Overview
The Office of Legal Affairs of the Secretariat is responsible for the provision of unified central legal services for the Secretariat and the principal and other organs of the United Nations; the progressive development of international public and trade law and its codification; the registration and publication of treaties; and the strengthening, development and effective implementation of the international legal order for the seas and oceans. It does this through its three functional pillars, namely, through: (a) supporting intergovernmental processes and technical and expert bodies; (b) the provision of capacity-building, advisory services and dissemination of information;
and (c) the provision of legal advice and support to the principal and subsidiary organs of the United Nations in accordance with international law.
The evaluation covered all areas of the work of the Office of Legal Affairs for the period from 2015 to 2018 and assessed relevance, effectiveness, efficiency and cross-cutting issues.