The Secretariat of the United Nations
| Author | Alexandre Tavadian |
| Pages | 423-498 |
423
Chapter 7
THE SECRETARIAT OF THE
UNITED NATIONS
With the creation of the rst permanent international institutions in
the 1800s, such as the Danube and Rhine River commissions, there
appeared the need to have permanent secretariats with sta. Initially,
the main reason for establishing permanent secretariats was to ensure
that member states received uninterrupted secretarial services, such as
production of documents, recording of decisions, translation services,
and other housekeeping tasks during their multilateral conferences.1
Another motivation for setting permanent secretariats was to equip
international organizations with some institutional memory in order
to ensure consistency and foreseeability. The necessity to shield inter-
national organizations from the political inuences of their member
states was not a decisive consideration in establishing permanent sec-
retariats. Despite the international nature of their work, sta of river
commissions were appointed directly by their nations, took instruc-
tions from their governments, and owed a degree of allegiance to their
countries of citizenship. International public servants enjoyed very
limited immunities from the local jurisdiction of the host state.2 Thus,
the earliest forms of permanent secretariats had little in common with
the modern-day secretariats of international organizations.
1 Leon Gordenker, The UN Secretary-General and Secretariat, 2d ed (New York:
Routledge, 2010) at 4.
2 Maxwell Cohen, “The United States and the United Nations Secretariat: A
Preliminary Appraisal” (1953) 1:3 McGill LJ 169 at 171.
424 | UNITED NATIONS LAW, POLITICS, AND PRACTICE
Permanent secretariats underwent an important change with the
establishment of the League of Nations. The rst Secretary-General
of the League, Sir Eric Drummond, was the architect of the League’s
Secretariat.3 He tried to introduce a model similar to the Westmin-
ster system of public administration, in which public servants are
entirely independent from the political apparatus. More specically,
the League’s sta had to avoid any action that could lead to percep-
tions that its advice and work were aected by political factors. Public
servants had a career path that did not depend on political patronage
and was based exclusively on merit. Sir Drummond delineated delib-
erating bodies, namely the League’s Assembly and Council, from the
permanent secretariat, whose chief role was to implement policies
adopted by the deliberating organs. For the rst time, sta members
of a secretariat of an international organization were required to take
instructions from the Secretary-General and not from national gov-
ernments. Since then, this clear division of roles and responsibilities
between policy-shaping organs and the secretariat has become the
main feature of the institutional structure of contemporary inter-
national organizations, including the United Nations.4
The UN perfected the League’s model of international public ser-
vice. The UN Charter recognizes the importance of the Secretariat
by stating expressly that it is one of the main organs of the organiz-
ation.5 This recognition is signicant because the Secretariat is not
a mere clerical apparatus or subordinate body of the main organs,
but an essential component of the organization. The Secretariat of
the United Nations comprises a “Secretary-General and such sta as
the Organization may require.”6 The Secretary-General is appointed
by the General Assembly upon the recommendation of the Security
Council.7 The Secretary-General is the chief administrative ocer
3 Gordenker, above note 1 at 5.
4 Egon F Ranshofen-Wertheimer, “The International Civil Service of the Future”
(1946) 24 Int’l Conciliation 60 at 63.
5 Charter of the United Nations, 26 June 1945, Can TS 1945 No 7, art 7.1 [Charter
of the United Nations].
6 Ibid, art 97.
7 Ibid.
Chapter 7: The Secretariat of the United Nations | 425
of the organization8 and acts in that capacity in all meetings of the
General Assembly, the Security Council, and the Economic and Social
Council.9 The Secretary- General prepares an annual report to the
General Assembly on the work of the organization10 and brings to
the attention of the Security Council any matter that may threaten
the maintenance of international peace and security.11 The Secretary-
General is empowered to select and recruit members of personnel
known as sta, appoints sta in accordance with the United Nations
Sta Regulations established by the General Assembly,12 and assigns
appropriate sta to various organs of the United Nations.13 On the
basis of UN Sta Regulations endorsed by the General Assembly, the
Secretary-General promulgates UN Sta Rules, which contain more
detailed legal norms regulating the management of human resour-
ces in the UN Secretariat. While Sta Rules are more detailed than
Sta Regulations, the two statutory documents must always remain
consistent with one another. The paramount consideration in the
employment of the sta and in the determination of the conditions
of service must be the necessity of securing the highest standards
of eciency, competence, and integrity.14 It is, however, not the sole
consideration; “it is simply a consideration to which greater weight is
normally to be given than to any other.”15 The importance of recruit-
ing the sta on a wide geographical basis must also be a consideration
when recruiting sta members.16 In 2018, the UN Secretariat con-
sisted of approximately 35,000 members of the sta,17 based in over
210 locations called “duty stations.”
8 Ibid.
9 Ibid, art 98.
10 Ibid.
11 Ibid, art 99.
12 Ibid, art 101.1.
13 Ibid, art 101.2.
14 Ibid, art 101.3.
15 Application for Review of Judgment No 333 of the United Nations Administrative Tribu-
nal, Advisory Opinion, [1987] ICJ Rep 18 at para 81 [Review of Judgment No 333].
16 Charter of the United Nations, above note 5, art 101.3.
17 Personnel Statistics as at 31 December 2018, Chief Executive Board for Coordina-
tion, UN Doc CEB/2019/HLCM/HR/17 (2019).
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