An “effective remedy” under ST/SGB/2008/5: The Tribunal concluded that the Administration is obliged to provide an effective remedy where a complaint of harassment under ST/SGB/2008/5 is substantiated. The breadth of possible remedies that may be granted includes, but is not limited to, monetary compensation, rescission and injunctive or protective measures.
Agreements, conventions, treaties (etc.)
Receivability - The Tribunal accepted that the extended use of the temporary appointments was the reason for the disparity in the amount of relocation grant that the Applicant was entitled to and that this negatively affected the Applicant. This however was the subject of a settlement agreement between the parties. Further, in this Application the Applicant was effectively asking the Tribunal to find that the Rules on relocation grant for temporary employees are unlawful. Those rules were based on resolutions of the General Assembly. Pursuant to art. 2 of the UNDT Statute the Tribunal’s...
The Tribunal found that the Applicant should have been given a one-year extension in Entebbe so that he would have been entitled to the benefits and entitlements that ordinarily accompany such a contract. Receivability: The Tribunal concluded that there was an administrative decision in that the Applicant was challenging a continuum of events - the repeated short-term renewal of his appointment stemming from the decision of the Government of Sudan to oust him from its territory. The Tribunal held that this was a decision of “individual application” with “direct legal consequences” to the...
The Tribunal found that: 1) The DG failed in her legal obligation to review and promptly appoint an investigation panel into the Applicant’s complaint of prohibited conduct and that the delay was unlawful and resulted in serious consequences for the Applicant. 2) The instigation by DSS UNON of the detention and charging of the Applicant by the Kenya Police without a waiver of immunity by the Secretary-General was unlawful. 3) DSS UNON acted covertly without the knowledge of the Director-General or the United Nations Headquarters in its dealings with the Kenya Police on 21 August. This...
Receivability: The Tribunal concluded that MEU had taken a rather restrictive view of the nature of the Applicant’s request when it deemed it to be irreceivable. While it cannot be disputed that the Applicant requested closure of the investigation against him, and the investigation was closed, he also listed a number of instances that, in his view amounted to “violations of procedural fairness”. The procedural matters did not exist in a vacuum but were connected to the investigation. The closure of the investigation notwithstanding, the Tribunal found that there were still live issues that...
Compensation for moral injury - A staff member whose fundamental or other rights are infringed upon by the agents of the Respondent is entitled to have an effective remedy granted by this Tribunal. The Administration’s duty to respect fundamental human rights - What happened to the Applicant in the process of her forced eviction by the agents of UNMISS in the morning of 11 November 2011 constituted not only human rights violations but also criminal and civil wrongs. The forceful and unlawful eviction additionally violated Article17 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights...
UNDT noted that notifying the Assistant Secretary-General of the Office of Human Resource Management, in a case where authority to issue a reprimand has been delegated, is not required. Even if it was, its omission could not have had any impact on the validity of the impugned decision. The Applicant had not been properly given the opportunity to comment on the facts and circumstances prior to the issuance of a written or oral reprimand, thus his right to respond embodied by staff rule 10.2(c) was not observed. The facts relevant for the decision were not established to the required standard...
Case No. UNDT/GVA/2015/129
Contingency of the Applicant’s FTA: return of Mr. C. to post No. 501057
Under sec. 6.7 of ST/AI/2010/3, in cases of secondment, a lien against a specific post shall only be granted for up to two years, after which it shall be surrendered. No discretion is granted to the Administration for extending the lien beyond the two years. Quite distinctly, para. 7 of ST/AI/404 allows the Administration to extend the mission assignment beyond the two years period, and continue blocking a specific post in the parent department, provided there is a specific written agreement to...
Receivability Contested decisions Considering the Applicants’ submissions as a whole, the contested decisions are to be identified as Secretary-General’s decisions, in implementing the Unified Salary Scale, to convert a portion of the Applicants’ salaries into a separate allowance. The Applicants do not challenge the General Assembly’s resolution adopting the Unified Salary Scale as a measure of general application. Whether the contested decisions constitute administrative decisions In interpreting its jurisdiction, the Tribunal must take into account the Organization’s duty to provide access...