Administration of Justice at the United Nations

A/RES/77/260View PDF

Who created this mandate?

A Resolution of the General Assembly, under agenda item 149Administration of justice at the United Nations, published in 2022.

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?

2 entities

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?

36 operative paragraphs

Takes note of the reports of the Secretary-General on the 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 the 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, subject to the provisions in the present resolution;

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;

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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;

Emphasizes equal treatment of the six official languages of the United Nations, notes that multilingualism within the system of administration of justice contributes to efficient and effective dispute resolution and increased outreach and awareness-raising, welcomes the efforts of the Secretary-General in this regard to implement multilingualism policies in compliance with relevant rules and regulations, and further requests the Secretary-General to report on measures, and relevant remaining challenges, to continue efforts to promote multilingualism in his future reports;

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;

Takes note of paragraph 7 of the report of the Advisory Committee;

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 report thereon to the General Assembly at its seventy-eighth session;

Recalls paragraph 7 of its resolution 63/253, welcomes the continued efforts of the Secretary-General to improve the prevention and resolution of disputes involving non-staff personnel 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-eighth session;

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, underscores the importance of raising awareness of the policy, 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;

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;

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 the central role of mediation, and emphasizes that all possible use should be made of the informal system;

Recognizes mediation as a core part of the work of the Office of the United Nations Ombudsman and Mediation Services and as a cost-effective method of informal conflict resolution, underlines the importance of increasing the use of mediation services, and encourages improved communication between all parts of the system of administration of justice to increase opportunities to address underutilized mediation;

Recalls paragraph 46 of the report of the Advisory Committee, requests the Secretary-General to increase awareness among staff of the possibility of having conversations with the Office of the United Nations Ombudsman and Mediation Services to explore informal resolution, including mediation, as a first step, where feasible, prior to filing a formal complaint, encourages such conversations, and also requests the Secretary-General to provide further information in this regard;

Notes the practice of reporting about systemic observations in the report of the Secretary-General on the activities of the Office of the United Nations Ombudsman and Mediation Services, and requests the Secretary-General to continue such practice and to resume the practice of providing information since the seventy-fourth session on measures taken to address the systemic issues identified, and to report thereon in his future reports;

Recalls paragraph 25 of its resolution 75/248, and requests the Secretary-General to continue to take action to address all cases of harassment against female staff, including through providing tools and mandatory training on the value of civility in the workplace, and to report thereon in his next report;

Also recalls paragraph 61 of the report of the Advisory Committee, and notes the referral of visitors to staff counselling services by the Office of the United Nations Ombudsman and Mediation Services, as appropriate;

Notes the Secretary-General’s strategic action plan for addressing racism and promoting dignity for all in the United Nations Secretariat and the mandate established in its resolution 76/271 of 29 June 2022, encourages the Office of the United Nations Ombudsman and Mediation Services to provide observations on the trends and patterns of racism and racial discrimination and remedial actions taken within the Organization, and requests the Secretary-General to report thereon in the context of his next report on the activities of the Office;

Requests the Office of the United Nations Ombudsman and Mediation Services to provide, on an annual basis, a statistical overview with data on mediation cases, including on case volume and trends, and the resolution rate of cases mediated by the Office and information on cases with full resolution, and to report thereon to the General Assembly;

Decides to continue the pilot project for non-staff personnel within existing resources, notes the merit in continued access of non-staff personnel to the services of the Office of the United Nations Ombudsman and Mediation Services, and requests the Office to provide further information, including data on the number of non-staff personnel serviced and information on the benefits of such service, in the context of the next report, with a view to regularizing the pilot project within existing resources;

IIIFormal system

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

Welcomes the effort of the United Nations Dispute Tribunal to reduce the number of pending and ageing cases, stresses the importance of continued implementation of all measures to avoid the backlog of cases, with priority for cases which are pending for over 400 days, and requests the Secretary-General to continuously monitor cases through the case disposal plan and real-time case-tracking dashboard;

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 report thereon in the context of his next report;

Welcomes the launch of the Caselaw portal, which includes search criteria, filters and a digest of all judgments of the United Nations Dispute and Appeals Tribunals and contributes to a more transparent and accessible system of administration of justice, and to the upholding of the principle of accountability, and requests the Secretary-General to provide further information on the functioning of the portal in his next report;

Recognizes that the voluntary supplemental funding mechanism for the Office of Staff Legal Assistance is an invaluable resource for the funding of its staff members and its presence in the field, notes with concern the continuing opt-out rates from the voluntary staff funding mechanism, and requests the Secretary-General to further his efforts to strengthen incentives for staff not to opt out, particularly in locations and United Nations entities where the participation rate is low, and to report on measures taken in this regard in the context of his next report;

Recalls paragraph 27 of its resolution 74/258, and decides to approve article 19 (2) of the proposed amendments to the rules of procedure of the Dispute Tribunal as set out in annex I to the report of the Secretary-General on the administration of justice at the United Nations;

Encourages the Dispute Tribunal to conduct further consultations on the interlinkage between the remaining amendments to the rules of procedure and existing rules, build consensus on the remaining amendments, and bring them to the attention of the General Assembly at its seventy-eighth session in the context of the report of the Secretary-General on the administration of justice at the United Nations;

Takes note of the proposal of the Secretary-General to amend the statute of the Dispute Tribunal as set out in paragraph 128 of his report on the administration of justice at the United Nations, and of the different views expressed by key stakeholders, and encourages the Secretary-General to continue to consult the various stakeholders on this important legal issue, revert to the appropriate committee to consider the matter and report thereon to the General Assembly, with a view to concluding its consideration at the seventy-eighth session;

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

Reaffirms the authority of the Secretary-General to impose disciplinary measures on staff who have engaged in misconduct consistent with the regulatory framework established by the General Assembly;

Affirms that the Dispute Tribunal and the Appeals Tribunal shall exercise their powers according to their respective statutes, including that the Dispute Tribunal is competent to hear and pass judgment on an application filed by an individual to appeal an administrative decision imposing a disciplinary measure and the Appeals Tribunal is competent to hear and pass judgment on an appeal filed against a judgment rendered by the Dispute Tribunal;

IVOther issues

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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