Administration of Justice at the United Nations

A/RES/71/266No PDF available

Who created this mandate?

A Resolution of the General Assembly, under agenda item 145Administration of justice at the United Nations, published in 2017.

What other versions does this mandate have?

23 versions · 2004–2025

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

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What subjects does this mandate have?

6 topics

Administration of Justice Codes of Conduct Grievance Procedures Labour Disputes Legal Remedies Legal Services

What does this mandate say?

57 operative paragraphs

Takes note of the reports of the Secretary-General on administration of justice at the United Nations1 and on the activities of the Office of the United Nations Ombudsman and Mediation Services,2 the note by the Secretary-General transmitting the report of the Interim Independent Assessment Panel on the system of administration of justice at the United Nations,3 the report of the Secretary-General on the findings and recommendations of the Interim Independent Assessment Panel on the system of administration of justice at the United Nations, and revised estimates relating to the programme budget for the biennium 2016–2017,4 the report of the Internal Justice Council on administration of justice at the United Nations5 and the related report of the Advisory Committee on Administrative and Budgetary Questions;6

Endorses the conclusions and recommendations contained in the report of the Advisory Committee;

I.System of administration of justice

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

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

Acknowledges the evolving nature of the 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;

Notes with appreciation the achievements of the system of administration of justice since its inception with regard to both the disposal of the backlog and the addressing of new cases, as well as the increased use of informal resolution mechanisms;

Stresses the importance of continuous consultation among relevant stakeholders in fostering a dialogue-oriented culture across the Organization;

Reaffirms its decision, contained in paragraph 4 of its 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;

Recalls its decision that the interim independent assessment of the system of administration of justice should include consideration of the relationship between the formal and informal systems and whether the aims and objectives of the system set out in its resolution 61/261 are being achieved in an efficient and cost-effective manner;

Notes with appreciation the findings of the Interim Independent Assessment Panel on the system of administration of justice at the United Nations that the system has made a good start and is an improvement over the previous system and that the aims and objectives of the system have been achieved to a very great extent;

Recognizes that there is still room for further improvement in the system of administration of justice at the United Nations, stresses the importance of the consideration of the recommendations of the Interim Independent Assessment Panel that can contribute to further enhancement of the system, and in this regard requests the Secretary-General to report thereon, as appropriate;

Endorses recommendations 9, 13, 15, 33, 35 and 36 contained in the report of the Interim Independent Assessment Panel, and requests the Secretary-General to ensure their implementation, within existing resources, and to report thereon in the context of future reports under the agenda item on administration of justice at the United Nations;

Recalls recommendation 27 contained in the report of the Interim Independent Assessment Panel, notes that the question of further flexibility for extension or suspension of deadlines is currently under review, and looks forward to the outcome of that review;

Notes that a letter dated 26 October 2016 was sent from the President of the General Assembly to the Chair of the Fifth Committee transmitting a letter dated 30 September 2016 from the President of the United Nations Dispute Tribunal to the President of the Assembly in respect of some of the comments contained in the report of the Secretary-General on the findings and recommendations of the Interim Independent Assessment Panel;

Emphasizes the necessity and urgency of improving human resources management in preventing disputes and enhancing accountability, reiterates the importance of transparency and fairness in decision-making in preventing conflicts, requests the Secretary-General to take into account the observations and recommendations of the Interim Independent Assessment Panel on the key causes of disputes, and also requests the Secretary-General to continue to undertake all efforts to ensure the proper and consistent application of the Staff Regulations and Rules of the United Nations in order to reduce the need for cases to be brought to both the formal and informal systems;

Requests the Secretary-General to report on measures taken to strengthen measures for protection against retaliation in his future reports;

Notes the observations of the Internal Justice Council, the Interim Independent Assessment Panel, the Joint Inspection Unit and the Sixth Committee on non-staff personnel, and requests the Secretary-General to prepare a compilation setting out the categories of non-staff personnel and the remedies available to them, in tabular form, and providing figures for the number of disputes brought by non-staff personnel and the types of remedies used since 2009, to the extent available, and considers that, in order to assess how effective remedies are and to inform the discussion on the matter at the seventy-second session of the General Assembly, the following information should be included:

