Improvement of the Status of Women in the United Nations System

A/RES/57/180No PDF available

Who created this mandate?

A Resolution of the General Assembly, under agenda item 102Advancement of women, published in 2003.

What other versions does this mandate have?

5 versions · 2001–2005

This is an older version — the most recent is A/RES/59/164

2005A/RES/59/164Improvement of the status of women in the United Nations SystemLatestCompare with previous version
2004A/RES/58/144Improvement of the status of women in the United Nations SystemCompare with previous version
2003A/RES/57/180Improvement of the status of women in the United Nations SystemCompare with previous version
2002A/RES/56/127Improvement of the status of women in the United Nations SystemCompare with previous version
2001A/RES/55/69Improvement of the status of women in the United Nations System

Versions are identified automatically by matching titles within the same organ (~97% accuracy on a manual audit).

What subjects does this mandate have?

13 topics

Appointment of Officials Career Development Employment Policy Focal Points Gender Equality Geographical Distribution Occupational Mobility Recruitment Sexual Harassment Staff Representation Top Echelon Staff Women Workers Women's Status

Which reports were submitted under this mandate?

1 report of the Secretary-General submitted under this mandate, 2003.

2003A/58/374Improvement of the status of women in the United Nations System report of the Secretary-General

Identified automatically from the metadata in each report’s UN Digital Library catalogue record.

What does this mandate say?

30 operative paragraphs

Takes note with appreciation of the report of the Secretary-General and the actions described therein;

Regrets that the goal of 50/50 gender distribution was not met by the end of 2000, and urges the Secretary-General to redouble his efforts to realize significant progress towards this goal in the near future;

Reaffirms the urgent goal of achieving 50/50 gender distribution in all categories of posts within the United Nations system, especially at senior and policy-making levels, with full respect for the principle of equitable geographical distribution, in conformity with Article 101, paragraph 3, of the Charter of the United Nations, and also taking into account the continuing lack of representation or underrepresentation of women from certain countries, in particular from developing countries and countries with economies in transition;

Expresses concern that in four departments and offices of the Secretariat women still account for less than 30 per cent of staff, and encourages the Secretary-General to intensify his efforts to meet the goal of gender balance within all departments and offices of the Secretariat;

Welcomes:

The ongoing personal commitment of the Secretary-General to meeting the goal of gender equality and his assurance that gender balance will be given the highest priority in his continuing efforts to bring about a new management culture in the Organization;

The pledge of the executive heads of the organizations of the United Nations system to intensify their efforts to meet the gender equality goals set out in the Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action;1

The inclusion of the objective of improving gender balance in action plans on human resources management for individual departments and offices, and encourages further cooperation, including the sharing of best-practice initiatives, between heads of departments and offices, the Special Adviser on Gender Issues and Advancement of Women and the Office of Human Resources Management of the Secretariat in the implementation of those plans, which include specific targets and strategies for improving the representation of women in individual departments;

The decision, within the context of the new staff selection system, to hold heads of departments and offices accountable for meeting the gender targets in departmental human resource action plans through their performance compacts;

The continuing designation of focal points for women in the United Nations system, and requests the Secretary-General to ensure that the focal points are designated at a sufficiently high level and enjoy full access to senior management, both at Headquarters and in the field;

The continuing provision of specific training programmes on gender mainstreaming and gender issues in the workplace, tailored to meet the special needs of individual departments, commends those heads of departments and offices who have launched gender training for their managers and staff, and strongly encourages those who have not yet organized such training to do so by the end of the biennium;

Requests the Secretary-General, in order to achieve and maintain the goal of 50/50 gender distribution with full respect for the principle of equitable geographical distribution, in conformity with Article 101, paragraph 3, of the Charter:

To continue to develop innovative recruitment strategies to identify and attract suitably qualified women candidates, particularly from and in developing countries and countries with economies in transition and other Member States that are unrepresented or underrepresented in the Secretariat, and in occupations in which women are underrepresented;

To encourage the United Nations system and its agencies and departments to make more effective use of existing information technology resources and systems and other established methods to disseminate information about employment opportunities for women and to better coordinate rosters of potential women candidates;

