The UN Secretariat: structure, composition, functions

The UN Secretariat is the international body that manages and coordinates the work of the United Nations. It is headed by the Secretary General.

World bureaucracy

The six basic organs of the United Nations are the General Assembly, the Security Council, the Economic and Social Council, the Trusteeship Council, the International Court of Justice and the United Nations Secretariat.

The latter has an impact on the work of the United Nations to a much greater extent than indicated in the organization's Charter. This is largely due to the fact that Secretariat staff are permanent experts, not political appointees of Member States. Recruited staff based on merit, given the principle of geographical distribution. Employees must take an oath of allegiance to the UN. They are not allowed to receive instructions from their governments. Personnel, in fact, is an international civil service.

The functions of the UN Secretariat are diverse. This translators, clerks, technicians, administrators, project managers, negotiators, etc.

Head

The Secretary-General is elected for five years by the General Assembly in consultation with the Security Council. To this end, he must receive the approval of all the permanent members of the Security Council. For this reason, the secretaries general, as a rule, come from small, neutral countries. The SG is the chief administrative officer at the meetings of the GA, the Security Council, the Trusteeship Council and ECOSOC, which can perform any functions assigned by these bodies to him and his staff. Every year he reports to the General Assembly on the work of the UN and can familiarize the Security Council with any issues that, in his view, constitute a threat to peace and international security. The HS is the main representative of the UN and the most visible and authoritative figure of this body on the world stage.

Government of the Earth

According to the statute, the Secretary General and the UN Secretariat work in New York's headquarters and around the world. They serve the main units of the organization and manage the programs and policies determined by these bodies.

Thus, the functions of the UN Secretariat are comparable to the tasks that the national governments of the countries of the world are carrying out. Among other things, this body manages peacekeeping operations, resolves refugee problems, mediates international disputes, monitors economic and social trends, prepares studies on human rights, economic development, sustainable development and other issues at the request of any body of the organization. The UN Secretariat informs the public about its work and holds international conferences. In addition, he oversees the implementation of UN directives, translates speeches and documents into the official languages of the organization, etc.

UN Secretariat: composition and functions

Although its main headquarters is in New York, the organization is present in Vienna, Nairobi and Geneva, and some related institutions are located in Paris, The Hague and Rome. The structure of the UN Secretariat is composed of the following departments and departments headed by the deputies and assistants of the Secretary General or the highest officials subordinate to the TOS:

• Chancellery of the HS. Includes the Office of the Spokesman, the Partnership Bureau, the Protocol and Liaison Service, the Global Compact Office.
• Office of Internal Oversight Services. It consists of the inspection, inspection and investigation departments. Has extensive powers to investigate possible fraud and abuse within the organization. It monitors and audits using the Integrated Management Information System. The creation of the administration was made by industrialized countries, concerned that their contributions to the UN could be lost as a result of fraud and abuse.
• Political Department. He oversees the organization's efforts in the field of preventive diplomacy and peacemaking, collects and analyzes information to prevent the GA and the Security Council about the impending crisis and carries out mandates issued by them. Provides assistance in holding elections in countries requesting support in strengthening the democratic process.
• Legal management. Advises the organization and the SG on legal issues. For example, the Office provided assistance in carrying out numerous activities related to the international criminal tribunals for the former Yugoslavia and Rwanda. Provides a wide range of legal services on issues related to contract law and technical aspects of contracts.
• Department of Disarmament. It was originally created in 1982 and continued to work until 1992. In January 1998 it was rebuilt. Promotes the goals of disarmament and non-proliferation of chemical, atomic and biological weapons. Promotes efforts to reduce conventional weapons, including mines and small arms. It has five branches.
• Department of Peacekeeping Operations. This department monitors the activities of UN peacekeeping missions around the world. Since the end of the Cold War, the scale and complexity of operations have grown exponentially. In 1995, when UN staff were deployed in the countries of the former Yugoslavia, the department had 70,000 military and civil servants, and its annual budget approached $ 3 billion.
• Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs. It deals with the delivery of humanitarian assistance to victims of natural disasters and other emergencies. The Office was established to provide rapid needs assessment, an analysis of the situation on the ground, and to negotiate access to emergency locations. Its main feature is interdepartmental coordination, which allows all UN agencies to jointly call for humanitarian assistance and better track the contributions of donor governments, UN agencies and non-governmental organizations.

