of the Charter and resolution 41/213, to give urgent consideration to the necessity of increasing the mobility of staff in the Professional category and, in particular, the movement of such staff between Headquarters offices and offices in the field;

4.         Further requests the Secretary-General, bearing in mind resolution 41/213, to conduct a comprehensive review of the career development policies and practices for all staff, in particular staff in the General Service category;

II Recalling its resolution 41/206 B of 11 December 1986 on the composition of the upper echelons of the Secretariat and its resolution 41/213 by which it, inter alia, approved the recommendations of the Group of High-level Intergovernmental Experts to Review the Efficiency of the Administrative and Financial Functioning of the United Nations, in particular those concerning the upper echelons of the Secretariat, that is, the Under-Secretary-General and Assistant Secretary-General levels,

Reaffirming that no post should be considered the exclusive preserve of any Member State or group of States and that the Secretary-General should ensure that this principle is applied faithfully in accordance with the principle of equitable geographical distribution,

Taking note of the negative effect of the reduction of posts on the representation of Member States in the upper echelons of the Secretariat,

1.         Requests the Secretary-General, in order to preserve the principles of equitable geographical distribution and of rotation in the upper echelons of the Secretariat, to ensure that equal opportunity is given to candidates of all Member States when making appointments to all posts in the upper echelons;

2.         Reaffirms that the Secretary-General, in making appointments to the upper echelons, should strive to appoint only a candidate from a Member State other than that of the incumbent to be replaced in order to reinforce the principle of rotation in the upper echelons of the Secretariat, unless there are exceptional circumstances, in the light of Article 101, paragraph 3, of the Charter;

3.         Requests the Secretary-General to review the composition of the upper echelons of the Secretariat in the context of the relevant recommendations of the Group of High-level Intergovernmental Experts to Review the Efficiency of the Administrative and Financial Functioning of the United Nations, with particular reference to length of service in the upper echelons;

III Recalling its resolutions 35/210, 40/258 A of 18 December 1985 and 41/206 C of 11 December 1986 and other relevant resolutions,

Having examined the report of the Secretary-General on the system of desirable ranges for the geographical distribution of staff in the Professional category and above,

1.         Requests the Secretary-General to base the desirable ranges for all Member States, with effect from 1 January 1988, on the following criteria:

(a)        The base figure for the calculations will initially be 2,700;

(b)        The weight of the membership factor will be 40 per cent of the base figure;

(c)        The population factor, which will be allotted a weight of 5 per cent, will be directly related to the population of Member States and posts subject to this factor will be distributed among Member States in proportion to their population;

(d)        The contribution factor will be based on the distribution of the remaining posts among Member States in proportion to the scale of assessments;

(e)        The upper and lower limits of each range will be based on a flexibility of 15 per cent upwards and downwards from the mid-point of the desirable range, but not less than 4.8 posts up and down, the upper limit of the range being not less than 14 posts;

(f)         The base figure will be adjusted whenever the actual number of posts subject to geographical distribution increases or decreases by 100, the weights of the three factors being maintained;

2.         Decides to review the desirable ranges at its forty-fifth session, taking into account the concept of parity between the membership and contribution factors and the views of Member States on this concept and also giving due consideration to the requirement of raising the percentage weight of the population factor;

IV Requests the Secretary-General to review the content and presentation of the annual report on the composition of the Secretariat, taking into account the views expressed by Member States at the current session, and to include in the next report the action taken to implement the present resolution.

B ADMINISTRATION OF JUSTICE IN THE SECRETARIAT

The General Assembly,

Noting the importance of a just and efficient system for the administration of justice in the Secretariat,

Having considered the report of the Joint Inspection Unit on the administration of justice in the United Nations, the comments of the Secretary-General thereon and the report of the Secretary-General on the establishment of an office of Ombudsman in the Secretariat and the streamlining of the appeals procedure,

Recognizing the efforts made by the Secretary-General in that area,

1.         Requests the Secretary-General to continue to improve the procedures for resolving disputes and appeals by taking steps which would ensure their objective and expeditious resolution;

2.         Calls upon the Secretary-General to continue to review the feasibility of the establishment of an independent office of Ombudsman in the Secretariat;

3.         Further requests the Secretary-General to present his recommendations thereon to the General Assembly at its forty-third session.

C IMPROVEMENT OF THE STATUS OF WOMEN IN THE SECRETARIAT

The General Assembly,

Recalling Articles 8, 100 and 101 of the Charter of the United Nations,

Recalling its previous resolutions on the improvement of the status of women in the Secretariat,

Recalling the relevant paragraphs of the Nairobi Forward-looking Strategies for the Advancement of Women, in particular paragraphs 315, 356 and 358,

Recalling Article 8 of the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women,

Recalling its resolution 41/213 of 19 December 1986, by which it, inter alia, approved recommendation 46 of the Group of High-level Intergovernmental Experts to Review the Efficiency of the Administrative and Financial Functioning of the United Nations that additional measures should be taken to increase the proportion of posts filled by women in the Professional category, particularly at the higher levels, in accordance with the relevant resolutions of the General Assembly,

Welcoming the fact that the advancement of women is one of two subjects receiving priority in the proposed programme budget for the biennium 1988-1989,

1.         Takes note of the report of the Secretary-General and of his continuing efforts to improve the status of women in the Secretariat, including his decision to extend the office of the Co-ordinator for the Improvement of the Status of Women in the Secretariat for a period of six months;

2.         Invites the Secretary-General, taking into account the views expressed by Member States at the current session of the General Assembly and in other relevant inter-governmental bodies, to review the situation at the end of the six-month period and to take the necessary measures to ensure the continued implementation of the action programme for the improvement of the status of women in the Secretariat;

3.         Endorses the work programme set out in section III.A of the report of the Secretary-General, covering the implementation of measures approved by the Secretary-General, in particular the monitoring of the impact of the restructuring and retrenchment on women in the Secretariat;

4.         Stresses the importance of the measures accepted by the Secretary-General on the recommendation of the Steering Committee for the Improvement of the Status of Women in the Secretariat, regarding the introduction of a monitoring process;

5.         Requests the Secretary-General to continue his efforts and to consider the introduction of additional measures, if necessary, in order to increase the number of women in posts subject to geographical distribution with a view to achieving, to the extent possible, an overall participation rate of 30 per cent of the total by 1990, without prejudice to the principle of equitable geographical distribution of posts, as was requested in paragraph 3 of resolution 40/258 B of 18 December 1985;

6.         Urges the Secretary-General to increase his efforts to ensure an equitable representation of women from developing countries in posts subject to geographical distribution, and particularly in posts at senior and policy-formulating levels;

7.         Reiterates its request to Member States to continue to support the efforts of the United Nations and the specialized agencies and related organizations to increase the proportion of women in the Professional category and above by, inter alia, nominating more women candidates;

8.         Notes with satisfaction that the question of the improvement of the status of women in the secretariats of the United Nations system continues to be a standing item on the agenda of the Administrative Committee on Co-ordination;

9.         Requests the Secretary-General to report to the General Assembly at its forty-third session on:

(a)        Progress made in evaluating the implementation of the recommendations of the Steering Committee as outlined in its first three reports;

(b)        Progress made in meeting the objectives of the work programme set out in his second progress report as well as those objectives of the original action programme which are still to be implemented;

(c)        The outcome of his decision to extend the office of the Co-ordinator for the Improvement of the Status of Women in the Secretariat for a period of six months and of the action called for in paragraph 2 of the present resolution; and to transmit his report on the improvement of the status of women in the Secretariat to the Commission on the Status of Women at its thirty-second session.