To continue to monitor closely the progress made by departments and offices in meeting the goal of gender balance, to ensure that the appointment and promotion of suitably qualified women will not be less than 50 per cent of all appointments and promotions until the goal of 50/50 gender distribution is met;

To strongly encourage heads of departments and offices to continue selecting female candidates when their qualifications are the same as, or better than, those of male candidates, and to effectively encourage, monitor and assess the performance of managers in meeting targets for improving women’s representation;

To encourage consultation by heads of departments and offices with departmental focal points on women during the selection process and to ensure that the focal points are designated at a sufficiently high level and enjoy full and effective access to senior management;

To enable the Office of the Special Adviser on Gender Issues and Advancement of Women, as outlined in the Beijing Platform for Action, to effectively contribute to, monitor and facilitate the setting and implementation of gender targets in human resource action plans, including by ensuring access to the information required to carry out that work;

To intensify his efforts to create, within existing resources, a gender-sensitive work environment supportive of the needs of his staff, both women and men, by, inter alia, actively pursuing appropriate work/life policies, such as flexible working time, flexible workplace arrangements, career development and childcare and elder-care needs, and by providing more comprehensive information to prospective candidates and new recruits on employment opportunities for spouses, providing support for the activities of women’s networks and organizations within the United Nations system and expanding gender-sensitivity training in all departments, offices and duty stations;

To continue to work to further strengthen the policy against harassment, including sexual harassment, by, inter alia, ensuring the full implementation of the guidelines for its application at Headquarters and in the field, including in peacekeeping operations, and further requests the early issuance of the directive on sexual harassment prepared by the Department of Peacekeeping Operations of the Secretariat for use in peacekeeping and other field missions, as well as user-friendly guidelines on sexual harassment to be prepared for the United Nations system by the Office of the Special Adviser on Gender Issues and Advancement of Women and the inter-agency working group;

To undertake further analysis of the probable causes of the slow advance in the improvement of the status of women in the United Nations system, as outlined in paragraph 56 of his report,7 to institute remedial measures and to report on progress made in this context to the General Assembly at its fifty-eighth session;

Strongly encourages the Secretary-General to renew his efforts to appoint more women as special representatives and envoys to pursue good offices on his behalf, especially in matters related to peacekeeping, peace-building, preventive diplomacy and economic and social development, as well as in operational activities, and to appoint more women as resident coordinators and to other high-level positions;

Encourages the Secretary-General and the executive heads of the organizations of the United Nations system to continue to develop common approaches for retaining women, promoting inter-agency mobility and improving career development opportunities;

Encourages the United Nations and Member States to continue to implement the outcome of the special session of the General Assembly entitled “Women 2000: gender equality, development and peace for the twenty-first century” pertaining to the improvement of the status of women in the United Nations system;2

Strongly encourages Member States:

To support the efforts of the United Nations and the specialized agencies to achieve the goal of 50/50 gender distribution, especially at senior and policy-making levels, by identifying and regularly submitting more women candidates for appointment to positions in the United Nations system, by identifying and proposing national recruitment sources that will assist the organizations of the United Nations system in identifying suitable women candidates, in particular from developing countries and countries with economies in transition, and by encouraging more women to apply for positions within the Secretariat, the specialized agencies, funds and programmes and the regional commissions, including in areas in which women are underrepresented, such as peacekeeping, peace-building and other non-traditional areas;

To identify women candidates for assignment to peacekeeping missions and to improve the representation of women in military and civilian police contingents;

To identify and submit regularly more women candidates for appointment or election to intergovernmental, expert and treaty bodies;

To identify and nominate more women candidates for appointment or election as judges or other senior officials in international courts and tribunals;

Requests the Secretary-General to report to the Commission on the Status of Women at its forty-seventh session and to the General Assembly at its fifty-eighth session on the implementation of the present resolution, including by providing up-to-date statistics on the number and percentage of women in all organizational units and at all levels throughout the United Nations system, as well as gender-segregated attrition rates for all organizational units and at all levels, and on the implementation of departmental action plans for the achievement of gender balance.

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Who created this mandate?

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What does this mandate say?

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