Composition of Staff of the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights

A/HRC/RES/22/2View PDF

Who adopted this document and its mandates?

A Resolution of the Human Rights Council, under agenda item 2 Annual report of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights and reports of the Office of the High Commissioner and the Secretary-General, published in 2013.

What other versions does this mandate have?

8 versions · 2010–2019

This is an older version — the most recent is A/HRC/RES/42/1

Year	Symbol	Title	Word length	Text similarity
2019	A/HRC/RES/42/1	Composition of staff of the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights	339	39%Compare
2017	A/HRC/RES/36/1	Composition of staff of the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights	806	79%Compare
2016	A/HRC/RES/31/1	Composition of staff of the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights	896	57%Compare
2015	A/HRC/RES/28/1	Composition of staff of the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights	1,158	72%Compare
2013	A/HRC/RES/22/2	Composition of staff of the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights	1,079	65%Compare

What subjects does this mandate have?

5 subjects

Cultural Pluralism Geographical Distribution Personnel Management Professional Staff Staffing

What’s in this document?

15 operative paragraphs

Expresses serious concern at the fact that, despite the measures reported by the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, the imbalance in the geographical representation of its composition continues to be prominent, and that a single region occupies almost half of the posts in the Office of the High Commissioner;

Notes with concern the fact that, in 2012, only two out of four regions increased their representation in the percentage of staff, and that no change was recorded in the overrepresentation status of one region;

Welcomes the statement made by the High Commissioner in her report1 that enhancing the geographical diversity of the staff of her Office remains one of her priorities, and requests her to redouble her efforts with a view to redressing the current imbalance in geographical distribution of the staff of the Office, despite the budgetary contingency;

Requests the High Commissioner, in this regard, to establish specific and public targets and deadlines to be achieved;

Also requests the High Commissioner to work on the broadest geographical diversity of her staff by strengthening the measures aimed at achieving a better representation of countries and regions that are unrepresented or underrepresented, particularly from the developing world, while considering applying a cap on the representation of countries and regions already overrepresented in the Office of the High Commissioner;

Takes note of the commitment of the High Commissioner to remain attentive to the need to maintain the emphasis on the broadest possible geographic diversity of her Office, as stated in the conclusion of her report;

Welcomes the efforts made towards the achievement of a gender balance in the composition of the staff and the decision to continue to pay special attention to this issue;

Requests future High Commissioners to continue to enhance the ongoing efforts made in the fulfilment of the goal of a geographical balance in the composition of the staff of the Office;

Underlines the importance of continuing to promote geographical diversity in recruitment and promotion at the Professional level and, in particular, in senior management positions, as a principle of the staffing policies of the Office of the High Commissioner;

Reaffirms the vital importance of geographical balance in the composition of the staff of the Office of the High Commissioner, taking into account the significance of national and regional specificities and various historic, cultural and religious backgrounds, as well as of different political, economic and legal systems, to the promotion and protection of the universality of human rights;

Recalls the provisions contained in section X, paragraph 3, of General Assembly resolution 55/258 of 14 June 2001, on human resources management, in which the Assembly reiterated its request to the Secretary-General to increase further his efforts to improve the composition of the Secretariat by ensuring a wide and equitable geographical distribution of staff in each and every department, and also recalls the request that he submit to the Assembly proposals for a comprehensive review of the system of desirable ranges with a view to establishing a more effective tool to ensure equitable geographical distribution in relation to the total number of staff of the Secretariat;

Encourages the General Assembly to consider further measures to promote desirable ranges of geographical balance in the staff of the Office of the High Commissioner, as requested in the present resolution

Recognizes the importance of the follow-up to and implementation of General Assembly resolution 61/159 of 19 December 2006, and underlines the priority importance that the Assembly continue to provide support and guidance to the High Commissioner in the ongoing process of improvement of the geographical balance in the composition of the staff of the Office of the High Commissioner;

Requests the Joint Inspection Unit to undertake a comprehensive follow-up review of the management and administration of the Office of the High Commissioner, in particular with regard to its impact on the recruitment policies and the composition of the staff, and to submit a report thereon and containing concrete proposals for the implementation of the present resolution to the Human Rights Council at its twenty-seventh session;

Requests the High Commissioner to submit a comprehensive and updated report to the Human Rights Council at its twenty-seventh session following the structure and scope of her report and with a special focus on further measures taken to correct the imbalance in the geographical composition of the staff of the Office of the High Commissioner.

  The resolutions and decisions adopted by the Human Rights Council will be contained in the report of the Council on its twenty-second session (A/HRC/22/2), chap. I.

Who adopted this document and its mandates?

What other versions does this mandate have?

What subjects does this mandate have?

What’s in this document?

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