The number of disputes brought before the system of justice and/or any other measures for addressing disputes available for each category of non-staff personnel and an indication of how such disputes were resolved;

The number of disputes brought before national jurisdictions and an indication of how such disputes were resolved;

The practical measures that have been taken so far by the United Nations to ensure a proper implementation of the system and to avoid gaps, as well as any other good practices, including in such matters as translation of documents into local languages, the ability to be heard, access to arbitration, information given to non-staff personnel on available remedies and so on; it is suggested that the Secretariat prepare a questionnaire to that effect;

Information on how the specialized agencies and related bodies of the United Nations system provide remedies to non-staff personnel;

Reiterates its request to the Secretary-General to include information on disputes involving non-staff personnel in the context of both management evaluation and informal mediation in his future reports, and requests that he provide information on existing measures to institutionalize good management practice that aim to avoid or mitigate disputes involving the different categories of non-staff personnel;

II.Informal system

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

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, without prejudice to the basic right of staff members to access the formal system, and encourages recourse to the informal resolution of disputes;

Welcomes the promulgation of the revised terms of reference and guidelines for the Office of the United Nations Ombudsman and Mediation Services;

Encourages the Office of the United Nations Ombudsman and Mediation Services to intensify its outreach activities to encourage informal dispute resolution;

Recalls paragraph 36 of the report of the Advisory Committee, and stresses the continued importance of the informal part of the system of administration of justice in taking early action to prevent or limit cases of litigation, encourage amicable resolution of disputes and foster a more collaborative and harmonious culture;

Recognizes the efforts of the Office of the United Nations Ombudsman and Mediation Services in enhancing efforts aimed at the informal resolution of conflict, and requests the Secretary-General to provide more detailed information in his next report to the General Assembly on the impact of conflict prevention training and on efforts to further enhance cooperation between the informal and formal parts of the system of administration of justice;

Emphasizes the importance of both staff and managers understanding and adopting conflict competency skills in order to prevent conflicts, cope with potential or actual conflicts and maintain resilience, and in this regard notes with appreciation the activities of the Office of the United Nations Ombudsman and Mediation Services to promote conflict competence at all levels of the Organization;

Welcomes the analysis of the root causes of conflict included in the report of the Secretary-General on the activities of the Office of the United Nations Ombudsman and Mediation Services, stresses the importance of improving management performance and staff communications, and urges the Secretary-General to address the systemic issues identified in the report in order to improve upon the policies and procedures of the Organization;

Recognizes that access to the Office of the United Nations Ombudsman and Mediation Services is a challenge for staff in the field, including for those in special political missions, encourages the development of innovative measures to address those challenges, and requests the Secretary-General to report thereon to the General Assembly at the main part of its seventy-second session;

III.Formal system

Recognizes the ongoing positive contribution of the Office of Staff Legal Assistance to the system of administration of justice;

Recalls its decision, contained in paragraph 5 of its resolution 68/254, and reiterates that decisions taken by the Dispute Tribunal and the United Nations Appeals Tribunal shall conform with the provisions of General Assembly resolutions on issues related to human resources management;

Also recalls article 10.6 of the statute of the Dispute Tribunal and article 9.2 of the statute of the Appeals Tribunal, stresses the ability of the Tribunals to award costs against parties that manifestly abuse the proceedings, and encourages the Tribunals to proactively manage cases and/or to summarily dismiss cases under appropriate circumstances;

Emphasizes the importance of the publication of the judgments of the Dispute and Appeals Tribunals to make the reasoning behind the decisions well known to the entire structure of the Organization, for improving managerial practices and determining the proper implementation of the Staff Regulations and Rules of the United Nations and for the predictability of the justice system, and encourages the exploration of better approaches when referring to personal data in the judgments of the Tribunals, with the aim of protecting the privacy of individuals who have no means to respond publicly;

Recalls paragraph 15 of the report of the Advisory Committee, and decides to extend the three ad litem judge positions and the current incumbent judges for one year, from 1 January to 31 December 2017;

Requests the Secretary-General to continue to track the data on the number of cases received by the Management Evaluation Unit and the Dispute Tribunal in order to identify any emerging trends and to include his observations on those statistics in future reports;

