The Secretariat

The Secretariat is comprised of the staff which works for the United Nations. It is a very important organ because, without it, there would be nobody to print publications, answer the phone and so on. Naturally, such a large organization requires a lot of personnel. The head of the staff, or Secretariat, is called the Secretary-General. Currently, the Secretary-General is Kofi Annan. The selection of the Secretary-General is done in the following manner: the Security Council must first recommend him or her, and then the General Assembly must vote a 2/3 majority for the nomination.

The Secretary-General has many responsibilities, which include managing the personnel, and representing the organization in press conferences and events, almost in the same way that the President of the USA represents the United States on various occasions.

The Secretariat is responsible to the international community, and not to any country or authority. Having the individuals in the Secretariat maintain their impartiality is quintessential to the working of the organization. For instance, if a country were to aggress another, and that the case were brought before the United Nations, there would certainly be people from the nationality of the aggressor within the Secretariat. Still, they should follow the decision or policy of the

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. Security Council and the General Assembly towards the aggressor nation, even if it is their own, simply because it poses a risk to peace and security. Naturally, most people in the Secretariat do have patriotic feelings, but many of them are able to suppress them. Since the Secretariat is comprised of people from around the world, if each individual were to follow the policy of a country or authority, and not of the Secretary-General and Secretariat, the organization would be chaotic.