UNDT/2010/012, Roger
The Board of Examiners decided that the applicant did not satisfy the educational requirement. The applicant believed that she was qualified because she had obtained a vocational training from the Centre d’Ecriture et de Communication (“the Centre”), and that supportive remarks made about this by her supervisor and work colleagues confirmed her belief. The Centre was not a university or equivalent institution in the French educational system, and the applicant had not “five years of continuous service with the United Nations Secretariat by 31 December 1989”. These prerequisites did not discriminate against persons educated in France. The requirements for language staff at the G-level, which applies for P-level positions up to P-3, as entailed in ST/AI/1998/7 and ST/AI/2003/7, are not coherent. Outcome: Application dismissed.
The applicant, born and educated in France, applied to sit for the 2008 competitive examination for French-language proofreaders/copy preparers/production editors.
The prerequisites for taking the examination stated in ST/IC/2008/15 required that candidates must have a degree from a university or equivalent institution. For a statutory waiver to apply to the requirement of a minimum of three years of studies, the applicant must have had “five years of continuous service with the United Nations Secretariat by 31 December 1989”.