Geographical Distribution of the Staff of the UN Secretariat

One of the perennial questions before the General Assembly and its Fifth Committee is that of the geographical distribution of the staff of the Secretariat. With the admission of sixteen new African members in 1960 and the sudden interest of the Soviet Union in filling its “quota,” the question took on special interest and urgency in the fifteenth and sixteenth sessions. The Committee of Experts, set up by the General Assembly in 1959 to review the organization and activities of the Secretariat, was asked to consider and make recommendations on certain aspects of the problem. The Fifth Committee spent much of its time during the sixteenth session in discussing the matter, and ended by inviting the Secretary-General to take into account the two draft resolutions introduced and views expressed in the Committee on the question, and to present to the General Assembly at its seventeenth session “a statement of his considered views on how to improve the geographical distribution of the staff of the Secretariat.” The question is, therefore, one which directly and immediately concerns the present position and future development of the Secretariat.