Staff of the United Nations Secretariat: Problems and Directions

1976 ◽  
Vol 70 (4) ◽  
pp. 659-693 ◽  
Author(s):  
Theodor Meron

The Secretary-General of the United Nations has recently referred to the goal of building up an international staff of the highest standard of efficiency, competence, and integrity, responsible only to the Organization and with as wide a geographical basis as possible. He acknowledged that the fact that the United Nations is a predominantly political organization inevitably exposes the Secretariat to pressures from many quarters although “Governments have generally made great efforts to respect the terms of Article 100, paragraph 2, of the Charter.…” He expressed the belief that it has been widely recognized that an objective independent Secretariat is in the long run in the best interest of all member states.

1950 ◽  
Vol 4 (2) ◽  
pp. 356-360

The primary difficulty in the current question of the representation of Member States in die United Nations is that this question of representation has been linked up with the question of recognition by Member Governments.It will be shown here that this linkage is unfortunate from the practical standpoint, and wrong from the standpoint of legal theory.


1949 ◽  
Vol 3 (1) ◽  
pp. 190-202

1. On 21 November 1947, by its resolution 117 (II), the General Assembly requested the Interim Committee to:“1. Consider the problem of voting in the Security Council, taking into account all proposals which have been or may be submitted by Members of the United Nations to the second session of die General Assembly or to the Interim Committee;“2. Consult with any committee which the Security Council may designate to co-operate with the Interim Committee in the study of the problem;“3. Report, with its conclusions, to the third session of the General Assembly, the report to be transmitted to the Secretary-General not later than 15 July 1948, and by the Secretary-General to the Member States and to the General Assembly.”


1991 ◽  
Vol 85 (2) ◽  
pp. 371-373
Author(s):  
Hans Corell

On October 29 and 30, 1990, a meeting was held of the heads of the offices responsible for international legal services of the Ministries of Foreign Affairs of the member states of the United Nations—the Legal Advisers. The meeting was organized at the invitation of the Legal Advisers of the Ministries of Foreign Affairs of Canada, India, Mexico, Poland and Sweden, and with the assistance of the Legal Counsel of the United Nations, Under-Secretary-General Carl-August Fleischhauer. Some twenty-five Legal Advisers and thirty-two of their deputies or other representatives attended, including all five colleagues representing the permanent members of the Security Council.


1966 ◽  
Vol 20 (1) ◽  
pp. 76-100 ◽  

Budget Estimates for the Financial Year 1966 and Information Annexes; Report of the Advisory Committee on Administrative and Budgetary Questions: In its report to the General Assembly on the budget estimates for the financial year 1966, the Advisory Committee on Administrative and Budgetary Questions noted that the Secretary-General had proposed for 1966 a gross expenditure budget of $116,737,110, an increase of $8,361,405 over the total 1965 gross level of $108,375,705 recommended by the Committee. Of the total estimated income of $17,918,800 for 1966, income from staff assessment (for distribution to Member governments as credits through the Tax Equalization Fund) was calculated at $11,530,000 and income from all other sources (for deduction from gross appropriations for purposes of the assessment of contributions) at $6,388,800. After deduction of estimated income, the net expenditure level for 1966 would be $98,818,310, an increase of $7,402,505 over the total 1965 net level of $91,415,805 recommended by the Advisory Committee. In its report the Advisory Committee recommended reductions in the expenditure estimates totaling $2,130,590. These, together with adjustments in the income estimates, would reduce the net expenditure level for 1966 from $98,818,310, as proposed by the Secretary-General, to $96,814,220. After detailing the contributions made to other organizations in the United Nations family during the years 1961–1966, the Advisory Committee pointed out that, with the 1966 budget estimates submitted by the Secretary-General for the United Nations, the aggregate which member states of the various organizations would be asked to appropriate for the year 1966 would amount to approximately $254·3 million as against $234·7 million for 1965 and $213·3 million for 1964.


