United Nations Secretariat

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The United Nations Secretariat is the administrative organ of the United Nations and, in addition to its headquarters in New York, has three field offices in Geneva, Nairobi and Vienna. Its most important task is to provide organisational support to the other UN bodies. This includes, among other things, the organization of conferences, the writing of studies or reports and the preparation of a budget. To accomplish these tasks, the United Nations employs " more than 40,000 staff members" from 193 member states.

The UN Secretary-General (currently António Guterres) is elected by the UN General Assembly for a five-year term on the proposal of the UN Security Council. He has a special role within the UN because his frequent media presence makes him the "head of the United Nations" and its most important representative.

In late 1997, Secretary-General Kofi Annan created the position of Deputy Secretary-General of the United Nations, which Amina J. Mohammed has held since January 1, 2017.

Significant positions in the Office of the Secretary-General (OSG) are the Chief of the Executive Bureau (English/French: Chef de Cabinet), which since 1 January 2017 has been Maria Luiza Ribeiro Viotti, and the Assistants to the Secretary-General (English Executive Assistants).

The highest-ranking German UN staff member was Assistant Secretary-General Angela Kane until October 2005, and Assistant Secretary-General Franz Baumann until the end of 2015. The German prosecutor Detlev Mehlis occupied a position in the third hierarchical level of the United Nations as a special investigator in the rank of "Undersecretary General".

António Guterres, current Secretary-General of the United NationsZoom
António Guterres, current Secretary-General of the United Nations

Offices and departments

In addition to the New York headquarters, the United Nations maintains the following field offices of the UN Secretariat:

  • United Nations Office at Geneva (UNOG)
  • United Nations Office at Vienna (UNOV)
  • United Nations Office at Nairobi (UNON)

The activities of the UN Secretariat are divided among the following departments:

Executive Office of the Secretary-General

EOSG

Executive Office of the Secretary-General

Office of Internal Oversight Services

OIOS

Office of Internal Oversight Services

Legal affairs

OLA

Office of Legal Affairs

Political Affairs and Peacebuilding Department

DPPA

Department of Political and Peacebuilding Affairs

Office for Disarmament Affairs

ODA

Office for Disarmament Affairs

Department of Peacekeeping Operations

DPO

Department of Peace Operations

Operational Support Department

DOS

Department of Operational Support

UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs

OCHA

Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs

Counterterrorism Bureau

OCT

Office of Counter-Terrorism

Department of Economic and Social Affairs

DESA

Department of Economic and Social Affairs

General Assembly and Conference Management Department

DGACM

Department for General Assembly and Conference Management

Press and Information Department

DPI

Department of Public Information

Management Strategy, Policy and Compliance Department

DMSPC

Department of Management Strategy, Policy and Compliance

Office for Information and Communication Technology

OICT

Office of Information and Communications Technology

Office of the High Representative for Least Developed Countries, Landlocked Developing Countries and Small Island Developing States

OHRLLS

Office of the High Representative for Least Developed Countries, Landlocked Developing Countries and Small Island Developing States

Office of the United Nations Security Coordinator

UNSECOORD

Office of the United Nations Security Coordinator

UN Office for Disaster Risk Reduction

UNDRR

United Nations Office for Disaster Risk Reduction

UN Office on Drugs and Crime

UNODC

UN Office on Drugs and Crime

The departments in the UN Secretariat are headed by an Under-Secretary-General of the United Nations (USG).

Secretaries-General of the UN (chronological)

(→Compare the list of Secretaries General and Deputy Secretaries General)

  • 1946-1952: Trygve Lie (Norway)
  • 1953-1961: Dag Hammarskjöld (Sweden)
  • 1961-1971: Sithu U Thant (Burma)
  • 1972-1981: Kurt Waldheim (Austria)
  • 1982-1991: Javier Pérez de Cuéllar (Peru)
  • 1992-1996: Boutros Boutros-Ghali (Egypt)
  • 1997-2006: Kofi Annan (Ghana)
  • 2007-2016: Ban Ki-moon (Republic of Korea)
  • since 1 January 2017: António Guterres (Portugal)

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