Administration of Justice at the United Nations

A/RES/75/248View PDF

Who created this mandate?

A Resolution of the General Assembly, under agenda item 152Administration of justice at the United Nations, published in 2020.

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

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Who cites this mandate in the budget?

1 entity

Extracted automatically from each entity’s budget submission.

What subjects does this mandate have?

5 topics

Administration of Justice Grievance Procedures Labour Disputes Legal Remedies Legal Services

What does this mandate say?

39 operative paragraphs

Takes note of the reports of the Secretary-General on administration of justice at the United Nations and on the activities of the Office of the United Nations Ombudsman and Mediation Services, the report of the Internal Justice Council on administration of justice at the United Nations and the related report of the Advisory Committee on Administrative and Budgetary Questions;

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

ISystem 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;

6‎

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;

Notes with appreciation the publication of the Digest of Case Law of the United Nations Dispute Tribunal and the United Nations Appeals Tribunal for the period 2009–2019, which provides improved access to the jurisprudence of the Tribunals, and requests the Secretary-General to present information relating to the establishment of a searchable database of Dispute Tribunal and Appeals Tribunal decisions in his next report;

Welcomes the ongoing outreach efforts, and urges the Secretary-General to continue to implement the outreach strategy, with a view to continuing to raise awareness of the role and functioning of the various parts of the system and the possibilities that it offers to address work-related complaints, paying particular attention to field missions and offices;

Requests the Secretary-General to continue to ensure a strong culture of accountability throughout the Secretariat, in particular with proactive and transparent application of the United Nations three-pillared approach to the management of misconduct, namely, prevention, enforcement and remedial action, and to ensure access to effective remedies for all categories of personnel;

Also requests the Secretary-General to continue to hold managers accountable when their decisions have been established to be grossly negligent according to the applicable Staff Regulations and Rules of the United Nations and have led to litigation and subsequent financial loss, and to undertake an analysis of the issue of publishing the results of action taken in response to the referrals for accountability by the Tribunals, such as in the compendium of disciplinary measures, and to report thereon to the General Assembly at its seventy-sixth session;

Underscores the inherent and explicit authority of the Dispute and Appeals Tribunals to issue protective orders, consistent with their statutes, rules of procedure and code of conduct, in order to protect complainants and witnesses against retaliation, stresses the importance of fully implementing such orders, and requests the Secretary-General to report on the application thereof;

Encourages the Secretary-General, in his capacity as the Chair of the United Nations System Chief Executives Board for Coordination, to promote protection against retaliation across the system;

Reiterates that retaliation against complainants or staff appearing as witnesses constitutes misconduct, notes with appreciation the policy on protection against retaliation for reporting misconduct and for cooperating with duly authorized audits or investigations as well as the efforts to continuously improve the framework for protection from retaliation, and in this regard requests the Secretary-General to provide information on the implementation of the policy for all categories of personnel covered in his next report;

IIInformal 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;

Also reaffirms the importance of the informal dispute resolution process in the Organization, which represents an effective method of dispute resolution as compared with the formal process, and urges the Secretary-General to reinforce his efforts to address the underservice of staff in the field and to provide an update on the action taken in the context of his next report;

Welcomes the continued analysis of the root causes of work-related 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 communication, urges the Secretary-General to continue to address the direct feedback and systemic issues identified in the report in order to mitigate and prevent work-related conflicts, including through the improvement of the policies and procedures of the Organization, and requests the Secretary-General to provide information on progress resulting from the action taken in the context of his next report;

Also welcomes the continued efforts of the Secretary-General to improve the prevention and resolution of disputes involving non-staff personnel, based on his five initiatives, and his efforts to further explore more cost-effective means to resolve disputes, and requests the Secretary-General to report on progress, including the financial and administrative impact, to the General Assembly at its seventy-sixth session;

Encourages the Secretary-General to continue the pilot project whereby non-staff personnel are offered access to services provided by the Office of the United Nations Ombudsman and Mediation Services within its existing resources, and requests the Secretary-General to report thereon in his next report;

