Administration of Justice at the United Nations

A/RES/66/237No PDF available

Who created this mandate?

A Resolution of the General Assembly, under agenda item 143Administration of justice at the United Nations, published in 2012.

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).

Which reports were submitted under this mandate?

1 report of the Secretary-General submitted under this mandate, 2012.

2012A/67/172Activities of the Office of the United Nations Ombudsman and Mediation Services report of the Secretary-General

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

What does this mandate say?

50 operative paragraphs

Takes note of the reports of the Secretary-General on administration of justice at the United NationsError: Reference source not found and on the activities of the Office of the United Nations Ombudsman and Mediation Services;Error: Reference source not found

Reaffirms its resolutions 61/261, 62/228, 63/253, 64/233 and 65/251 regarding the establishment of the new system of administration of justice;

Endorses the conclusions and recommendations contained in the report of the Advisory Committee on Administrative and Budgetary Questions,Error: Reference source not found subject to the provisions of the present resolution;

I.System of administration of justice

Notes with appreciation the achievements produced since the inception of the new system of administration of justice in regard to both the disposal of the backlog and the addressing of new cases, despite the numerous difficulties faced during the implementation of the new system of administration of justice;

Acknowledges the evolving nature of the new system of administration of justice and the need to carefully monitor its implementation to ensure that it remains within the parameters set out by the General Assembly;

Stresses that all elements of the new system of administration of justice must work in accordance with the Charter of the United Nations and the legal and regulatory framework approved by the General Assembly;

Emphasizes the importance of the principle of judicial independence in the system of administration of justice;

Reaffirms its decision, contained in paragraph 4 of resolution 61/261, to establish a new, independent, transparent, professionalized, adequately resourced and decentralized system of administration of justice consistent with the relevant rules of international law and the principles of the rule of law and due process to ensure respect for the rights and obligations of staff members and the accountability of managers and staff members alike;

Also reaffirms that, in accordance with paragraph 28 of resolution 63/253, the United Nations Dispute Tribunal and the United Nations Appeals Tribunal shall not have any powers beyond those conferred under their respective statutes;

Affirms that recourse to general principles of law and the Charter by the Tribunals is to take place within the context of and consistent with their statutes and the relevant General Assembly resolutions, regulations, rules and administrative issuances;

Requests the Secretary-General to make every effort to institutionalize good management practices in order to address the underlying factors that give rise to disputes in the workplace;

Stresses the importance of ensuring access for all staff members to the new system of administration of justice, regardless of their duty station;

Invites all who are involved in the implementation and functioning of the system of administration of justice, including managers and staff members, to recognize that the system of administration of justice has been made possible by contributions from the Member States aiming to ensure that it has a positive impact on staff-management relations and improves the performance of both staff and managers;

Recalls paragraph 46 of its resolution 65/251 and paragraphs 247 to 293 of the report of the Secretary-General on administration of justice at the United Nations,Error: Reference source not found and requests the Secretary-General to submit to the General Assembly, for consideration at the main part of its sixty-seventh session, an updated report on issues relevant to its review of the statutes of the Tribunals;

II.Informal system

Recognizes that the informal system of administration of justice is an efficient and effective option for staff who seek redress of grievances;

Reaffirms that the informal resolution of conflict is a crucial element of the system of administration of justice, emphasizes that all possible use should be made of the informal system in order to avoid unnecessary litigation, and in this regard requests the Secretary-General to recommend to the General Assembly at its sixty-seventh session additional measures to encourage recourse to informal resolution of disputes and to avoid unnecessary litigation;

Takes note of the reference in paragraph 5 of the report of the Advisory Committee on Administrative and Budgetary QuestionsError: Reference source not found to a “culture of litigation”, endorses the remainder of the paragraph, and stresses the importance of developing a culture of dialogue and amicable resolution of dispute through the informal system;

Recalls paragraph 18 of its resolution 65/251 regarding the establishment of a single integrated and decentralized Office of the Ombudsman for the United Nations Secretariat, funds and programmes, and acknowledges that progress has been made in this regard;

Requests the Secretary-General to work with the United Nations funds and programmes in order to finalize, as early as possible, revised terms of reference for the Office of the United Nations Ombudsman and Mediation Services that reflect the responsibility of the United Nations Ombudsman for the oversight of the entire Office and enhance the coordination among the three pillars of the Office, and to submit to the General Assembly at the main part of its sixty-seventh session a report thereon;