Notes the ongoing work of the interdepartmental working group to further explore the delegation of authority with regard to disciplinary matters, and looks forward to receiving updates in the context of the next report of the Secretary-General;

Requests the Secretary-General to continue to ensure the accountability of managers whose decisions have been established to be grossly negligent, according to the applicable Staff Regulations and Rules of the United Nations, and which have led to litigation and subsequent financial loss, and to report thereon to the General Assembly at its seventy-second session;

Encourages the Secretary-General to proactively engage in a process to review referrals for accountability as well as other potential options for accountability, with the aim of ensuring the enforcement of accountability, and to report thereon to the General Assembly at its seventy-second session;

Notes recommendations 26 and 38 contained in the report of the Interim Independent Assessment Panel and the related observations of the Internal Justice Council, and in this regard reiterates the important role of the Management Evaluation Unit as a first step in the formal system of administration of justice towards enhancing transparency in decision-making, providing opportunities for the Administration to correct contested administrative decisions where mistakes have been made, ensuring that managers continue to remain accountable for their administrative decisions and preventing unnecessary litigation, and requests the Secretary-General to report on the effectiveness of the Management Evaluation Unit to the General Assembly at its seventy-second session;

Takes note of the information provided regarding the voluntary supplemental funding mechanism for additional resources for the Office of Staff Legal Assistance, and decides to extend the experimental period for the mechanism for one year, from 1 January to 31 December 2017;

Recalls paragraph 7 of the report of the Advisory Committee, and requests the Secretary-General to explore options to ensure the sustainability of the voluntary supplemental funding mechanism and to report thereon to the General Assembly at the main part of its seventy-second session;

Acknowledges the continued efforts made with respect to incentives for staff not to opt out of the voluntary supplemental funding mechanism, and in this regard encourages the Secretary-General to strengthen such incentives, particularly in locations where the participation rate is low;

Requests the Secretary-General to continue to collect and examine data relating to staff contributions to the Office of Staff Legal Assistance and to report thereon to the General Assembly in his next report;

Stresses the need to continue to explore means to raise awareness among staff of the importance of financial contributions to the Office of Staff Legal Assistance;

Approves the Code of Conduct for Legal Representatives and Litigants in Person annexed to the present resolution;

Also approves the proposal of the Secretary-General to amend the statutes of the Dispute and Appeals Tribunals as follows:

Statute of the Dispute Tribunal, article 4, amended paragraph 3 (a):

3 (a) Be of high moral character and impartial;

Statute of the Dispute Tribunal, article 4, new paragraph 3 (c):

3 (c) Be fluent, both orally and in writing, in English or French.

Statute of the Dispute Tribunal, article 4, amended paragraph 7:

The Dispute Tribunal shall elect a President who shall have the authority, inter alia, to monitor the timely delivery of judgments.

Statute of the Appeals Tribunal, article 4, new paragraph 4:

The President shall have the authority, inter alia, to monitor the timely delivery of judgments.

IV.Other issues

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 reports;

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;

Recalls paragraph 4 of the report of the Advisory Committee, and decides to consider the issues related to resource requirements for improving the functioning of a transparent, professionalized, adequately resourced and decentralized system of administration of justice at the United Nations at its seventy-second session, and in this regard requests the Secretary-General to include updated information on the matter, taking into account the existing and potential challenges, including workload, funding arrangements and potential disputes arising from mandatory mobility, in the context of his next report on administration of justice.

Code of Conduct for Legal Representatives and Litigants in Person

Preamble

Whereas the General Assembly, in its resolution 69/203 of 18 December 2014, stressed the need to ensure that all individuals acting as legal representatives appearing before the United Nations Dispute Tribunal and the United Nations Appeals Tribunal are subject to the same standards of professional conduct, and requested the submission of a single code of conduct for all legal representatives, without prejudice to other lines of disciplinary authority,

Whereas appropriate standards should also be adopted for litigants in person,

The following provisions are adopted.

