A/RES/58/144 from countries with economies in transition and from unrepresented or largely underrepresented Member States, Noting with appreciation the efforts of the Office of Programme Planning, Budget and Accounts, the Office of Human Resources Management, the Department of Public Information, the Office of the Under-Secretary-General for Management and the Executive Office of the Secretary-General and the United Nations Institute for Training and Research in achieving or maintaining the goal of gender balance, as well as those departments and offices that have met or exceeded the goal of 50 per cent in the selection of women candidates for vacant posts in the past year, Expressing particular concern that, for the second consecutive year, there was a slowing of progress towards achieving the target of 50/50 gender balance and that between 1998 and 2003 there has been almost no progress in the rate of representation of women in appointments of one year or more at the Professional and higher levels, Expressing concern that there is still only one female special representative of the Secretary-General, Welcoming the work of the Department of Peacekeeping Operations of the Secretariat in issuing guidance for field missions on the procedures to be followed for handling disciplinary issues and allegations of serious misconduct involving mission personnel, and encouraged by the agreement in the Staff-Management Coordination Committee that the procedure for dealing with all forms of sexual harassment will be reviewed and incorporated in a new administrative instruction covering all forms of harassment, Welcoming also the new flexible working arrangements authorized in all departments and offices of the Secretariat, 4 Noting with concern that the statistics on the representation of women in some organizations of the United Nations system are not fully up to date, 1. Takes note with appreciation of the report of the Secretary-General 5 and the actions described therein; 2. Regrets that the goal of 50/50 gender distribution was not met by the end of 2000, and urges the Secretary-General to redouble his efforts to realize significant progress towards this goal in the very near future; Reaffirms the urgent goal of achieving 50/50 gender distribution in all 3. categories of posts within the United Nations system, especially at senior and policy-making levels, with full respect for the principle of equitable geographical distribution, in conformity with Article 101, paragraph 3, of the Charter of the United Nations, and also taking into account the continuing lack of representation or underrepresentation of women from certain countries, in particular from developing countries, from countries with economies in transition and from unrepresented or largely underrepresented Member States; Expresses concern that in three departments and offices of the Secretariat 4. women still account for less than 30 per cent of professional staff and that in three organizations of the United Nations system women still account for less than _______________ 4 5 2 See ST/SGB/2003/4. A/58/374.