CIVIL SERVICE, INTERNATIONAL

Abstract

This chapter describes the International Civil Service of United Nations system. The International Civil Service has its distant historical origins in the traditional pattern of conference secretariats and in the secretariats of some administrative unions (International Administrative Unions) but has been influenced mostly by the experience of the permanent Secretariats of the League of Nations and of the International Labour Organization (International Secretariat). The emergence of these organizations, and subsequently of the United Nations and of the Specialized Agencies, as bodies possessing international legal personality and extensive functions on the international plane, has had a decisive influence on the creation and the development of the modern international civil service. Despite common usage, there is no such thing as an international civil service. There is a common system of salaries, allowances, and benefits between the United Nations and most of the Specialized Agencies which has its origin in the relationship agreements concluded by the United Nations and the agencies concerned in pursuance of Arts. 57 and 63 of the United Nations Charter.