Founding of United Nations Secretariat

The United Nations Secretariat is one of the six principal organs of the United Nations, set up by the Charter of 1945. It is the administrative arm of the organisation, with staff in New York and at offices in Geneva, Vienna, Nairobi and elsewhere, and it carries out the daily work assigned to it by the other organs, such as the General Assembly and the Security Council. It is led by the Secretary-General, who is appointed by the General Assembly on the recommendation of the Security Council, and the first holder of the post was the Norwegian Trygve Lie. The staff are international civil servants who are not meant to take orders from their national governments. The Secretariat building in New York, completed in 1952, is a landmark of modern architecture.

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