United Nations Department for Safety and Security

The mandate of the UN also evolved, resulting in a larger number of UN personnel, notably from the humanitarian agencies, being deployed on potentially hazardous missions.

To allow the UN to meet new demands in a changing environment, the General Assembly authorized an increase in the staff of the Office of the UN Security Coordinator (UNSECOORD), primarily in the field.

For decades, SSS in New York and at seven other Secretariat headquarters locations around the world (Geneva, Vienna, Nairobi, Bangkok, Beirut, Addis Ababa and Santiago), operated independently of each other and had no common governance structure.

The attack, carried out by a suicide bomber driving a truck filled with explosives, killed 22 UN personnel and visitors and injured more than 150 people.

Based on information posted on web sites related to global terror groups, the United Nations could in theory be the target of similar attacks anywhere at any time, from Baghdad to Kabul, Nairobi, Jakarta, Geneva or New York.

In 2004, a proposal for strengthening and unifying the UN security management system was presented to the 59th session of the General Assembly in Report A/59/365 of 11 October 2004.

Furthermore, the Resolution mandated that the new department be headed by a senior UN official at the rank of Under-Secretary-General for a non-renewable term of five years.

The General Assembly also adopted measures to reinforce security operations in all locations and decided to establish a unified capacity for policy, standards, coordination, communications, compliance and threat and risk assessment.