Recalls paragraph 29 of resolution 65/251, welcomes the information provided informally by the Office of the United Nations Ombudsman and Mediation Services on the financial and administrative implications resulting from settlements reached through informal dispute resolution, and requests the Office to provide to the General Assembly at its sixty-seventh session another informal briefing on such implications;

Welcomes the recommendations made by the Office of the United Nations Ombudsman and Mediation Services to address systemic and cross-cutting issues, and requests the Secretary-General to submit to the General Assembly at the main part of its sixty-seventh session a report containing his views on the recommendations;

Also welcomes the establishment, in 2010, of the seven regional offices of the United Nations Ombudsman and Mediation Services in Bangkok, Geneva, Nairobi, Santiago and Vienna and in the peacekeeping missions in the Democratic Republic of the Congo and the Sudan, and their initial positive impact;

III.Formal system

Takes note of paragraph 7 of the report of the Advisory Committee on Administrative and Budgetary Questions,Error: Reference source not found and requests the Secretary-General to explore all possible ways to bring about more coherent representation and efficient use of resources, taking into account the specificities of representation of the Secretary-General at the Tribunals, and to report thereon at the main part of its sixty-seventh session;

Stresses the need for the construction of fully equipped courtrooms for the Tribunals, and requests the Secretary-General to provide functional courtrooms with adequate facilities, as a matter of urgency;

Emphasizes that the formal system of administration of justice must be adequately resourced with regard to posts, travel, hearing/conference rooms, videoconferencing, sound recording, communications systems and up-to-date computer hardware and software;

Notes the important role played by the Office of Staff Legal Assistance in providing legal assistance to staff members in an independent and impartial manner, and also notes that the Office currently represents staff members in cases before the Dispute Tribunal in New York, Geneva and Nairobi and before the Appeals Tribunal;

Decides that, pending further consideration of this issue by the General Assembly at its sixty-seventh session, the role of the Office of Staff Legal Assistance shall continue to be that of assisting staff members and their volunteer representatives in processing claims through the formal system of administration of justice, including representation, within the financial parameters agreed upon in the present resolution;

Also decides to revert, at its sixty-seventh session, to the issue of the mandate, scope and functioning of the Office of Staff Legal Assistance, and in this regard requests the Secretary-General to submit, after consultation with the Internal Justice Council and other relevant bodies, a comprehensive report proposing different options for the representation of staff members before the internal Tribunals, taking into account all relevant resolutions and reports, including the letters of the Sixth Committee to the Fifth Committee, and the relevant recommendations of the Advisory Committee on Administrative and Budgetary Questions contained in its report, including a detailed proposal for a mandatory staff-funded mechanism, reflecting, if necessary, the implications of the different proposals, for consideration by both the Fifth Committee and the Sixth Committee, in their respective capacities, at the sixty-seventh session;

Recalls article 2 of the statute of the United Nations Dispute Tribunal, and affirms that an action instituted against the Secretary-General under the statute is an action against the Secretary-General as the Chief Administrative Officer of the United Nations, responsible for administrative decisions taken by or on behalf of the Organization by staff appointed by the Secretary-General;

Also recalls article 7 of the statute of the Dispute Tribunal and article 6 of the statute of the United Nations Appeals Tribunal, and requests both Tribunals to review their procedures with regard to the dismissal of manifestly inadmissible cases;

Decides to amend article 7, paragraph 1 (c), of the statute of the Appeals Tribunal to extend the deadline for filing appeals of Dispute Tribunal judgements from 45 days to 60 days and to establish a 30-day deadline for filing appeals of interlocutory orders;

Recalls paragraph 54 of resolution 62/228, and decides that the time limit for completing management evaluations may be extended by the Dispute Tribunal for a period of up to fifteen days in exceptional circumstances when both parties to a dispute agree;

Also recalls paragraph 28 of resolution 63/253, reaffirms article 10, paragraphs 5 (b) and 7, of the statute of the Dispute Tribunal, endorses the practice under the previous United Nations Administrative Tribunal to limit awards in any one case normally to a total of no more than two years net base salary for compensation and in exceptional cases to no more than three years net base salary, and reaffirms the requirement in article 10, paragraph 5 (b), that in all cases where the Dispute Tribunal orders the payment of a compensation higher than two years net pay, the Tribunal must provide clear and well-documented reasons for that decision;

Requests the Secretary-General to provide the General Assembly at the main part of its sixty-seventh session with a report on the practice of tribunals in other international organizations and in Member States comparable to the Dispute Tribunal and the Appeals Tribunal regarding the awarding of exemplary or punitive damages, including their practice with regard to awards for moral damages, emotional distress, procedural irregularities and violations of due process;

