Human Resources Management

A/RES/77/278View PDF

Who adopted this document and its mandates?

A Resolution of the General Assembly, under agenda item 143 Human resources management, published in 2022.

What else is in this group?

22 documents · 1995–2025

Newer documents in this group exist (latest: 2025).

Year	Symbol	Title	Word length	Text similarity
2025	A/RES/79/280	Human resources management	194	–
2023	A/RES/77/278	Human resources management	4,540	–
2018	A/RES/72/254	Human resources management	501	–
2017	A/RES/71/263	Human resources management	2,644	–
2014	A/RES/68/252	Human resources management	1,762	–

This group bundles related documents that are not individually ordered.

Who cites this mandate in the budget?

6 entities

(Sub-)Programme	Title	Total mandates cited
Subprogramme 3	Human resources	13
Section 1	Overall policymaking, direction and coordination	8
Subprogramme 3	Investigations	3
Subprogramme 2	Human resources management	10
Subprogramme 2	Human resources management	10

Historical expenditure covers the complete programme or subprogramme, not this mandate. For an overview of all UN entities and programmes, see UN entities and programmes.

Who cites this mandate in the budget?

6 entities

(Sub-)Programme	Title	Total mandates cited	Expenditure
Subprogramme 3	Human resources	13	—
Section 1	Overall policymaking, direction and coordination	8	—
Subprogramme 3	Investigations	3	—
Subprogramme 2	Human resources management	10	—
Subprogramme 2	Human resources management	10	—

Historical expenditure covers the complete programme or subprogramme, not this mandate. For an overview of all UN entities and programmes, see UN entities and programmes.

Which reports were submitted under this mandate?

7 reports · 2023–2025

Year	Symbol	Title	Mandate resolution
2025	A/80/550	Implementation of human resources management reforms: outlook for 2026-2029 report of the Secretary-General	A/RES/77/278
2025	A/80/508	Composition of the Secretariat : staff demographics report of the Secretary-General	A/RES/77/278
2024	A/79/581	Composition of the Secretariat : gratis personnel, retired staff, consultants and individual contractors, and United Nations Volunteers report of the Secretary-General	A/RES/77/278
2024	A/79/584	Composition of the Secretariat : staff demographics report of the Secretary-General	A/RES/77/278
2024	A/79/566	Overview of human resources management reform for the period 2023-2024 report of the Secretary-General	A/RES/77/278

What subjects does this mandate have?

12 subjects

Accountability Administrative Reform Geographical Distribution Human Resources International Civil Service Internship Programmes Occupational Mobility Personnel Management Recruitment Sexual Harassment Staff Composition Standards of Conduct

What’s in this document?

86 operative paragraphs

Reaffirms that the staff of the United Nations is an invaluable asset of the Organization, and commends its contribution to furthering the purposes and principles of the United Nations;

Pays tribute to the memory of all staff members who have lost their lives in the service of the Organization;

Endorses the conclusions and recommendations contained in the reports of the Advisory Committee on Administrative and Budgetary Questions, subject to the provisions of the present resolution;

Emphasizes the fundamental importance of human resources management reform in the United Nations as a contribution to the enhancement of the efficiency and effectiveness of the United Nations and of the international civil service, and encourages continued transparency in its implementation;

Notes the human resources framework and the Secretary-General’s proposed ways forward in its implementation, requests the Secretary-General to refine the parameters including clearly quantifiable targets, benchmarks and timelines for measuring impact for the diversity, agility and accountability outcomes, adjust the implementation plans accordingly, and report thereon, including progress achieved, to the General Assembly at the first part of its resumed seventy-ninth session;

Takes note of paragraph 50 of the report of the Advisory Committee,⁵ stresses the importance of a comprehensive human resources management strategy to assist the Secretary-General in performing human resources functions in a holistic and integrated manner and in ensuring the efficiency and effectiveness of the Organization, and requests the Secretary-General to take stock of his human resources reform efforts and submit for the consideration of the General Assembly at its eightieth session a human resources strategy, building upon the successes and lessons learned over the decade and bearing in mind the need to respond to the challenges for the future;

⁵A/77/728.