Definitions

In the present Code, the following terms shall mean:

Code: the present Code of Conduct for Legal Representatives and Litigants in Person acting in proceedings before the United Nations Dispute Tribunal or the United Nations Appeals Tribunal, as approved by the General Assembly;

Legal representative: an individual who acts on behalf of a party in proceedings before the United Nations Dispute Tribunal or the United Nations Appeals Tribunal;

Litigant in person: an individual who represents himself or herself in proceedings before the United Nations Dispute Tribunal or the United Nations Appeals Tribunal;

Party: the applicant or the respondent in proceedings before the United Nations Dispute Tribunal or the appellant or the respondent in proceedings before the United Nations Appeals Tribunal;

Statutes: the statutes of the United Nations Dispute Tribunal and the United Nations Appeals Tribunal, as adopted by the General Assembly in its resolution 63/253, as amended;

Rules of procedure: the rules of procedure of the United Nations Dispute Tribunal and the United Nations Appeals Tribunal, as approved by the General Assembly in its resolution 64/119, as amended;

United Nations Dispute Tribunal: the Tribunal established by its statute as the first instance of the two-tier formal system of administration of justice at the United Nations;

United Nations Appeals Tribunal: the Tribunal established by its statute as the second instance of the two-tier formal system of administration of justice at the United Nations and as the final instance for those entities that have accepted its jurisdiction under article 2, paragraph 10, of its statute;

Tribunal(s): the United Nations Dispute Tribunal and United Nations Appeals Tribunal, individually or collectively.

Purpose

The present Code describes the conduct expected of legal representatives and litigants in person in proceedings before the Tribunals in the interest of the fair and proper administration of justice.

Acknowledgement

By acting in proceedings before the Tribunals, legal representatives and litigants in person acknowledge the provisions of the present Code.

Basic standards

Legal representatives and litigants in person shall maintain the highest standards of integrity and shall at all times act honestly, candidly, fairly, courteously, in good faith and without regard to external pressures or extraneous considerations.

Legal representatives and litigants in person shall act diligently and efficiently and shall avoid unnecessary delay in the conduct of proceedings.

Legal representatives should encourage and facilitate dialogue between the parties with a view to settling disputes in appropriate cases.

Legal representatives shall maintain the highest standards of professionalism and shall act in the best interests of the party they represent, subject always to upholding the interests of justice and ethical standards.

Conflict of interest

Legal representatives shall put the interests of the party they represent before their own interests and the interests of others, and shall not represent conflicting interests in proceedings.

Where a conflict of interest arises, legal representatives shall promptly:

Disclose the conflict to the party they represent;

Take all reasonable steps to mitigate the conflict; and

Withdraw themselves as legal representatives if the conflict cannot be mitigated.

A party may waive a conflict of interest and consent to the legal representative continuing to act in proceedings.

Confidentiality

Legal representatives and litigants in person shall maintain the confidentiality of the proceedings of the Tribunals in accordance with the provisions of the statutes and rules of procedure, or as otherwise ordered by the Tribunals.

Legal representatives and litigants in person shall respect the confidential character of any information imparted to them in confidence in the proceedings.

Legal representatives and litigants in person shall not disclose, except as appropriate in the normal course of the proceedings, any document which is inviolable in accordance with applicable legal instruments on privileges and immunities of the United Nations, its specialized agencies or other United Nations entities, unless such document is already public or by authorization of the Secretary-General or the appropriate official of the relevant entity before the Tribunal.

The obligations set forth in this article remain even after proceedings before the Tribunals have ended.

Withdrawal of representation

Legal representatives may withdraw their representation of a party where they reasonably consider that good cause to do so exists.

In withdrawing representation, legal representatives shall take steps to the extent reasonably practicable to protect the party’s interests.

Legal representatives shall promptly communicate such withdrawal in writing to the party they represent and the relevant Registry.

Relations with the Tribunals

Legal representatives and litigants in person shall assist the Tribunals in maintaining the dignity and decorum of proceedings and avoiding disorder and disruption.

Legal representatives and litigants in person shall be diligent in complying with the statutes, rules of procedure, practice directions and orders, rulings or directions that may be issued by the Tribunals.

Administration of the Code

The Tribunals may issue orders, rulings or directions in order to implement the provisions of the present Code.

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