Improvement of the Status of Women in the Secretariat, G.A. res. 50/164, U.N. Doc. A/RES/50/164 (1995)
The General Assembly, Recalling Articles 1 and 101 of the Charter of the United Nations, Recalling also Article 8 of the Charter, which provides that the United Nations shall place no restrictions on the eligibility of men and women to participate in any capacity and under conditions of equality in its principal and subsidiary organs, Recalling further the relevant paragraphs of the Nairobi Forward-looking Strategies for the Advancement of Women and the Beijing Declaration and the Platform for Action adopted by the Fourth World Conference on Women on 15 September 1995, Concerned at the serious and continuing underrepresentation of women in the Secretariat, particularly at the higher decision-making levels, Convinced that the improvement of the status of women in the Secretariat could significantly enhance the effectiveness and credibility of the United Nations, including its leadership role in advancing the status of women worldwide and in promoting the full participation of women in all aspects of decision-making, Disappointed that the objective set in its resolutions 45/125 of 14 December 1990 and 45/239 C of 21 December 1990 of a 35 per cent overall participation rate of women in posts subject to geographical distribution by 1995 has not been met, Disappointed also that the goal set in its resolution 45/239 C of a 25 per cent participation rate of women in posts at the D-1 level and above by 1995 has not been met and that their level of representation remains unacceptably low, Recalling its resolution 49/167 of 23 December 1994, in which it urged the Secretary-General to implement fully the strategic plan of action for the improvement of the status of women in the Secretariat (1995-2000), Noting the efforts made by the Secretary-General and the Office of Human Resources Management of the Secretariat to integrate the objectives set by the General Assembly for the improvement of the status of women in the Secretariat into the overall strategy for the management of the Organization's human resources, and noting also that such a comprehensive approach would be conducive to enhancing the status of women in the Secretariat, Recognizing the importance of providing equal employment opportunities for all staff, Aware that a comprehensive policy aimed at preventing and dealing with sexual harassment should be an integral part of personnel policy, Welcoming the statement of the Administrative Committee on Coordination on the status of women in the secretariats of the United Nations system, in which the members of the Committee reaffirmed their strong commitment to ensuring that the advancement of women was a priority within the organizations of the common system and to taking measures to improve the status of women in their respective secretariats, 1. Welcomes the report of the Secretary-General; 2. Notes the efforts to date of the Secretary-General to implement the strategic plan of action for the improvement of the status of women in the Secretariat (1995-2000), and reaffirms that his continued visible commitment is essential to the achievement of the goals and objectives of the strategic plan; 3. Calls upon the Secretary-General to ensure full and urgent implementation of the strategic plan in order to achieve the goal contained in the Platform for Action adopted by the Fourth World Conference on Women for overall gender equality, particularly at the Professional level and above, by the year 2000; 4. Also calls upon the Secretary-General to fulfil his target, reaffirmed by the Fourth World Conference on Women, of having women hold 50 per cent of managerial and decision-making positions by the year 2000; 5. Welcomes the Secretary-General's initiatives to date to ensure implementation of the strategic plan, including the incorporation of measures into the performance appraisal system to hold managers responsible and accountable and the inclusion in training programmes of components designed to sensitize managers to gender issues; 6. Urges the Secretary-General to continue his work on improving the work practices and environment within the United Nations system with a view to increasing flexibility so as to remove direct or indirect discrimination, including against staff members with family responsibilities, through, inter alia, consideration of such issues as spouse employment, job-sharing, flexible working hours, child-care arrangements and career-break schemes, and to improve access for all staff to training and career development; 7. Notes the examination that has begun of the effectiveness of the Organization's policies and procedures, established in 1992, to deal with sexual harassment in the workplace, and urges the Secretary-General to ensure that the examination leads to a comprehensive and effective policy, including grievance mechanisms, for the prevention and redress of sexual harassment in the Secretariat; 8. Urges the Secretary-General to increase the number of women employed in the Secretariat from developing countries, particularly those that are unrepresented or underrepresented, and from other countries that have a low representation of women, including countries in transition; 9. Requests the Secretary-General to ensure that equal employment opportunities exist for all staff; 10. Also requests the Secretary-General to enable, from within existing resources, the Focal Point for Women within the Secretariat effectively to monitor and facilitate progress in the implementation of the strategic plan; 11. Strongly encourages Member States to support the strategic plan and the efforts of the United Nations and the specialized agencies to increase the percentage of women in Professional posts, especially at the D-1 level and above, by identifying and submitting more women candidates, encouraging women to apply for vacant posts and creating national rosters of women candidates to be shared with the Secretariat, specialized agencies and regional commissions; 12. Requests the Secretary-General, in accordance with the relevant rules on the delivery timetable for documentation, to ensure that a progress report on the status of women in the Secretariat is submitted to the Commission on the Status of Women at its fortieth session and to the General Assembly at its fifty-first session, taking into account the promotion of integrated reporting. |