VOL. 68, NO. 2 - AAFI-AFICS, Geneva - UNOG

Thursday 15 October
Tuesday 17 November
Wednesday 16 December + lunch
From 10 a.m. to midday at the “Bibliothée” in Nyon (opposite the train station – 15 minutes from Cornavin)
behind the La Combe shopping mall, and near the Reception of the Ecole Migros. Wives, husbands and
partners are most welcome.
UNITED NATIONS
NEWS FROM THE ORGANIZATIONS
The (almost) ultimate Reform of the UN Internal Justice System
As the UN (and other intergovernmental organizations) is not subject to the labour legislation of member
states, disputes between staff and the organizations are referred to specific internal or external bodies for
settlement.
The UN internal justice system, designed in 1948 when the organization had only a few thousand staff, is
generally considered inadequate for the present needs of a diversified UN, with many more and different
functions from the early years, and almost 75,000 staff serving in many stations around the world: two thirds
of all UN staff are employed in field operations away from headquarters in New York. Several attempts to
improve the internal justice system were made in past years, but without success.
In June 2005, the UN General Assembly found the present system of administration of justice in the
Secretariat “slow, cumbersome and costly” and requested the Secretary-General to establish a panel of
external, independent experts to review and possibly redesign the system.
Following the Redesign Panel’s and other reports, and the conclusions and recommendations of the
Advisory Committee on Administrative and Budgetary Questions, the General Assembly approved three
resolutions on the administration of justice at the UN (61/261, 62/228 and 63/253, the latter in December
2008), creating two new Tribunals, to be operational as of 1 July 2009, replacing the Joint Appeals Boards
and Joint Disciplinary Committees, as well as the UN Administrative Tribunal, which will abolished on 31
December 2009. At the same time, the informal system of justice is to be reinforced in order to avoid
unnecessary litigation.
The present system
The Redesign Panel found that the administration of justice in the UN is neither professional nor
independent. It is extremely slow, under-resourced, inefficient and, thus ineffective. The time had come to
overhaul the system, rather than seek to make marginal improvements.
The present system involves first an informal approach: staff members may ask for the intervention of
supervisors and/or of human resources officers, - they may submit their case to a Panel on Discrimination
and other Grievances or to an Ombudsman.
The formal system is based on the administrative law model, with the Secretary-General making final
decisions on appeals following peer review by the Joint Appeals Boards (JAB) or Joint Disciplinary
Committees (JDC). These bodies, composed of administration and staff representatives, are advisory – they
cannot take binding decisions - and their members generally lack legal qualifications. Concern has been
expressed about the independence of these bodies vs. the Administration. Disciplinary proceedings
generally take six to nine months. The process before a JAB generally takes at least three years from
beginning to end. JDC and JAB reports are of an unequal quality. There is a general perception among staff
that this system operates to their disadvantage.
Decisions rejecting the recommendations of JDCs and JABs may be the subject of an application (a
recourse) to the UN Administrative Tribunal (UNAT). Proceedings before UNAT usually take two years. For
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