BARCELONA — While organization-wide policies guarantee all United Nations staff the same family leave, some agencies have been working to update the entitlements they offer and become more family-friendly employers.
Current policies mean U.N. staff can take up to 16 weeks fully paid maternity leave, starting no later than two weeks prior to the expected delivery date. Paternity leave is just four weeks, or up to eight weeks for internationally recruited staff serving at non-family duty stations, where the long-term presence of family members is restricted, typically for security reasons.
These minimum standards are set by the International Civil Service Commission — an international body established by the U.N. General Assembly to regulate the conditions of staff within the U.N. system. Only two of the commission’s 15 members are women.