Notes that there is no separate recruitment policy in relation to posts funded by extrabudgetary resources and posts funded by assessed contributions;

Requests the Secretary-General to make efforts to safeguard compliance of the recruitment policy and process of the resident coordinator system with the Staff Regulations and Rules of the United Nations, as appropriate, and to ensure that the selection process of the resident coordinator system is transparent with the aim to treat internal and external candidates equally;

Recognizes the Secretary-General’s intent to update the Secretariat’s staff selection system, including through the staff selection 2.0 programme, in accordance with Articles 97 and 101 of the Charter of the United Nations, to improve the overall human resources management, to ensure a recruitment system that is effective, fair, efficient and agile, and to enable the Organization to have a diverse workforce, and requests the Secretary-General to provide detailed information on changes to staff selection at each and all phases of the recruitment process, including an analysis of the impact on recruitment practices, projected timelines, resources required, the designation of central and individual roles and responsibilities for the recruitment process, and the transition from current applicant qualification requirements (work experience and education) in the job openings to the inclusion of the knowledge, skills and abilities required, with the aim to ensure merit-based selection, increase objectivity, avoid bias and be fair to all applicants;

Reiterates that the Secretary-General has to ensure that the highest standards of efficiency, competence and integrity serve as the paramount consideration in the employment of the staff and in the determination of the conditions of service, with due regard to the importance of recruiting staff on as wide a geographical basis as possible, in accordance with Article 101, paragraph 3, of the Charter;

Underlines the need for strategic workforce planning across the Organization, encourages the Secretary-General to integrate all skills and capabilities required to fulfil mandates and respond effectively to current and future challenges into all stages of staff recruitment and retention, and requests the Secretary-General to intensify his efforts to anticipate future workforce needs and to report thereon in his next overview report;

Requests the Secretary-General, in the context of the ongoing human resources management reforms and business transformation projects, to continue to ensure the equal treatment of candidates with equivalent educational backgrounds during the recruitment process, taking fully into account the fact that Member States have different education systems and that no education system shall be considered the standard to be applied by the Organization;

Also requests the Secretary-General, when considering applicants for vacancies, to give equal treatment of internal and external candidates and to provide the percentage of internal and external candidates selected in the context of future reports;

Recalls paragraph 51 of the report of the Advisory Committee,⁶ notes with serious concern that the 120-day target for recruitment timelines continues not to be met, and requests the Secretary-General to develop and undertake concrete measures to increase efficiency and tackle the root causes of delays in its staff selection process, based on concrete analysis of each stage of the recruitment process to reduce recruitment timelines and meet the 120-day target;

⁶Ibid.

Requests the Secretary-General to continue his efforts to expand professional development opportunities provided to staff, including language training and training in the six official languages, to meet the workforce capacity needs of the Secretariat;

Also requests the Secretary-General to assess the frequency, adequacy, benefits, gaps and functioning of mandatory training in order to contribute to the fulfilment of the mandates of the Organization;

Stresses the urgent need to nurture a culture of staff mobility and accelerate the mobility process across the Organization, in particular movements between Headquarters and field duty stations, in order to build an agile, adaptable and motivated workforce required to ensure effective delivery of the mandates entrusted by the General Assembly, and takes note of the decision of the Secretary-General to implement annual mobility exercises through a new, consolidated approach to staff mobility, starting in 2023;

Recalls paragraph 49 of the report of the Advisory Committee,⁷ reaffirms the role of the General Assembly in providing guidance on the mobility framework, and requests the Secretary-General to report to the Assembly at the first part of its resumed seventy-ninth session details on the policy and progress of implementation of the new consolidated mobility framework, including non-financial incentives at the Secretariat and entity levels to encourage mobility and motivate staff to participate in the programme, in particular movements between Headquarters and field duty stations; impact on the composition of the Secretariat, diversity targets and external recruitment; cost implications and measures to mitigate future increased resource requirements; linkage to career development; and an assessment of the current policy of liens and its impact on mobility;

⁷Ibid.

