126. United Nations pension system

The United Nations Joint Staff Pension Fund, the Regulations for which were adopted initially by the General Assembly at its third session, in 1948 (resolution 248 (III)), is administered by the United Nations Joint Staff Pension Board, currently consisting of 33 members, one third of whom are elected by the Assembly and the corresponding legislative bodies of the other member organizations, one third by the executive heads of those organizations and one third by the participants.

The Fund comprises the United Nations and 21 other member organizations. As at 31 December 2007, the total number of active participants was 106,566 and there were 58,084 periodic benefits in award.

At its forty-sixth session, in 1991, the General Assembly decided to consider this item on a biennial basis, in even years (resolution 46/220).

At its sixty-first session, the General Assembly approved a change in the Regulations of the Fund to eliminate the limitation on the right to restoration for existing and future participants based on the length of the prior contributory service, effective 1 April 2007, and a change in the pension adjustment system; namely, the second phase of a three-phase approach in the elimination of the 1.5 per cent reduction in the first consumer price index adjustments after retirement; also approved the increase in total additional resources for the biennium 2006-2007 to 110,665,500 of the Fund’s budget; concurred, with the revised Agreement on the transfer of pension rights of participants in the United Nations Joint Staff Pension Fund and of participants in the World Bank Group Staff Retirement Plan, effective from 1 January 2007, and with the new Agreement on the transfer of pension rights of participants in the United Nations Joint Staff Pension Fund and of participants in the Coordinated Organizations, effective from 1 January 2007; and decided, upon the affirmative recommendation of the Board, that the International Organization for Migration should be admitted as a new member organization of the Fund, effective 1 January 2007 (resolution 61/240, sect. I).

At its sixty-second session, the General Assembly approved the ad hoc measure recommended by the Board at its fifty-fourth session to address the consequences of dollarization in Ecuador as an ad hoc, one-time, ex gratia, exceptional payment (resolution 62/241).

The Board held its fifty-fifth session in Rome from 10 to 18 July 2008. It recommended to the General Assembly that it approve the inclusion of contractual settlement provisions in the agreement with the Global Custodian of the Fund; also recommended approval of amendments to the Regulations of the Fund (a) to allow for the purchase of additional years of contributory service by part-time staff; (b) to allow participants who return to active contributory service after a period on disability to count such periods of disability as contributory service without requiring the participant or the employer to pay contributions for that period; and (c) to streamline the application of the relevant provisions governing family, or former family, members under articles 35 bis, 35 ter and 36; and further recommended the admission of the Special Tribunal for Lebanon to membership in the Fund, effective 1 January 2009, conditional on the Fund’s Secretary/Chief Executive Officer confirming to the General Assembly that the Tribunal fully satisfied all conditions for Fund membership A/63/9, para. 11).