Encourages the Office of the United Nations Ombudsman and Mediation Services to continue its outreach activities, including through virtual formats as appropriate, especially in the field and including all categories of non-staff personnel, in order to promote informal dispute resolution;

Notes that the availability of United Nations documents in relevant official languages is limited in some areas of Secretariat activity, and therefore invites the Secretary-General to take the appropriate measures to implement, within existing resources, current multilingualism policies, in compliance with relevant rules and regulations, and requests the Secretary-General to provide, in the context of his next report, information on measures taken to ensure the availability of outreach documents in all official languages;

Also notes the efforts of the Secretary-General to promote knowledge and awareness of and action on racism within the Organization, and requests the Secretary-General to include information on racism and cases involving racial discrimination in the context of his next report on the activities of the Office of the United Nations Ombudsman and Mediation Services;

Encourages the Secretary-General to continue to provide information on trends and cases of discrimination within the Organization in the context of his next report on the activities of the Office of the United Nations Ombudsman and Mediation Services;

Notes the absence of a mental health component within the legal framework to process cases of harassment, discrimination and abuse of authority, and requests the Secretary-General to provide options to address such absence, to reinforce his efforts to achieve a harmonious working environment free from discrimination, harassment and abuse of authority in all forms and to report thereon to the General Assembly at its seventy-sixth session;

Notes with concern the recent pattern of upward harassment of female managers, and requests the Secretary-General to continue to take action to address the issue, including through providing tools and mandatory training on the value of civility in the workplace, and to report thereon in his next report;

IIIFormal system

Welcomes the progress made in reducing the number of pending and ageing cases before the Dispute Tribunal, including through the efficient use of half-time judges, stresses the importance of the continued implementation of all measures introduced by the General Assembly in its resolutions 73/276 and 74/258, and requests the Secretary-General to continue to report on the measures taken to further address the backlog of cases, with priority given to cases that are pending for more than 400 days;

Recalls paragraph 24 of its resolution 73/276, appreciates the efforts of the Dispute Tribunal and the Office of Administration of Justice to develop and implement the case disposal plan, and requests the Secretary-General to ensure that the real-time case-tracking dashboard is made publicly available;

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, including on the increased number of non-receivable cases, and to include his observations on those statistics in future reports;

Encourages the Dispute Tribunal to continue to make full use of telecommuting in the deployment of half-time judges so as to promote efficiencies, and decides that the practice of publishing the schedule and cause list for each half-time judge on the website of the internal justice system shall be extended to the full-time judges;

Commends the Secretary-General for the creation of the toolkits for self-represented applicants, encourages the Secretary-General to continue to provide assistance to self-represented applicants and enhance their understanding and ability to utilize the system and mitigate efficiency concerns, and in this regard requests the Secretary-General to continue to monitor the issue of self-representation and to report thereon to the General Assembly at its seventy-sixth session;

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

Notes the overall trend of increase in the workload of the Office of Staff Legal Assistance, expresses its satisfaction that the majority of requests for legal assistance received by the Office were settled or otherwise disposed of without recourse to any formal mechanism, and acknowledges that the Office should be adequately resourced;

Also notes the continuing high opt-out rates from the voluntary staff funding mechanism, and in this regard encourages the Secretary-General to continue to strengthen incentives for staff not to opt out, particularly in locations and United Nations entities where the participation rate is low;

IVOther 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;

Welcomes further views of the Internal Justice Council in its next report to the General Assembly on possible ways to improve judicial and operational efficiency;

Approves the proposed conditions of service and appointment requirements for the Internal Justice Council, as set out in annex V to the report of the Secretary-General on administration of justice at the United Nations, which shall guide the appointment of the members of the Council and its functioning;

Recalls paragraph 35 of its resolution 74/258, and requests the Secretary-General to provide further analysis of and clarification on the proposed amendments to articles 2 and 7 of the statute of the Appeals Tribunal on pension matters in the context of his next report;

Decides to consider at its seventy-sixth session the proposed amendments to the rules of procedure of the Appeals Tribunal and the Dispute Tribunal, as set out in annexes I and II to the report of the Secretary-General on administration of justice at the United Nations;

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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