STU/69th Council/21/001
22 January 2021

Dear colleagues,

The STU sends you its best wishes! We hope that 2021 brings, you and those you love, joy , happiness , peace and health. We also hope that the new year will see the end of this health crisis, allowing us to resume a life, ideally, of solidarity, fairness and more sustainable.

The areas of concerns are still numerous this year:

• Mobility: a new exercise is launched and the STU will ensure that it is carried out according to the recommendation of IOS and that mobility will**** be truly useful to the Organization and its staff and is not just about geographic transfers, unrelated to skills, programmes and career development, especially those of women and young people;
• Career development: the lack of professional prospects deprives the Organization of many talents who, frustrated with waiting in vain for career advancement, seek it elsewhere;
• Internal justice : the recent abolition of the Reports Board, which allowed staff members to contest their performance reports, further strengthens the position of the Administration, placing it in the position of judge and party, and depriving colleagues of an impartial appeal;
• Respect for the values of our Organization: the STU reiterates its commitment to the principle of zero tolerance towards behaviors that disrespect our values and rules and calls on the Administration to be more rigorous in cracking down on it;
• Equality between women and men: gender equality being one of its two global programmatic priorities, the Organization must be consistent and do everything so women can have equal opportunities with men at the institutional level;
• Revision of contractual modalities within the United Nations system : discussions are currently underway at different levels to revise the current contractual modalities, which could call into question the very existence of the status and rights of international civil servants, in whose defense the STU is actively involved.

You can count on us to advocate for justice , equity and transparency , without ever losing sight of the interests of the Organization.

To be even stronger, the STU invites you to join us. Please find here (Headquarters, Field) the forms to fill out to be part of our community and thus to work together to defend the rights of all. Despite a difficult year due to the health crisis, the STU has once again decided not to increase its contributions.

We remind you that membership gives you access to the STU channel on Teams, through which you can share your concerns, ideas and suggestions with the Board and all STU members in complete confidentiality.

Please do not hesitate to contact us if you have any questions.

Best regards,

The STU Council.