Emphasizes the importance of providing the General Assembly, in the context of the human resources management overview reports, with periodic updates on the framework’s implementation, including information related to any observed impact on recruitment trends, and its contribution to skill development and career progression, as well as information on staff experience and satisfaction with the framework;

Takes note of paragraph 15 of the Advisory Committee report,⁸ notes the efforts of the Secretary-General to recruit staff on as wide a geographical basis as possible, in accordance with Article 101, paragraph 3, of the Charter, and requests the Secretary-General to report on the ongoing efforts and progress achieved towards geographical diversity across the Organization;

⁸A/77/729.

Reiterates its request to the Secretary-General to ensure as wide a geographical distribution of staff as possible at all levels, including at the Director and higher levels, across all geographical posts of the Secretariat, and to report thereon in his next overview report;

Notes that the system of desirable ranges is a mechanism with quantifiable targets, and requests the Secretary-General to report on each Member State’s representation status, desirable range and movement of geographical posts needed to reach within-range status in his report on the composition of the Secretariat;

Requests the Secretary-General to update the desirable ranges system in the Secretariat, with effect from 1 January 2024, incorporating the following changes:

To widen the posts subject to the desirable ranges system to all posts funded by the regular budget at the Professional and higher categories, including in special political missions and peacekeeping operations, excluding language posts;

To update annually the calculation of the lower and upper limits of the desirable ranges for all Member States, using the most updated base figure, and number of Member States;

To review the system of desirable ranges every five years;

Encourages the Secretary-General to work towards bringing each unrepresented and underrepresented Member State within its desirable range by 2030;

Requests the Secretary-General to ensure that all posts subject to the system of desirable ranges are encumbered accordingly and vacant posts are filled expeditiously;

Recalls paragraph 14 of the report of the Advisory Committee,⁹ and requests the Secretary-General to urge his senior managers to meet the geographical targets contained in the senior managers’ compacts and report on progress achieved in his report on the composition of the Secretariat;

⁹Ibid.

Takes note of paragraph 27 of the report of the Advisory Committee;¹⁰

¹⁰A/77/728.

Requests the Secretary-General to intensify his cooperation with all Member States, in particular the unrepresented and underrepresented ones, including through targeted outreach, with a view to attracting qualified candidates into the selection processes of job openings in the Secretariat;

Reaffirms that the United Nations should have a workforce that is diverse from a variety of perspectives, and encourages the Secretary-General to strengthen the Secretariat’s diversity efforts;

Encourages the Secretary-General to strengthen efforts to ensure that the United Nations is a diverse workplace where all staff members and non-staff personnel are treated with dignity and respect and take responsibility for maintaining a workplace free of any form of discrimination, harassment, including sexual harassment, and abuse of authority;

Takes note of paragraph 9 of the report of the Advisory Committee,¹¹ commends the efforts made by the Secretary-General to achieve gender parity in the Organization, in particular his appointments of female staff at senior levels, notes the continuing low representation of women in field operations and slow progress to move towards parity in this area, and encourages the Secretary-General to increase efforts to reach gender parity in all levels, in particular in areas further from reaching gender parity such as field operations, by 2028, including through support and innovative mechanisms such as talent pools and pipelines;

¹¹A/77/728/Add.1.

Notes the increase in the average age of staff in the United Nations workforce, as well as the high forecasted level of retirements, stresses the need for an accelerated process to rejuvenate the Organization, and requests the Secretary-General to propose, for the consideration of the General Assembly at the first part of its resumed seventy-ninth session, a comprehensive approach to recruit and retain talent with new perspectives and the required skills, including through outreach, the internship programme, the Junior Professional Officer Programme and the young professionals programme, and by increasing the number of entry-level Professional posts (P-1 to P-3) while reducing the number of senior-level posts (D-1 and above), through downward job reclassification or abolishment, as appropriate, and by taking advantage of upcoming retirements, so as not to increase the overall post resource requirements;

Requests the Secretary-General to assess the efficiency of the current administrative practices of the young professionals programme and report thereon in the context of his next report, including on possible measures to improve it;

Reaffirms the need to respect the equality of the two working languages of the Secretariat, further reaffirms the use of additional working languages in specific duty stations as mandated, and in this regard requests the Secretary-General to ensure that vacancy announcements specify the need for either of the working languages of the Secretariat, unless the functions of the post require a specific working language;

