AG/RES. 1596 (XXVIII-O/98)

PERSONNEL POLICY

(Resolution adopted at the third plenary session, held on June 2, 1998)

THE GENERAL ASSEMBLY,

HAVING SEEN the report of the Permanent Council on personnel policy (AG/doc.3718/98);

RECALLING:

Its resolution AG/RES. 1381 (XXVI-O/96), which requested the Permanent Council "to establish a working group that shall define, in conjunction with the General Secretariat, a single coherent global personnel policy, in accordance with the actual needs of the Organization"; and

Its resolution AG/RES. 1525 (XXVII-O/97), which extended the mandate given to the Permanent Council through resolution AG/RES. 1381 (XXVI-O/96) until the twenty-eighth regular session of the General Assembly;

NOTING:

That the Permanent Council has completed the mandate entrusted to it regarding the study of the document "Creation of New Categories of Temporary Employment: Temporary Professional Staff Consultants and Temporary Support Personnel" (CP/doc.2884/97) and has concluded that there was no need to create a new employment mechanism; and

That if the existing mechanisms of employment were applied correctly and if improved, they might satisfy the needs of the Organization;

NOTING FURTHER that a staff performance evaluation system has been designed and that a pilot program has been initiated in selected areas of the General Secretariat, in order to test the effectiveness of this new appraisal system;

RECOGNIZING the importance of having transparent and streamlined hiring mechanisms at the Organization; and

BEARING IN MIND that the current career service system may require reform and modification to correct anomalies which have occurred since its inception in 1983, to reflect more fully the current human resource needs of the Organization in responding to the changing mandates of the member states, and to provide fair and reasonable employment to the entire staff of the Secretariat,

RESOLVES:

1. To take note of the report of the Permanent Council on personnel policy (AG/doc.3718/98).

2. To instruct the General Secretariat to improve the Organization's existing employment mechanisms where necessary, focusing in particular on increasing transparency and simplifying the various hiring mechanisms of the Organization, and to inform the Permanent Council of the changes effected, so that it may report to the General Assembly at its twenty-ninth regular session.

3. To instruct the General Secretariat to keep the Permanent Council updated on the implementation of the new performance evaluation system; and to request the Permanent Council to report to the General Assembly at its twenty-ninth regular session on the results.

4. To request the Permanent Council to prepare, with the assistance of the General Secretariat, a study with recommendations on the career service policy of the General Secretariat, for review by the General Assembly at its twenty-ninth regular session.

5. To instruct the General Secretariat that, without prejudice to a final decision on the future of the career service, it freeze all vacant slots in the service pending review of the study and its recommendations.