FICSA: the Federation of International Civil Servants' Associations is the voice of the staff associations and unions of 27 organizations, funds and programmes of the United Nations system. FICSA has been representing the staff of international organizations for nearly fifty years and has earned its well-acknowledged reputation for technical excellence and independence.

The Federation would like to take the opportunity of its Millennium Advocacy Campaign to thank Member States for the valuable time they have given to FICSA over the years to exchange views on staff's concerns. The support of Member States at the United Nations General Assembly is important to FICSA. Your thorough understanding of the issues and your endorsement is indispensable to achieving improvements in the lives of all international civil servants and, consequently, in the functioning of the international organizations.

The world - and the United Nations system - has certainly changed since the Federation first started visiting Member States representatives in 1983. Those changes have not only engendered new ways of working and new goals at the international level, they have also convinced staff that the time is right to address, as a matter of priority, their very basic concerns.

Many are the duties and obligations of international civil servants, and few are their rights. Fundamental labour rights - the right to security, the right to negotiation, the right to due process - are not guaranteed for people who work for the United Nations family of organizations. In fact, since "the international civil service is not subject to any domestic legal system, it may fail to benefit from the most dynamic labour legislation developments." In that context, "important international instruments such as the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, the Human Rights Covenants and the 1998 Geneva International Labour Organization Declaration on Fundamental Principles and Rights at Work are not incorporated into the United Nations internal regulations and rules." (JIU Report 2000/4, emphasis added.)

Staff are not only the most important resource of the United Nations organizations, they are its only resource. Their competence, effectiveness and dedication to the sometimes overwhelming tasks at hand are the key to the successful achievement of international goals. If their professionalism and dedication remain under-rewarded, under-acknowledged and unrespected,

the capacity to deliver services will be affected. And no one - least of all staff - wants that.

Thank you for welcoming the Federation's representatives. Thank you for taking our concerns seriously. Your decisions have an immense impact on our lives and those of the people we serve.

May wisdom be our guide.