Notes the significant disparities across official languages observed in language requirements in the job openings published on Inspira, encourages the development and the implementation of the guidelines on setting language requirements in future job openings, and requests the Secretary-General to report thereon to the General Assembly at its seventy-eighth session;

Welcomes the efforts of the Secretary-General to combat racism and racial discrimination in the Organization, including the appointment of the Special Adviser on Addressing Racism in the Workplace, and requests the Secretary-General to continue to refine and implement the strategic action plan across the United Nations, including in the recruitment and hiring processes;

Reiterates that the overarching objectives of a performance management system are to measure performance, reward good performance and address underperformance in a credible and effective manner, and requests the Secretary-General to continue to strengthen performance management throughout the Organization, including through the performance appraisal system and improved performance management skills of managers, to promote effectiveness and accountability, including for underperformance, and to sustain a high performance and results-orientated culture;

Encourages the Secretary-General to ensure that the culture of the Organization incentivizes high performance and deals effectively with underperformance, and that staff career progression is strongly linked to good performance;

Recalls paragraph 41 of the report of the Advisory Committee,¹² acknowledges the efforts undertaken by the Secretary-General to support staff in terms of mental health and well-being, and looks forward to receiving further details on the implementation of those efforts in the next overview report;

¹²Ibid.

Also recalls the Secretary-General’s bulletin on flexible working arrangements, encourages the Secretary-General to support managers in monitoring staff attendance to ensure that the Organization continues to be responsive to Member States and maintains effective and efficient delivery of its work to assist legislative bodies in their work and to carry out their decisions, and to report thereon to the General Assembly at the first part of its resumed seventy-eighth session;

Notes with appreciation the development of the online Secretariat workforce portal as a complementary information tool to the annual reporting on the composition of the Secretariat, and requests the Secretary-General, as appropriate, to ensure that the portal is accessible to all Member States, as well as the Advisory Committee;

Requests the Secretary-General to focus his future reports on the composition of the Secretariat on workforce data reflecting progress towards strategic outcomes, including gender, geographical representation, and rejuvenation, and to provide trend analysis and identify potential challenges in human resources management;

Also requests the Secretary-General to provide in his future reports on the overview of human resources management reform the number of applications per regular job opening disaggregated by grade level in the Professional and higher and Field Service categories for all Secretariat entities;

Recalls paragraph 22 of the report of the Advisory Committee,¹³ and requests the Secretary-General to seek to understand the reasons behind the rates and trends of resignations at certain age brackets and certain levels, including through coordinating mandatory exit interviews across the Secretariat, and to provide comprehensive data and information on resignations, including an analysis of findings and trends along with proposed policy responses in future reports on the composition of the Secretariat;

¹³A/77/729.

Requests the Secretary-General to include systematically, in the context of future reports on the composition of the Secretariat, a detailed breakdown, with the status of incumbency, of all posts and positions at the P-2 and higher levels;

Takes note of paragraph 5 of the report of the Advisory Committee;¹⁴

¹⁴A/77/727.

Welcomes efforts by the Secretary-General to implement measures aimed at strengthening coherence, effectiveness and accountability in the management and use of internship programmes in the United Nations system;

Takes note of paragraphs 7, 9 and 10 of the report of the Advisory Committee;¹⁵

¹⁵Ibid.

Invites executive heads of the United Nations system organizations, under the leadership of the Secretary-General as Chair of the United Nations System Chief Executives Board for Coordination, to work towards the establishment of more coherent internship programmes for the United Nations system;

Reaffirms that internships should have an educational value for their participants;

Also reaffirms that Member States have different education systems and that no education system shall be considered the standard to be applied by the Organization;

Urges the Secretary-General to consider the United Nations internship programme as an integral part of his ongoing reform of the human resources system of the United Nations, and requests that a comprehensive review on the following elements be presented to the General Assembly no later than the first part of its resumed seventy-ninth session, taking into account, as appropriate:

The development of a sustainable internship programme based on an internship strategy and semi-structured training curriculum for interns, to maximize their training experience and reinforce the learning objectives of the programme which are, inter alia, to build a diverse pool of professionals with leadership skills and provide experience in the programmes and activities of the United Nations;

