UNDT/2016/197 | SYSTEM OF ADMINISTRATION OF JUSTICE

UNDT/2016/197, Khisa

UNAT Held or UNDT Pronouncements

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 (ICCPR). Article 17 of the ICCPR provides that no one shall be subjected to arbitrary or unlawful interference with his privacy, family or home. The fact that the Respondent had not duly given an eviction notice to the Applicant nor constituted a proper eviction team to recover possession following the notice meant that the Applicant’s privacy was wrongfully interfered with. Those who act administratively for the Respondent/Secretary-General and the lawyers who represent them in cases such as this must be careful not to trivialize the great values and respect for human rights on which the United Nations Organization is built.

Decision Contested or Judgment Appealed

The Applicant is a Protection Officer with the Child Protection Unit in Torit, one of the duty stations of the United Nations Mission in the Republic of South Sudan (UNMISS). She filed an Application with the Dispute Tribunal on 4 January 2012 contesting both the decision to evict her and her actual eviction on 11 November 2011 from residential accommodation provided her by the former United Nations Mission in Sudan (UNMIS) from which UNMISS inherited the said accommodation in July 2011. The Tribunal found that the Applicant’s human rights were violated by the UNMISS Administration. She also suffered assault and battery in circumstances so scandalous that they should never have happened under the watch of the UNMISS Administration. Due to the egregiousness of the violations, the Respondent is ordered to pay the Applicant three months net base salary, at the rate applicable when she was unlawfully evicted, as compensation.

Legal Principle(s)

N/A

Outcome

Judgment entered for Applicant in full or in part

Outcome Extra Text

Only financial compensation.

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The judgment summaries were generally prepared in English. They were translated into French and are being reviewed for accuracy of the translation.

Full Judgment

Applicants/ Appellants

Khisa

Entity

UNMISS

Case Number(s)

UNDT/NBI/2012/1/R1

Tribunal

UNDT

Registry Location :

Nairobi