Improvement of the Status of Women in the United Nations System

A/RES/58/144View PDF

Who created this mandate?

A Resolution of the General Assembly, under agenda item 110Advancement 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).

Which reports were submitted under this mandate?

1 report of the Secretary-General submitted under this mandate, 2004.

2004A/59/357Improvement 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?

35 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 very 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, from countries with economies in transition and from unrepresented or largely underrepresented Member States;

Expresses concern that in three departments and offices of the Secretariat women still account for less than 30 per cent of professional staff and that in three organizations of the United Nations system women still account for less than 20 per cent of professional staff, and encourages the Secretary-General and the executive heads of the organizations of the United Nations system to intensify their efforts to meet the goal of gender balance within the United Nations system;

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 and offices;

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 as soon as possible;

The formulation of a project by the Office of the Under-Secretary-General for Management to strengthen the efforts of the Secretary-General to achieve gender balance by adopting a more coordinated and integrated approach to this issue, with the purpose of setting and achieving verifiable goals to ensure that gender balance targets are attained by 2006;

The preparation of a research-based analysis by the Office of the Special Adviser on Gender Issues and Advancement of Women, to be presented to the General Assembly at its fifty-ninth session, of the probable causes of the slow advancement in the improvement of the status of women in the United Nations system, with a view to elaborating new strategies for achieving gender parity;

The commitment of the Office of Human Resources Management and the Office of the Special Adviser on Gender Issues and Advancement of Women to explore ways to better integrate the departmental focal points in the new staffing system, so that the focal points can continue to play an important role for the periodic and systematic monitoring of the recruitment, retention and career advancement of women, and looks forward to information on this matter in the next report;

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 represents at least 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 extend ongoing training and sensitization of managers on gender balance issues;

To enable the Office of the Special Adviser on Gender Issues and Advancement of Women 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, including by actively pursuing appropriate work/life policies, such as flexible working time, flexible workplace arrangements, career development, mentoring programmes and childcare and elder-care needs, as well as through the provision of more comprehensive information to prospective candidates and new recruits on employment opportunities for spouses, the provision of support for the activities of women’s networks and organizations within the United Nations system and the expansion of gender-sensitivity training in all departments, offices and duty stations, including more information and training of staff and managers on the benefits of the work/life policies on productivity and effectiveness;

To continue to work to strengthen further 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;

Strongly encourages the Secretary-General, in the context of his commitment to set concrete targets for the appointment of women as his special representatives and special envoys in order to reach the target of 50/50 gender balance by 2015, to intensify 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, including appointment as resident coordinators, and to appoint more women 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 twenty-third 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, funds and programmes 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, including through the establishment of networks with professional organizations, 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, by creating awareness among their nationals, particularly women, of available vacancies throughout the United Nations system, 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;

To cooperate closely with the United Nations to facilitate spouse employment at all the major duty stations of the Secretariat and the organizations of the United Nations system;

Requests the Secretary-General to provide a verbal update to the Commission on the Status of Women at its forty-eighth session and to report to the General Assembly at its fifty-ninth 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, as well as on the implementation of departmental human resource action plans, in particular for the achievement of the gender targets;

Requests the United Nations and the specialized agencies, funds and programmes of the United Nations system, in order to facilitate the preparation of the above-mentioned report, to submit personnel data on all appointments, promotions and mobility as well as to collect and submit data in a timely fashion to measure accurately progress in achieving gender parity for staff.

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Improvement of the Status of Women in the United Nations System

Who created this mandate?

What other versions does this mandate have?

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What does this mandate say?

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