The strengthening of a transparent, merit-based intern recruitment process through an objective review of all intern applicants who meet the criteria, to provide equal opportunities for eligible candidates and to develop outreach mechanisms to attract candidates particularly from unrepresented and underrepresented Member States;

Proposals, incorporating lessons learned, on remote working opportunities in the United Nations internship programme, taking into account the modality’s inclusiveness and quality, educational purpose, outreach and practical considerations for participants located in multiple time zones with varying access to information and communications technology equipment and connectivity;

Clear and measurable indicators for assessing the progress made towards a United Nations internship programme diverse from geographical representation, gender parity and disability perspectives, to the extent practicable, reflecting on best practices;

Proposals for a possible appropriate support scheme to support interns for the duration of their internships, based on a review of funding and related mechanisms, and good practices already in place in some organizations of the United Nations system, including establishing a new category of non-staff personnel for interns, as appropriate;

The repealing of the provision prohibiting interns from applying for or being appointed to any position in the Professional and higher categories or in the Field Service category at the FS-6 and FS-7 levels six months following the expiration date thereof;

An analysis on the enhancement of the interns’ access to United Nations justice mechanisms;

Requests the Secretary-General to include in the comprehensive review an assessment of whether the restructured internship programme should be administered centrally or remain fully decentralized;

Recalls paragraph 17 of the report of the Advisory Committee,¹⁶ and requests the Secretary-General to limit the reliance on retirees in order to exercise better workforce succession planning and promote rejuvenation;

¹⁶Ibid.

Takes note of paragraph 19 of the report of the Advisory Committee;¹⁷

¹⁷Ibid.

Recalls paragraph 34 of its resolution 71/263, stresses that the use of consultants should be governed by the relevant resolutions of the General Assembly, in particular section VIII of its resolution 53/221, recalls paragraph 26 of the report of the Advisory Committee,¹⁸ notes with concern the continued increase in the use of consultants, and requests the Secretary-General to make every effort to reduce the considerable reliance on consultants, minimize the use of individual contractors, utilize the internal expertise and skills in the Secretariat, and develop in-house capacity;

¹⁸Ibid.

Takes note of paragraph 33 of the report of the Advisory Committee;¹⁹

¹⁹Ibid.

Notes with appreciation the report of the Joint Inspection Unit entitled “Review of the ethics function in the United Nations system”;²⁰

²⁰JIU/REP/2021/5.

Commends the Ethics Office on its exceptional ongoing efforts to foster a culture of ethics, integrity, transparency and accountability in the Organization, and welcomes the efforts of the Office to increase awareness of ethics-related issues through outreach, training and education;

Takes note of paragraphs 4 and 13 of the report of the Advisory Committee;²¹

²¹A/77/545.

Also takes note of paragraph 15 of the report of the Advisory Committee,²² and requests the Secretary-General to continue to take all necessary measures to address all potential conflicts of interest, including by refining the criteria, as appropriate, regarding the type and level of information that should be disclosed by members of staff, and to continue encouraging senior officials, who have not yet disclosed a summary of their assets through the voluntary public disclosure initiative, to do so in future cycles;

²²Ibid.

Encourages the Secretary-General, in his capacity as the Chair of the United Nations System Chief Executives Board for Coordination, to promote protection against retaliation across the system, underscores the importance of raising awareness of the policy, as well as the efforts to continuously improve the framework for protection from retaliation, and in this regard requests the Secretary-General to continue to provide information on the implementation of the policy in his next report;

Recalls paragraph 20 of the report of the Advisory Committee,²³ emphasizes the need for appropriate levels of oversight, tracking and monitoring of the receipt, custody and disposal of gifts within the global online registry and the authority of individual heads of entities, and requests the Secretary-General to provide an update thereon in his next report on the activities of the Ethics Office;

²³Ibid.