1950 ◽  
Vol 4 (4) ◽  
pp. 682-683

In May 1950 the United Nations Secretary-General (Lie) and the Director-General of the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (Bodet) submitted a joint report to the Economic and Social Council entitled “Teaching about the United Nations and the Specialized Agencies”. This was in response to resolution 203 (VIII) of ECOSOC which requested the Secretary-General and the Director-General of UNESCO to submit jointly, not later than June 1, 1950, a complete, analytical report on the progress achieved in teaching about the United Nations in educational institutions of member states. The report was based largely on information received from nineteen member countries during 1949, but use also was made of statements received and included in two interim reports on teaching about the United Nations submitted to ECOSOC in 1948 and 1949. Altogether reports from 37 members were analyzed.


1993 ◽  
Vol 87 (2) ◽  
pp. 323-328
Author(s):  
Hans Corell

On October 26 and 27, 1992, a meeting was held of the heads of the offices responsible for international legal services of the foreign ministries of the member states of the United Nations—the Legal Advisers. The meeting—the third of its kind—was organized at the invitation of the Legal Advisers of Canada, India, Mexico, Poland and Sweden, and with the assistance of the Legal Counsel of the United Nations, Under-Secretary-General Carl-August Fleischhauer. Thirty Legal Advisers and sixteen of their deputies attended, together with nearly fifty other interested participants. All five colleagues representing the permanent members of the Security Council were present.


1952 ◽  
Vol 6 (4) ◽  
pp. 619-622

Annual Report of the Secretary-General: Speaking on the development of public understanding during the year under review, the Secretary-General ex-pressed his conviction that public understanding of the United Nations as an institution for world peace and progress had continued to grow in most areas of the world. Although the United Nations might, however, be almost universally regarded as “the main hope for peace in the long run”, the Secretary-General felt that there was then a general tendency to consider that the organization was not the “sole or main instrument for peace”. He remarked on the wide areas of misunderstanding and the lack of knowledge about the United Nations and its work which persisted in most parts of the world, but he coupled this view with the impression of notable progress during the previous year toward a more realistic appraisal of the organization's potentialities for the solution of basic problems. The Secretary-General pointed out also that, as in previous years, the course of events had had a direct bearing on prevailing public opinion and had caused fluctuations in both positive and negative directions. The situation in Korea during the past year had exerted particularly strong influence on the attitude of the public toward the United Nations.


Author(s):  
Chesterman Simon

The executive head of an international organization (e.g. president, secretary-general, managing director, or some other title) exists in a curious limbo. He or she is entrusted to lead an organization that may employ tens of thousands of people and administer a budget in the billions of dollars. At the same time, however, his or her ability to operate independently of member states may be severely constrained by the powers entrusted to the office or tight constraints over finances. This tension is evident in the United Nations (UN), where the Secretary-General heads the Secretariat and is nominal commander-in-chief of 100,000 peacekeepers but is formally appointed as the organization's ‘Chief Administrative Officer’. This chapter examines the appointment of executive heads and the formal functions ascribed to them. It then turns to the question of how the various officeholders have implemented those functions in practice, focusing on the ability to operate independently of member-state interests.


Author(s):  
Henning Melber

Firstly, this chapter illustrates the specific constellation of interests within the UN Security Council, due to which Dag Hammarskjöld became the accepted candidate to succeed Trygve Lie as second Secretary-General of the United Nations as ‘the unknown Swede’. It then summarizes his convictions, which were already internalized when he was a civil servant, as well as his loyalty to the values and principles of the UN Charter as a ‘secular bible’. Solidarity and universal humanity were among Hammarskjöld’s key notions and guided his ethics. It finally explains how Hammarskjöld defined the need of the international civil service as being independent from the individual influences and interests of UN Member States to act in neutrality to fully serve the defined principles of global governance as laid out in the UN Charter.


Polar Record ◽  
1985 ◽  
Vol 22 (140) ◽  
pp. 499-504 ◽  
Author(s):  
Peter J. Beck

AbstractIn 1983 the UN Secretary-General was requested by the General Assembly to prepare a ‘Study on the question of Antarctica’ for the 1984 meeting of the Assembly. Published in November 1984, the Study provided a foundation for the UN First Committee's discussions of 28–30 November. These demonstrated, as had the discussions of the previous year, the polarization of views among UN member states for and against the Antarctic Treaty System. The UN resolution that followed the discussions similarly represented little advance on that of 1983, merely postponing any decision for a further year. Meanwhile the considerable amount of information marshalled for the Study may help to spread interest in Antarctic affairs and enhance international understanding.


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