The Secretariat, an international staff working at the United Nations Headquarters in New York and all over the world, carries out the diverse day-to-day work of the Organization. It services the other principal organs of the United Nations and administers the programs and policies laid down by them. At its head is the Secretary-General, who is appointed by the General Assembly on the recommendation of the Security Council for a five-year, renewable term.
The duties carried out by the Secretariat are as varied as the problems dealt with by the United Nations. These range from administering peace-keeping operations to mediating international disputes. Secretariat staff also survey economic and social trends and problems; prepare studies on subjects such as human rights and sustainable development; organize international conferences on issues of world-wide concern; monitor the extent to which the decisions of United Nations bodies are being carried out; interpret speeches and translate documents into the Organization's official languages; and conduct information programs to acquaint the world's communications media with the work of the United Nations.
More than 14,000 men and women from some 170 countries make up the Secretariat staff. As international civil servants, they and the Secretary-General answer to the United Nations alone for their activities and take an oath not to seek or receive instructions from any Government or outside authority. Under Article 100 of the Charter, each Member State undertakes to respect the exclusively international character of the responsibilities of the Secretary-General and the staff and to refrain from seeking to influence them improperly in the discharge of their duties.
The Secretary-General is described by the Charter as the "chief administrative officer" of the Organization. The Secretary-General is, of course, much more than that. Equal parts diplomat and activist, conciliator and provocateur, the Secretary-General stands before the world community as the very emblem of the United Nations. The task demands great vigor, sensitivity and imagination, to which the Secretary-General must add a tenacious sense of optimism-a belief that the ideals expressed in the Charter can be made a reality. The present Secretary-General of the United Nations and the seventh occupant of the post is Kofi Annan of Ghana, who took office on January 1, 1997.
The work of the Secretary-General inherently involves a certain degree of creative tension that stems from the Charter's definition of the job. The Charter empowers him to bring to the attention of the Security Council any matter which, in his opinion, threatens international peace and security. It also calls upon him to perform "such other functions" as are entrusted to him by the Security Council, the General Assembly and the other main United Nations organs. Thus, the Secretary-General functions as both spokesperson for the international community and servant of the Member States-roles that would seem to guarantee some amount of friction. Far from constricting his work, however, these broad outlines grant the Secretary-General an extraordinary mandate for action.
The Secretary-General is best known to the general public for using his stature and impartiality-his "good offices"-in the interests of "preventive diplomacy." This refers to steps taken by the Secretary-General or his senior staff, publicly and in private, to prevent international disputes from arising, escalating or spreading. Indeed, as events and crises unfold across the globe, the Secretary-General's words and deeds can have profound impact.
His work also entails routine daily consultations with world leaders and other individuals, attendance at sessions of various United Nations bodies and world-wide travel as part of the overall effort to improve the state of international affairs. Each year, the Secretary-General issues a report in which he appraises the work of the Organization and advances his view of its future priorities.
Each Secretary-General also defines the job within the context of his particular day and age. In 1992, for example, Mr. Boutros-Ghali, at the request of the Security Council, authored An Agenda for Peace, a far-reaching proposal for peace-keeping and peace-building in the post-Cold War world. Two years later, he issued An Agenda for Development, a blueprint for development into the twenty-first century. At a time when the world community is entering largely uncharted territory, so, too, is the office of Secretary-General being given new dynamism and direction.
Mr. Annan's predecessors as Secretary-General were: Boutros Boutros-Ghali of Egypt, who served from 1992 to 1996; Javier Perez de Cuellar of Peru, who served from 1982 to 1991; Kurt Waldheim of Austria, who held office from 1972 to 1981; U Thant of Burma (now Myanmar), who served from 1961 to 1971; Dag Hammarskjold of Sweden, who served from 1953 until his death in a plane crash in Africa in 1961; and Trygve Lie of Norway, who held office from 1945 to 1953.
Source: Basic Facts About the United Nations. Published by United Nations Department of Public Information. Copyright 1995 United Nations.