Welcomes the Ethics Office activities to increase awareness of ethics-related issues for all staff, and the upgrade of its website in the six official languages of the United Nations, and requests the Secretary-General to propose measures to enhance the Ethics Office’s work in the field for the consideration of the General Assembly;

Takes note of paragraphs 25, 27 and 30 of the report of the Advisory Committee,²⁴ and approves the recommendations for strengthening the independence of the Ethics Office on direct presentation of the annual report by the Office to the General Assembly and enhanced role of the Independent Audit Advisory Committee to strengthen the accountability framework, and decides to include in the agenda of the seventy-eighth session an item entitled “Report on the activities of the Ethics Office”;

²⁴Ibid.

Reaffirms the Organization’s zero-tolerance approach to all cases of misconduct, stresses the importance of ensuring trust and accountability in the system of disciplinary measures, including through consistent and transparent application of sanctions, and requests the Secretary-General to submit for the consideration of the General Assembly at the first part of its seventy-ninth session comprehensive measures aimed at ensuring his zero-tolerance approach to all cases of misconduct, covering elimination of barriers to reporting misconduct, independence of oversight and investigations, and mechanisms to ensure administrative and criminal accountability;

Takes note of paragraph 5 of the report of the Advisory Committee,²⁵ recognizes the importance of high standards of investigative functions carried out in a credible, objective, factual and unbiased manner within the Organization, and requests the Secretary-General to continue to undertake measures to improve its investigative practices, to provide comprehensive disaggregated data on cases processed, and an analysis thereon, in his future reports on disciplinary matters;

²⁵A/77/730.

Notes the increase in time taken to dispose of cases, stresses the importance of ensuring that cases are disposed of in an expeditious manner, and requests the Secretary-General to propose additional measures to enhance the rate of disposal of cases in his next report on disciplinary measures;

Recalls paragraph 7 of the report of the Advisory Committee,²⁶ and requests the Secretary-General to lay out more clearly the criteria and internal regulations applied in the determination of misconduct and imposed disciplinary measures, including mitigating and aggravating circumstances, as well as the types of misconduct related to separation and dismissal;

²⁶Ibid.

Invites the Secretary-General to incorporate assessments of senior managers’ effectiveness in preventing and addressing misconduct in their performance reviews;

Notes the importance of ensuring a working environment free from any form of discrimination, including xenophobia, harassment, including sexual harassment, and abuse of authority, further notes the efforts of the Secretary-General to promote trust and accountability, and to ensure a victim-centred approach to reported allegations, and requests the Secretary-General to undertake further measures, throughout the disciplinary process in this regard, including to improve information and support to victims;

Requests the Secretary-General, in coordination with the Chief Executives Board Task Force on Addressing Sexual Harassment within the Organizations of the United Nations System, to identify more suitable terminology to classify various forms of sexual misconduct in the United Nations system based on victim input and best practice;

Welcomes the use of Clear Check, requests the Secretary-General, in his capacity as Chair of the Chief Executives Board, to encourage heads of participating entities to promptly record relevant data into Clear Check to increase its utility, and further requests the Secretary-General to include an assessment of whether the scope of entries in Clear Check could be extended to cover other categories of misconduct and disciplinary sanctions, and to explore whether the Clear Check database and the Misconduct Disclosure Scheme can complement each other, and to report thereon to the General Assembly at its seventy-eighth session;

Also welcomes the new Case Management Tracking System to track cases from end-to-end and to capture the full lifespan of the case management process, and requests the Secretary-General to continue to analyse data and trends around misconduct and disciplinary measures in order to inform future activities for prevention and response and to report thereon to the General Assembly at its seventy-eighth session;

Recalls paragraph 11 of the report of the Advisory Committee,²⁷ emphasizes that the full recovery of the financial loss amount should be pursued, and encourages the Secretary-General to strengthen his efforts to improve the quantification and the rate of recovery of losses;

²⁷Ibid.

Encourages the Secretary-General to continue to make efforts to expand internal and public awareness and visibility of his policies against prohibited conduct, with a view to upholding the principle of integrity in the United Nations.

Who adopted this document and its mandates?

What else is in this group?

Who cites this mandate in the budget?

Who cites this mandate in the budget?

Which reports were submitted under this mandate?

What subjects does this mandate have?

What’s in this document?

Table of contents

Who cites this mandate in the budget?