Recalls article 11, paragraph 3, of the statute of the Dispute Tribunal, and affirms that judgements of the Dispute Tribunal, including judgements, orders or rulings, imposing financial obligations on the Organization are not executable until the expiry of the time provided for appeal in the statute of the Appeals Tribunal or, if an appeal has been filed in accordance with the statute of the Appeals Tribunal, until the Appeals Tribunal has completed action on such appeal in accordance with articles 10 and 11 of its statute;

Also recalls article 7 of the statute of the Dispute Tribunal and article 6 of the statute of the Appeals Tribunal, and encourages the Tribunals to continue and expand, as appropriate, their practice of consultation in the process for developing amendments to their rules of procedure;

Further recalls section I, paragraph 5, of its resolution 53/221 of 7 April 1999, in which it underlined its full respect for the prerogatives and responsibilities of the Secretary-General under the Charter, and reaffirms that the resolutions of the General Assembly and the decisions of the International Civil Service Commission are binding on the Secretary-General and on the Organization;

Requests the Secretary-General to submit to the General Assembly at the main part of its sixty-seventh session a report providing:

A proposal for implementing the proposed mechanism for expedited arbitration procedures for individual contractors and consultants provided in annex II to the report of the Secretary-General on administration of justice,Error: Reference source not found including the cost implications for various aspects of the proposal;

An analysis of the policy and financial implications in the event that individual contractors and consultants covered by the proposed expedited arbitration procedures were to be permitted access to mediation under the informal system;

Also requests the Secretary-General to submit to the General Assembly at the main part of its sixty-seventh session a report on access to the system of administration of justice for different categories of non-staff personnel who are not covered under the dispute resolution mechanism proposed in annex II of the report on administration of justice;

Further requests the Secretary-General to include in the report requested in paragraph 39 above information on measures to be made available with regard to the informal and formal aspects of the system of administration of justice in order to assist such non-staff personnel to address disputes that may arise;

Recalls paragraph 89 of the report of the Advisory Committee on Administrative and Budgetary Questions, and requests the Secretary-General to include in his report on administration of justice, to be submitted to the General Assembly at its sixty-seventh session, information on the concrete measures taken to enforce accountability in cases where contested decisions have resulted in awards of compensation to staff;

IV.Financial implications and cost-sharing arrangements

Takes note of paragraphs 19 to 21 of the report of the Advisory Committee on Administrative and Budgetary Questions,Error: Reference source not found decides to extend the mandate for the three ad litem judges of the Dispute Tribunal for one year, subject to review and possible extension for a further year, and also decides to approve, under general temporary assistance, three Legal Officer (P-3), two General Service (Other level) and one General Service (Local level) positions to support the ad litem judges for the same period;

Requests the Secretary-General to make every effort to expedite the finalization of an agreement on a cost-sharing arrangement for the totality of the internal justice system and to report thereon, including on the expected reimbursement of approximately 6.8 million United States dollars from the participating United Nations entities, to the General Assembly at the main part of its sixty-seventh session;

V.Other issues

Also requests the Secretary-General to submit to the General Assembly at the main part of its sixty-seventh session a report providing proposals and analysis for a mechanism for addressing possible misconduct of judges, as well as additional views or analysis with regard to the proposals contained in the reports of the Secretary-General on administration of justice at the United Nations and in the reports of the Internal Justice Council, as well as other proposals, including a proposal for a new mechanism for addressing such misconduct, consisting of one jurist from the highest judicial tribunal drawn from one Member State from each of the five geographical regions appointed or elected by the General Assembly to serve when and as needed;

Stresses that the Internal Justice Council can help to ensure independence, professionalism and accountability in the system of administration of justice, and requests the Secretary-General to entrust the Council with including the views of both the Dispute Tribunal and the Appeals Tribunal in its annual reports;

Requests the Secretary-General to submit to the General Assembly at the main part of its sixty-seventh session, in consultation with the Internal Justice Council and other relevant bodies, a report providing his recommendations and analysis regarding the proposal in the report of the Council to the General Assembly at its sixty-fifth session on a code of conduct for legal representation;

Also requests the Secretary-General to provide the reports requested in paragraphs 14, 16, 19, 21, 23, 28, 34, 38, 39, 43, 44 and 46 above in a single comprehensive report on administration of justice to be submitted to the General Assembly at the main part of its sixty-seventh session;

Invites the Sixth Committee to consider the legal aspects of the report to be submitted by the Secretary-General, without prejudice to the role of the Fifth Committee as the Main Committee entrusted with responsibilities for administrative and budgetary matters.

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