The Secretary-General and all members of the staff of the Organization are international civil servants, and their responsibilities are not national but exclusively international. By accepting appointment, they pledge themselves to discharge their functions and to regulate their conduct with the interests of the United Nations only in view. In the performance of their duties they shall not seek nor receive instructions from any government or from any other authority external to the Organization. All members of the staff are subject to the authority of the Secretary-General, and are responsible to him in the exercise of their functions.