The United Nations Environment Assembly, 

Recalling paragraph 3 of Article 101 of the Charter of the United Nations on the necessity of securing the highest standards of efficiency, competence and integrity and paying due regard to the importance of recruiting staff on as wide a geographical basis as possible, and Article 8, which stipulates that the United Nations shall place no restrictions on the eligibility of men and women to participate in any capacity and under conditions of equality in its principal and subsidiary organs, 

Recalling also that the Fifth Committee is the appropriate Main Committee of the General Assembly entrusted with responsibilities for administrative and budgetary matters, and reaffirming the role of the Fifth Committee in carrying out a thorough analysis and approving human and financial resources and policies, with a view to ensuring full, effective and efficient implementation of all mandated programmes and activities and the implementation of policies in that regard, 

Recalling further that the United Nations Environment Programme is a subsidiary organ of the General Assembly and that any actions taken by the governing bodies of the Environment Programme must thus respect the prerogatives of the Fifth Committee and of the Advisory Committee on Administrative and Budgetary Questions of the General Assembly and must fall within the parameters of their decisions and recommendations,

Recalling that it is for the Fifth Committee and the Advisory Committee on Administrative and Budgetary Questions to make recommendations and for the General Assembly to decide upon targets in relation to geographical distribution that shall apply across the Secretariat, including to the United Nations Environment Programme, 

Recalling General Assembly resolution 72/254 of 24 December 2017 on human resources management and, in that regard, acknowledging the importance of the provisions of regulations 4.2 and 4.3 of the Staff Regulations and Rules of the United Nations, 

Recalling General Assembly resolution 42/220 of 21 December 1987 on personnel questions, which states that “no post should be considered the exclusive preserve of any Member State or group of States and that the Secretary-General should ensure that this principle is applied faithfully in accordance with the principle of equitable geographical distribution”, 

Recalling Environment Assembly decision 5/2 on the medium-term strategy for the period 2022–2025 and the programme of work and budget for the biennium 2022–2023, in which, among other things, the Environment Assembly requested the Executive Director of the United Nations Environment Programme to pay due regard to the principle of equitable geographical distribution in accordance with paragraph 3 of Article 101 of the Charter of the United Nations, and noting with interest the report of the Executive Director on progress in the implementation of paragraph 18 of decision 5/2 pertaining to the application of the principle of equitable geographical distribution in the recruitment strategy of the United Nations Environment Programme, 2 while noting its submission at short notice, 

Recognizing the importance of paying due regard to equitable geographical distribution and gender parity within the United Nations Environment Programme in accordance with paragraph 3 of Article 101 of the Charter of the United Nations and the United Nations system-wide strategy on gender parity for the further enhancement of efficiency, effectiveness, inclusivity, diversity and transparency in the delivery of the mandate of the Environment Programme, 

Concerned by imbalance in the geographical distribution of staff in the secretariat of the United Nations Environment Programme and welcoming the ongoing efforts made by the Executive Director to address this issue in the recruitment of staff, while recognizing the importance of increasing efforts to address that imbalance, 

Striving to ensure that confidence in the United Nations Environment Programme is maintained and strengthened through paying due regard to the principle of recruiting staff on as wide a geographical basis as possible, with a focus on nationals of underrepresented and unrepresented Member States, 

Expressing appreciation to the Executive Director for the regular updates to the Committee of Permanent Representatives to the United Nations Environment Programme on matters pertaining to human resources, 

Recognizing the importance of collaboration between Member States and the secretariat of the United Nations Environment Programme, as appropriate, to promote vacancies within the Environment Programme, 1. Requests the Executive Director: 

(a) To enhance the application of Article 8 and paragraph 3 of Article 101 of the Charter of the United Nations in all matters relating to the composition of the secretariat of the United Nations Environment Programme; 

(b) To pay due regard to the importance of recruiting staff on as wide a geographical basis as possible; 

(c) To pay due regard to the recruitment of nationals of underrepresented and unrepresented Member States, bearing in mind regional diversity when making appointments to posts subject to geographical distribution; 

(d) To implement the four-point plan laid out in paragraph 29 of the report of the Executive Director on progress in the implementation of paragraph 18 of decision 5/2 pertaining to the application of the principle of equitable geographical distribution in the recruitment strategy of the United Nations Environment Programme and to report on the implementation thereof to the Committee of Permanent Representatives; 

(e) To continue to share with the members of the Committee of Permanent Representatives details of all senior professional vacancies within the secretariat of the United Nations Environment Programme; 

(f) To ensure equal treatment of applicants for vacancies, regardless of the education systems in which they gained their qualifications as required for the post; 

(g) To foster transparency and accountability in implementing the present resolution and continue the existing practice of reporting to the Committee of Permanent Representatives;

2. Encourages Member States to collaborate with the United Nations Environment Programme to promote vacancies among their nationals; 

3. Requests the Executive Director to report on the implementation of the present resolution to the Environment Assembly at its sixth session