Administration of Justice at the United Nations

A/RES/59/283View PDF

Who created this mandate?

A Resolution of the General Assembly, under agenda items 108Programme budget for the biennium 2004-2005 and 120Administration of justice at the United Nations, published in 2004.

What other versions does this mandate have?

23 versions · 2004–2025

This is an older version — the most recent is A/RES/80/238

2025A/RES/80/238Administration of justice at the United NationsLatestCompare with previous version
2024A/RES/79/254Administration of justice at the United NationsCompare with previous version
2023A/RES/78/248Administration of justice at the United NationsCompare with previous version
2023A/RES/77/260Administration of justice at the United NationsCompare with previous version
2022A/RES/76/242Administration of justice at the United NationsCompare with previous version

Versions are identified automatically by matching titles within the same organ (~97% accuracy on a manual audit).

Who cites this mandate in the budget?

1 entity

Extracted automatically from each entity’s budget submission.

Which reports were submitted under this mandate?

7 reports of the Secretary-General submitted under this mandate, 2005–2009.

Reports

Span

2005–2009

5 years

2009A/64/314Activities of the Office of the United Nations Ombudsman and Mediation Services report of the Secretary-General
2008A/63/283Activities of the Ombudsman report of the Secretary-General
2007A/62/311Activities of the Ombudsman report of the Secretary-General
2006A/61/524Activities of the Ombudsman report of the Secretary-General
2005A/60/376Activities of the Ombudsman report of the Secretary-General

Identified automatically from the metadata in each report’s UN Digital Library catalogue record.

What does this mandate say?

75 operative paragraphs

Notes the importance of having a strong administration of justice mechanism that avoids duplication and overlap within the formal processes;

Regrets the continued serious delays in the appeals process, and stresses the need to implement measures to improve the appeals process to make it more efficient;

I.Cross-cutting issues – general guidelines

Takes note of the reports of the Secretary-General on the administration of justice in the Secretariat,1 the role of the Panels on Discrimination and Other Grievances,2 the outcome of the work of the Joint Appeals Board during 2001 and 2002,3 the outcome of the work of the Joint Appeals Board during 2002 and 2003,4 the possibility of the financial independence of the United Nations Administrative Tribunal from the Office of Legal Affairs,6 measures to prevent discrimination on the basis of nationality, race, gender, religion or language in the United Nations7 and his report containing the cost implications of the recommendations of the Office of Internal Oversight Services following its management review of the appeals process;9

Takes note with interest of the report of the Office of Internal Oversight Services on the management review of the appeals process at the United Nations;8

Endorses the conclusions and recommendations of the Advisory Committee on Administrative and Budgetary Questions set out in its report,14 subject to the provisions of the present resolution;

Stresses that the administrative law framework of the Organization should allow all levels of United Nations staff to obtain due process, regardless of their location, grade or contractual arrangement;

Appreciates the efforts made by staff volunteering their services in the system of justice of the United Nations, and stresses the need to provide them with further training;

Takes note with interest of the option described in paragraph 30 of the report of the Secretary-General,1 and requests the Secretary-General to explore the implications of this option and to report thereon in the context of his annual report on the administration of justice in the Secretariat;

Affirms that the functions of staff members selected to serve under the new system are official in nature, and requests the Secretary-General to ensure that those staff members are given sufficient time off from their substantive responsibilities to perform their functions;

Recognizes that the system of administration of justice, being heavily dependent on volunteers, requires frequent and comprehensive training of participants, and calls upon the Secretary-General to organize periodic training at each of the headquarters duty stations for all staff involved in the system of administration of justice;

Stresses the importance of the proper implementation of a sound performance appraisal system as a potential means of avoiding conflict;

Also stresses the need to provide training in managerial skills to improve conflict resolution skills of managers;

Further stresses the need to link the ability of managers to respond in the course of a proceeding with their own individual performance appraisal;

Notes that staff rule 112.3, which relates to the financial liability of managers, has yet to be implemented, also notes the issuance of the Secretary-General’s bulletin ST/SGB/2004/14, and requests the Secretary-General to report on its implementation to the General Assembly at its sixty-first session;

Requests the Secretary-General to expeditiously implement the recommendations of the Office of Internal Oversight Services, subject to the provisions of the present resolution;

Decides that the time limits recommended by the Office of Internal Oversight Services will be mandatory within the appeals process once adequate capacity is in place, and no later than 1 January 2006;

