Welcome to the United Nations

Nominating for professional posts

Officer recruited to professional posts serve under the contractual status of staff members of the United Nations, in the field and at Headquarters, including the Standing Police Capacity (SPC) of the Police Division.

Staff receive their salary from the United Nations and are governed by the United Nations Staff Regulations, Rules and other administrative issuances. Recruitment of staff members is coordinated with the UN Office for Human Resources Management (OHRM).

Profiles for professional posts are: Head of Police components, Chief of Staff, Transnational Organized Crime Expert, Special Assistant to Police Commissioner, [list profiles and link to pdf with sample descriptions].

The average recruitment time for a Police officer seconded by a national police service to a Professional Post is [insert number] months from the submission of the documents by the Permanent Mission to the United Nations Police Division. For positions at the Police Division, the average recruitment time varies from 9 months to one year.

Rules and Regulations

The requirement for Professional posts follows the United Nations staff categories for professional posts, with education and experience matching the position.

Process

Generation

1. Invitation for nominations/advertising: The Selection and Recruitment section sends a Note Verbale with a Job Opening (JO) announcement for the vacant post/s and/or post them on Internet (Inspira or Galaxy). Operational requirements determine the JO posting period (can vary from 15 to 90 days).

2. Nomination of Candidates: Permanent Missions of Member States of the UN should submit, duly completed (typed) and signed, United Nations Personal History Form (P.11) or printed Personal History Profiles (PHP) for each nominated candidate (see III.1.E and III.1.F).

Each nomination should also include a certification that the candidates have not been convicted of and is not currently under investigation or being prosecuted for any criminal, human rights or disciplinary offence, with the exception of minor traffic violations (driving while intoxicated or dangerous or careless driving are not considered minor traffic violations for this purpose).

Selection for service with the United Nations is made on a competitive basis. It is therefore essential that all the P.11/PHP be completed with a view to presenting the candidates qualifications and experiences as they relate to the requirements as set out in the relevant Job Opening. To ensure adequate evaluation, the following data is mandatory: date of joining active police service, rank, educational degree, graduation from police training institution, post titles, detailed duties description in each post starting from the initial assignment after the graduation from the police training institution, availability of additional qualifications, previous international experience (UN, African Union, European Union etc.), contact details (telephone and e-mail address). In the event a Permanent Mission wishes to recommend a candidate for several posts, a separate P.11/PHP should be submitted for each post.

It is strongly recommended that Member States carefully pre-screen their applicants and nominates only candidates that meet all the requirements for the advertised position.

Permanent Missions are requested to present their candidates in one single submission, in accordance with the deadline date of the Job Opening, under cover of a Note Verbale listing the names of the candidates and referring to the corresponding Job Opening announcements. The list should include the following information: rank, first name, last name, gender, date of birth, date joined active police service, passport/national ID/police ID number and type of police service where the police officer is employed in his or her country (see III.1.D).

Applications must be hand-delivered by Permanent Missions to the SRS of the Police Division, Office of Rule and Law and Security Institutions, Department of Peace Operations in accordance with the specific directions in the relevant Note Verbale. The Permanent Mission should also confirm that selected candidates will be released, in a timely manner, from their national obligations for service with the UN (III.1.G).

3. Pre-selection (CV Analysis and Interview): SRS undertake substantive assessment for candidates that meet the eligibility requirements for the post. This can include a written examination over email. The examination helps in determining the short-list of candidates for interview. The short-list for candidates up to P-4 posts is approved by the Police Adviser. Short-lists for P-5 posts and higher are approved by the Assistant-Secretary- General for Rule of Law and Security Institutions and the Under-Secretary-General for Peacekeeping Operations. The Department of Political Affairs is consulted on the posts related to special political missions. A panel of at least three people, including at least one female, hold a competency based interviews with short-listed candidates. The objective is to determine, through behaviour-based questions, the degree to which the candidate possesses the key competencies and core values identified on beforehand as most essential to the specific post and outlined in the Job opening. The results of the interviews are compiled in a Comparative Evaluation Report, including a concluding statement if the candidate is recommended or not.

For more information about UN competency based interviews visit the UN's human resources portal.

4. Selection: Based on the recommendations of the interview-panel, SRS and the relevant hiring manager (i.e. the Police Adviser or the Head of Mission) will consider the following factors in selecting a candidate:

  • equally qualified female candidates are given priority.
  • Geographical representation.
  • Requisite qualifications and experiences of internal candidates.

The final selection is approved by the Police Adviser. The selection of the UN Police components leadership on the levels P-5 and D-1 will require additional endorsement of Under-Secretary-General for Peacekeeping Operations and selection of D-2 post requires the approval of the Secretary-General. Once a candidate was selected, the Police Division informs the Permanent Mission, which subsequently informs the candidate.

5. Mission deployment: The deployment of the selected officers to the Mission is regulated by the relevant guidance and implemented by the UN Office of Human Resources Management (OHRM) (in regard to the selection of UN Headquarters staff) or the Department of Field Support/Field Personnel Division (DFS/FPD) (in regard to the field personnel). The PCCs should facilitate the release of the selected officers from their duties in the national police service and process all necessary administrative formalities. Selected candidates  need to provide a MS-2 form, as well as other required documentation [link to all required documentation]. Upon clearance from the Medical Services Division, the Police Division requests the Department of Field Support and the Mission to organize the travel arrangements.

6. Extension: The initial appointment of one year for this category in the field can be extended on year at the time and should not exceed four years. The request of extension from the mission has to confirm that the officer has received a ‘fully satisfactory/fully competent’ performance appraisal. For all subsequent requests a performance appraisal of ‘exceeds expectations’ is required. For police officers serving as staff members at United Nations Headquarters in New York or at the Standing Police Capacity in Brindisi, Italy, the initial appointment will be two years. Otherwise the same rules apply for extension.