����AV

UNAT considered the appeals by the Secretary-General and by Mr Abubakr. Regarding the Secretary-General’s appeal, UNAT agreed with UNDT that the Administration had failed to address Mr Abubakr’s complaint of harassment and discrimination with the required due diligence. UNAT held that UNDT had not erred in law and fact in choosing not to recognize, in any way meaningful, the majority of the actions relied on by the Secretary-General to address Mr Abubakr’s complaints. UNAT held that, by virtue of the “dysfunctional” work of the Panel on Discrimination and Other Grievances (PDOG), Mr Abubakr was left bereft of any proper process through which his claims of harassment and discrimination could be addressed. UNAT rejected the Secretary-General’s pleas that UNDT’s finding that Mr. Abubakr’s predicament merited compensation was erroneous in law and fact. UNAT held that what Mr. Abubakr was being compensated for in the UNDT judgment was the harm caused to him by the fact that he was deprived, by virtue of the breach of his employment rights, of the statutory due process he should have benefited from, as provided for by ST/AI/308/Rev. 1. UNAT held that, while it was not persuaded that the expert medical evidence produced could assist the UNDT Judge, it would nevertheless uphold the UNDT decision that Mr Abubakr’s predicament merited a compensatory award. UNAT held, however, that UNDT erred somewhat on the generous side in comparing the due process deprivations suffered by Mr Abubakr to those in the Applicant case (judgment No. UNDT/2010/148). UNAT reduced the compensation awarded to USD 25,000. Regarding Mr Abubakr’s appeal, UNAT held that the additional issues Mr Abubakr raised extended the scope of the case well beyond the previously agreed by the parties. UNAT held that none of the issues was capable of being litigated since no administrative review had been sought regarding them. UNAT upheld UNDT’s finding that Mr Abubakr had failed to establish that he sustained actual economic loss warranting compensation by reason of the PDOG’s irregularities. Mr Abubakr’s appeal was dismissed in its entirety. UNAT upheld the Secretary-General’s appeal in respect of the UNDT’s award of monetary compensation, which was reduced to USD 25,000.