Also decides that measures should be taken to eliminate the appearance of conflict of interest, and towards this end requests the Secretary-General to proceed with the transfer of the responsibility for formulating decisions on appeals from the Department of Management of the Secretariat to the Office of the Secretary-General;

II.The informal mechanism of administration of justice

Ombudsman

Stresses the importance of the Office of the Ombudsman as the primary means of informal dispute resolution, and reaffirms General Assembly resolution 56/253 of 24 December 2001 on the establishment of the Office;

Requests that the Office of the Ombudsman continue and expand its outreach activities, in particular to local, national and General Service staff, in order to facilitate equal access and awareness-raising, bearing in mind the structure, activities and operational environment of the Organization;

Requests the Secretary-General to submit proposals for strengthening the Office of the Ombudsman through improved access to it for staff serving in different locations;

Invites the Office of the Ombudsman to reduce all possible delays in responding to the requests of staff in order to ensure that staff are encouraged to seek resolution of conflict in an informal way;

Requests the Secretary-General to submit, in the context of his annual report on the administration of justice in the Secretariat, information on the activities of the Ombudsman, including general statistical information and information on trends and comments on policies, procedures and practices that have come to the attention of the Ombudsman;

III.The formal mechanisms of administration of justice

Panel of Counsel

Takes note of the role of the Coordinator of the Panel of Counsel, in preliminary consultations before initiation of the formal appeals process, to support an informal resolution at an early stage;

Stresses the role of staff representatives in advising and assisting staff in addressing issues informally and formally;

Recognizes the need to strengthen the capacities of the Panels of Counsel by increasing the opportunity for training on the United Nations Staff Regulations and Rules, policies, procedures or precedents for staff serving on the Panels, in view of the urgent need to strengthen legal advice and administrative support for staff members submitting an appeal;

Invites staff representatives to explore the possibility of establishing a staff-funded scheme in the Organization that provides legal advice and support to the staff; staff representatives may consult with the Secretary-General as they deem appropriate;

Invites the Secretary-General to consider appropriate incentives to be built into the system to encourage staff members to serve on the Panels;

Encourages the Panel of Counsel to increase outreach activities, and requests the Secretary-General to consider the inclusion of travel costs in section 28A, Office of the Under-Secretary-General for Management, of the proposed programme budget for the biennium 2006–2007, for this purpose;

Administrative Law Unit

Notes that the Administrative Law Unit has the multiple functions of administrative review, appeals, disciplinary matters and advisory services;

Requests the Secretary-General to submit to the General Assembly by the end of its fifty-ninth session proposals to separate the above-mentioned functions, through the redeployment of resources, in order to avoid conflicts of interest, taking into account the following needs:

To ensure the necessary means to collect evidence;

To advise both the appellant and the respondent;

To ensure the uniform application of administrative decisions;

To ensure appropriate consultation with the Office of Human Resources Management of the Department of Management and legal experts;

To relay all necessary information to the Office of Human Resources Management;

Stresses that increased accountability by managers would contribute to the elimination of the backlog of appeals cases, as stated in the report of the Secretary-General, and decides that as a means to facilitate early consideration of cases, the following procedures should be adopted:

Staff members wishing to appeal an administrative decision should send a copy of their request to the executive head of their department;

The Administrative Law Unit should clarify with managers the requirements for the respondent’s reply and the contributions expected from managers, as well as time limits;

Requests the Secretary-General to ensure that written explanations by managers to the Administrative Law Unit are submitted within eight weeks with no possibility of extension, and decides that compliance with this responsibility shall constitute part of the performance appraisal of managers;

Decides to amend staff rule 111.2 (a) to provide that staff wishing to appeal an administrative decision shall submit to the executive head of their department, office, fund or programme a copy of the letter addressed to the Secretary-General requesting a review of the case;

Joint Appeals Board

Stresses the particular importance of providing adequate training to the members of the Joint Appeals Board;

United Nations Administrative Tribunal

Recalls paragraph 5 of its resolution 57/307, and regrets that the steps necessary to separate the secretariat of the United Nations Administrative Tribunal from the Office of Legal Affairs were not undertaken;

Endorses the proposal of the Secretary-General to transfer the resources of the Tribunal from section 8, Legal affairs, of the proposed programme budget to section 1, Overall policy-making, direction and coordination, effective from the beginning of the biennium 2006–2007;