• Office on Drugs and Crime. It is located in Vienna. Its goals are: combating international crime, smuggling, banditry, illegal drug trafficking, corruption and terrorism, crime prevention, lawfulness, trend analysis, research and policy support.
• Department of Economic and Social Affairs. Promotes stable development on the basis of a multifaceted approach to social, environmental, economic, demographic and gender aspects of development.
• Department for Civil Defense and Conference Services. It consists of three departments and one service. Provides centralized meeting planning and documentation services, coordinates conference services around the world. Provides interpretation services to all six official languages of the United Nations and between them. Prepares verbatim records of meetings of the GA, the Security Council and other bodies, and also prepares and prints documents and other publications. Responsible for the translation of all official UN documents, reports on meetings and correspondence. Provides reference services for authors, editors, translators and transcribers.
• Department of Public Information. Creates press releases, publications, radio and video programs promoting the work of the organization. Facilitated the installation of an e-mail system that connects peacekeeping missions, information centers and UNDP.
• Department of Management. He is engaged in planning the budget, programs, accounts, purchases, archives, personnel, communications, etc.
• Bureau of Ethics. Ensures conscientious and transparent performance by employees of their duties in an atmosphere of confidentiality, impartiality, professionalism and independence. The office helps employees avoid conflicts of interest and prevent their private lives from interfering with the performance of their official duties.
• Office of the Ombudsman. Promotes the transformation of conflicts into creative solutions through training, shuttle diplomacy, mediation, etc.
• Office of the High Representative for the underdeveloped countries. The key directions of its work are the assistance of the TOS in ensuring the full mobilization and coordination of all parts of the UN system for the implementation of the Program of Action for the underdeveloped countries, enclaves and small islands, mobilizing international support and resources, holding group consultations and providing legal protection.

Procurement Division

The economic activities of the UN Secretariat are carried out through the Procurement Division, which purchases goods and services for the American headquarters, regional commissions, peacekeeping missions, tribunals, special missions, etc. Among the main purchases - air transportation, cars, computers, products, printing services, Materials and supplies. UNICEF, WHO and the United Nations Development Program are conducting the procurement on their own.

Registration of the agreement in the UN Secretariat

The functions of the TOS on deposit agreements, including the preparation of recommendations and studies, assistance on legal issues and the practice of interstate treaties and the depositary, are executed by the Treaty Section of the Office of Legal Affairs. Registration, analysis, recording, publication and registration of international treaties in the UN Secretariat is held there. In addition, the United Nations Treaty Collection is maintained and updated on the Internet. Registration in the UN Secretariat is carried out in accordance with Article 102 of the Charter and the GA Rules. Specialists will help to draw up final clauses and make observations on them, prepare originals and make their certified copies, organize seminars and training programs on the law and practice of international treaties, etc.

Staff

The UN Secretariat has about 44 thousand employees. An even greater number work in related institutions (such as WHO, the World Bank, etc.). These are international civil servants unaccountable to individual states. The staff of the UN General Secretariat swear not to receive or request the orders of any government or other organization. According to the Charter, Member States must respect the exceptional international nature and responsibilities of employees and not attempt to influence their activities improperly.

True, there were times when the activities of the UN Secretariat became the object of suspicion and criticism from the governments of the member states. In the days following the inauguration of US President Dwight Eisenhower at the height of the Cold War, Secretary General Trygve Lee, under pressure from Washington, authorized the Federal Bureau of Investigation to fingerprints all American employees. This practice continued until November 1953, when the new Dag Hammarskjöld ordered the FBI to stop it. But the American government, in an effort to identify sympathizers to the Communists, was created by the Loyalty Council of employees of international organizations, whose task was to obtain information about all American employees of the United Nations. Among them was the highly respected Ralph Bunch. During the Hammarskjöld period, the Soviet Union suspected the UN Secretariat that, under the leadership of the HS, it was on the side of the West. Thus, Moscow pressed the UN, demanding the adoption of so-called. The "Troika" project, according to which three heads of the Secretariat were supposed to be, one from the West, the East and the third world.

Problems with financing

During the 1980s and 1990s, there were serious accusations of the Secretariat in inflating staff and wastefulness. Boutros Boutros-Ghali unsuccessfully tried to appease critics, especially the US, freezing the budget and announcing reforms. His successor, Kofi Annan, in 1997 introduced his extensive reform and reorganization plans for "Renewing the United Nations" by consolidating and regrouping 24 agencies into 5 divisions, with the formation of the post of Deputy Secretary General. When in late 1997 the GA approved the first package of proposed reforms, the savings amounted to about $ 123 million. One of the consequences of this was that the US Congress approved the allocation of $ 819 million to pay part of its debt to the UN, which reached $ 1 billion, and lowered the pressure on the United Nations.

Quality of employees

Shortly after assuming office in 2007, the eighth GS Ban Ki-moon began restructuring the Secretariat and set new requirements for top and middle managers of the organization. Traditional job guarantees were abolished, incentives were created for the competitive selection process. He set annual performance reviews and terms of office, opened positions at UN headquarters in New York to employees outside the United States, forced senior officials to disclose their financial statements and put an end to the automatic reservation of jobs for responsible employees at the end of their service lives. Ban Ki-moon's changes were criticized by many delegations of member countries, accustomed to traditional unwritten practice. In private meetings, Pan met with ambassadors of these states to assure them that extensive consultations will be held prior to the introduction of reforms. His promises calmed most of the fears, but criticism demonstrated the difficulty in carrying out serious administrative changes in the Secretariat.

Reform attempts

When the Secretary-General produced the first appointments of senior management, he took the opportunity to recommend a change in several divisions, suggesting that the Department of Peacekeeping Operations be divided into two units, one for operations and one for field support, and also change the rank of the Director of the Office for Disarmament Affairs with Deputy to the assistant to the helper, in fact, reducing it in the UN hierarchy. Faced with opposition from two fronts, Ban Ki-moon asked the committees to consider the proposals before they were submitted to the General Assembly.