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The applicant, a former UNICEF staff member, was charged with misconduct and summarily dismissed in September 2008. He appealed the Secretary-General’s decision not to accept the findings of the Joint Disciplinary Committee, which recommended that he be separated rather than summarily dismissed. After a number of delays resulting primarily from difficulty in contacting the applicant, at a directions hearing Counsel for the applicant informed the Tribunal that that she had been instructed by her client that he wished to withdraw his case and intended to commence proceedings against the Organisation in the national courts of Venezuela. Counsel for the applicant informed the Tribunal that she had legally advised the applicant of the risks inherent in adopting the proposed course of action (bearing in mind the Convention on the Privileges and Immunities of the United Nations 1946), as well as the fact that, once withdrawn, the application before the Dispute Tribunal was unlikely to be able to be reinstated. In the interests of finality of this dispute, the Judge proposed to both Counsel that she was minded to issue a rule nisi stating that if the Tribunal did not receive notification from the applicant that he intended to pursue his case within a certain period, the case would be deemed to be abandoned and would thereafter be dismissed on the grounds of lack of prosecution. Counsel consented to this course of action.