Reaffirms paragraph 5 of its resolution 57/307, and requests the Secretary-General to guarantee the immediate independence of the Tribunal, including through ensuring the provision of administrative and logistical services that are exclusive to the secretariat of the Tribunal;

Recalls the recent amendment to the statute of the Tribunal, which provides that members shall possess judicial or other relevant legal experience in the field of administrative law or its equivalent within their national jurisdiction;

Acknowledges the need for the further strengthening of professionalism in the Tribunal by increasing membership of professional judges;

Decides to amend article 3, paragraph 1, of the statute of the Tribunal, with effect from 1 January 2006, to read:

“The Tribunal shall be composed of seven members, no two of whom may be nationals of the same State. Members shall possess judicial experience in the field of administrative law or its equivalent within their national jurisdiction. Only three members shall sit in any particular case.”;

Also decides that the amendment to article 3 will be applied in the election of new members of the Tribunal with effect from 1 January 2006;

Requests the Secretary-General to submit proposals on compensation for the members of the Tribunal once all its members meet the criteria set out in article 3 of the statute as amended in the present resolution;

Notes that the vast majority of appeals against administrative decisions concern termination of employment or non-renewal of employment contracts, and decides, with reference to recommendation 5 of the Office of Internal Oversight Services, to revert to the question of amendment of article 7 of the statute of the Tribunal following receipt of the report of the panel as described in section IV of the present resolution;

Also notes the report of the Joint Inspection Unit on administration of justice;

Stresses the importance of the eventual harmonization of the statutes of the United Nations Administrative Tribunal and the International Labour Organization Administrative Tribunal;

Requests the United Nations Administrative Tribunal to review the rules, practices and procedures of similar tribunals with a view towards enhanced effective management of caseloads;

IV.Review of the internal justice system

Decides that the Secretary-General shall form a panel of external and independent experts to consider redesigning the system of administration of justice;

Also decides that the panel shall be composed of a pre-eminent judge or former judge with administrative law experience, an expert in alternative dispute resolution methods, a leading legal academic in international law, a person with senior management and administrative experience in an international organization and a person with United Nations field experience;

Further decides that the terms of reference of the redesign panel shall be as follows:

The redesign panel shall propose a model for a new system for resolving staff grievances in the United Nations that is independent, transparent, effective, efficient and adequately resourced and that ensures managerial accountability; the model should involve guiding principles and procedures that clearly articulate the participation of staff and management within reasonable time frames and time limits;

The redesign panel shall:

Consider the relevant resolutions of the General Assembly;

Receive and review information from all the relevant stakeholders regarding existing mechanisms for the administration of justice in the Organization;

iii

Consult with United Nations staff, including individual staff members, the Staff Union and managers, in order to form an opinion as to how and why some aspects of the system function effectively while other aspects do not;

The redesign panel shall, in particular:

Consider alternative systems for resolving staff grievances by considering other models of organizational dispute resolution, while acknowledging the uniqueness of the United Nations system, in particular the immunity of United Nations staff from national laws and thus the lack of recourse to national courts;

In proposing a model, consider the value of creating an effective system for handling staff complaints that involves alternative forms of dispute resolution by which cases can be settled by mutual consent, such as mediation, conciliation, arbitration and/or an ombudsman;

iii

Consider the peer review;

Identify proactive measures such as education and training, that the United Nations can implement to minimize the number of disputes that arise;

Examine the functioning of the Office of the Ombudsman and, if needed, present models to provide services tailored to responding to the needs of the Organization;

Examine and develop the criteria to be used in the categorization of cases;

vii

Review the functioning of the United Nations Administrative Tribunal and examine the further harmonization of its statute and that of the International Labour Organization Administrative Tribunal with a view to further professionalizing the United Nations Administrative Tribunal;

viii

Examine the possibility of an integrated judicial system with a two-layer structure of first and second instance, taking into account existing structures;

Examine the legal representation of the Secretary-General in the system of administration of justice;

Decides that the panel shall start its functions no later than 1 February 2006 and shall submit its findings and recommendations by the end of July 2006;

Requests the Secretary-General to transmit the report and recommendations of the panel to the General Assembly as a matter of priority;

Also requests the Secretary-General to submit his comments on the recommendations contained in the panel’s report, along with the estimate of time and resources needed for their implementation, to the General Assembly at the first part of its resumed sixty-first session;

Decides that activities requested above that would give rise to additional resource requirements during the biennium 2004–2005 should be included in the proposed programme budget for the biennium 2006–2007.

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