The #UnitedNations GA established the system of administration of justice in 2010 to ensure respect for the rights and obligations of staff members and the #accountability of managers and staff members alike.
Article 10 (8) of the Statute of the UN Appeals Tribunal gives it the right to refer appropriate cases to the Secretary-General for possible action to enforce #accountability.
For a referral for accountability to be made, it must meet “the high standard of personal wrongful action”. In other words, the official who made the unlawful decision had a personal intention to harm a staff member. In the 12 years of the existence of the internal justice system, the UNAT issued 2368 judgments out of which, only 9 met the threshold of “personal wrongful action” in which case UNAT upheld the referral for accountability. This means a meager 0,38% of the totality of staff members’ appeals since 2010 were referred for accountability.
0,38%. This number speaks for itself.
Numbers aside, let’s turn to more consequential matters.
First, both the UNDT/UNAT do not have any inherent power to implement, enforce or follow-up on accountability measures taken by the Secretary-General. The referral constitutes a communication from the Tribunal to the Secretary-General, and the Secretary-General is vested with the discretionary power to determine the appropriate course of action to adopt. Normally, this should entail an investigation into the referred official with disciplinary measures ensuing.
An appropriate course of action does not entail allowing a senior official to resign, or a golden check to be bestowed upon them, or to reassign them to a different duty station. And most certainly, it does not entail a promotion.
In the attached, in 9 cases the referral was upheld by the UNAT. In one case, it was reversed despite the overwhelming evidence and the presence of a witness. In all cases, there were no measures taken against these officials. Worse, many of them were promoted to Regional Director positions, ASGs and USGs. Others were discreetly allowed to leave without any pecuniary loss or even a note in their files barring them from pursuing their career in the humanitarian aid and development field.
The overarching principles of the UN are #transparency , #accountability and good #governance. Unfortunately, none of these principles are followed when it comes to appeals. The UN does not make publicly available any information regarding the accountability measures taken. We know there were none taken. Donors, member states and other stakeholders must demand the UN make such information public for transparency and accountability reasons.
What do you think must be done for the UNDT/UNAT to become independent and effective bodies of internal justice in the UN?
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