The Secretariat and the Secretary-General

In one line

The Secretariat is the Organization's international civil service, headed by a Secretary-General appointed by the General Assembly on the recommendation of the Security Council, whose staff take instructions from no government and whose office carries one independent political power, article 99.

Composition and appointment: article 97

The Secretariat shall comprise a Secretary-General and such staff as the Organization may require. The Secretary-General shall be appointed by the General Assembly upon the recommendation of the Security Council. He shall be the chief administrative officer of the Organization.

Three things follow.

The Secretariat is a principal organ. Article 7(1) lists it alongside the General Assembly, the Security Council and the Court, which is a deliberate elevation of an administrative body to constitutional status.

The appointment is a two-step process, and it is subject to the veto. The Council recommends and the Assembly appoints, and because the recommendation is a substantive decision, any permanent member may block a candidate. That is the constitutional reason no Secretary-General has ever been a national of a permanent member, and it is a practice rather than a rule; the Charter contains no such limit.

Chief administrative officer. The Charter's own description, and it understates the office, because articles 98 and 99 give the holder functions no administrator has.

The term of office is not in the Charter. Five years, renewable, was fixed by the General Assembly in 1946 and has been followed since.

Functions: article 98

The Secretary-General shall act in that capacity in all meetings of the General Assembly, of the Security Council, of the Economic and Social Council, and of the Trusteeship Council, and shall perform such other functions as are entrusted to him by these organs. The Secretary-General shall make an annual report to the General Assembly on the work of the Organization.

"Such other functions as are entrusted to him by these organs" is the growth point of the office. Under it the Secretary-General has been asked to mediate, to conduct enquiries, to organise and direct peacekeeping operations, to certify elections and to administer sanctions regimes. Those functions are delegated, so their limits are set by the organ delegating them, and a Secretary-General who exceeds a mandate can be corrected by the organ that gave it.

The annual report is the one channel through which the office speaks to the whole membership on its own initiative, and successive holders have used it to raise questions the Members had not asked.

The independent power: article 99

The Secretary-General may bring to the attention of the Security Council any matter which in his opinion may threaten the maintenance of international peace and security.

This is the only political power the Charter gives the Secretary-General in his own right, and it must be read closely.