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United Nations
internal justice system: time for the UN Administration to
deliver real reform
19 October 2011
More than 24 months after of Secretary-General's historic launch
of a two-tier judicial system which "will enable us to deal with
internal disputes more quickly, fairly and transparently", many
UN personnel and international affairs experts still have little
confidence in the Organization to deliver justice and an
administration they can trust.
As outlined in complaints filed by UN personnel, the Ethics
Office, the Mediation Division, the Management Evaluation
Unit, the Office of Staff Legal Assistance, the
Administrative Law Section, the Dispute and Appeals
Tribunals are at risk of becoming the latest in a long line
of failed internal mechanisms putatively aimed at securing
justice and respect for the rule of law in the United
Nations.
While public opinion has been strong asking the Organization
to signal that it is serious about meaningful reform, the UN
Administration has often used pressure to ensure a fair
system of administration of justice never would exist.
Taking a fair system of administration of justice at the
United Nations off the UN Secretariat agenda has reinforced
a sense among abusers that they can act as they wish with no
risk of punishment.
How, one may ask, could so much contradiction entered into
this reform process? Were the officials who made the pledge
of a new, transparent and accountable administration of
justice at the United Nations so double-faced that they
cared only for expediency?
The truth is that for decades the internal laws of the
Organization have been administered for mostly power ends
with few protections of the rights of individuals to a fair
trial, and managers have enjoyed impunity as many portray
accountability a "luxury" the United Nations cannot afford.
The challenges in remedying the situation are now enormous.
Nevertheless, it is difficult to deny that building a UN
internal justice system under which all are equal under the
law is a legal obligation of the United Nations and a
fundamental part of its success and credibility.
At the time of writing this article, UNJustice has received
this letter from a US female UN staff member who says:
"In my capacity of gender focal point, I advised a local
staff member -as to relevant UN procedures and policy,
who alleged she was being sexually harassed by my direct
boss. What followed can only be described as a two year
witch hunt and mobbing against me.
My ex-boss was subsequently transferred, but not before he
had me investigated and had half of the local staff write
false statements against me. His close friends -the rest of
the senior management group, remained and continued to
harass me. A replacement was then brought in and that
retaliation continued, not only against me. In fact the
replacement harassed and bullied two other staff at the same
time and had two separate cases pending against her at the
UNDT at the time of her appointment as regional Ombudswoman!
This is the new system of justice and this is the kind of
people they are appointing in those roles.
I complained, but despite repeated requests, I have never
seen the report of the OIOS investigation and was told that
I was not entitled to it -although it was I who requested
it.
I have now dropped the case and my job as I did not want to
return to my post to work with the same group with whom I
had so much trouble and I was not offered anything else
-despite the UNDT judge's suggestion that another suitable
post be found.
Instead I was offered 10,000 more USD from the UN
Administration if I withdrew my Appendix D claim (workers
injury compensation). When I orally informed the Appendix D
unit in NYHQ of that fact, they told me I should immediately
report it to the ethics committee, obviously they must be
new to the UN.
Since the Office of Staff Legal Assistance withdrew legal
assistance from me and I had no more money for legal
defense, and since I am a single mother and felt that in
order to preserve my health I could not return to the same
abusive work situation in which I was mobbed, I felt I had
no other choice but to settle for what has now amounted to
about 85,000USD (which includes the relocation grant of
15,000), which by the way I have not even received yet -thus
they are now in breach of the separation agreement, which
stipulated six weeks for receipt of the funds.
The UN was really like a vocation for me -I wanted to serve
the vulnerable and I did not even know what my salary would
be when I joined to go an a mission, and nor did I care. I
would have gone for free. But the internal workings of the
Organization do not, in my opinion, in large part correspond
at all to the values it was founded upon or the values it is
meant to represent. This was a huge disappointment for me. I
felt that I could not remain true to myself and remain a
staff member any longer. I had hope at the beginning of this
whole legal process that the truth would out and that the
system would come through in the end for me -but I was very,
sadly mistaken, it simply pandered to those higher up in the
hierarchy, irrespective of what was right or fair or good."
UNJustice believes that for the administrators of an
Organization which rightly claims that «Rule of law is a
principle of governance in which all persons, institutions
and entities, public and private, including the State
itself, are accountable to laws that are publicly
promulgated, equally enforced, independently adjudicated and
consistent with human rights norms and standards*» this and
others staff members' fate should have been a matter of more
urgent concern.
Related
information:
*Guidance Note of the Secretary-General: United Nations Approach to Rule of Law Assistance, 14 April 2008
[PDF-242 KB]
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