Ãå±±½ûµØ

2017-UNAT-733

2017-UNAT-733, Nadeau

UNAT Held or UNDT Pronouncements

UNAT denied the Appellant’s application for an oral hearing. UNAT held that the UNDT had not committed an error of procedure by denying the Appellant an oral hearing. UNAT held that UNDT enjoys a wide margin of discretion in all matters relating to case management and there was no error in the proceedings before UNDT with specific consideration of the following: UNDT’s denial of the proceedings to be conducted in French; UNDT’s dismissal of objections to English translations in the application and other documents, UNDT’s issuance of its judgment before having the Secretary-General’s reply translated; and UNDT’s failure to have specific annexes to the Appellant’s application translated into English. UNAT held that UNDT did not commit an error of law or exceed its jurisdiction. UNAT further held that a fact-finding investigation may only be undertaken if there are sufficient grounds or, respectively, reasons to believe that a staff member has engaged in unsatisfactory conduct for which a disciplinary measure may be imposed. UNAT held that UNDT correctly held that the Appellant’s request for investigations against the Officer-in-Charge of the Management Evaluation Unit was lawfully denied by the Under-Secretary-General for Management. UNAT held that there was no reason to believe that the Officer-in-Charge of the Management Evaluation Unit had engaged in unsatisfactory conduct. Noting that management evaluation is a mere condition of receivability of an application before the UNDT and did not form part of the contested administrative decision, UNAT held that the Appellant’s submissions with regard to the management evaluation decision were not relevant on appeal. UNAT dismissed the appeal and affirmed the UNDT judgment.

Decision Contested or Judgment Appealed

The Applicant contested the dismissal by the Under-Secretary-General for Management of two complaints that the Applicant had submitted against the Officer-in-Charge of the Management Evaluation Unit. The UNDT dismissed the application in its entirety.

Legal Principle(s)

UNDT enjoys a wide margin of discretion in all matters relating to case management. The instigation of disciplinary charges against a staff member is the privilege of the Organisation itself and it is not legally possible to compel the Administration to take disciplinary action. Only in particular situations does a staff member have a right to an investigation against another staff member and there are situations where the only possible and lawful decision of the Administration is to deny a staff member’s request to undertake an investigation against another staff member.

Outcome
Appeal dismissed on merits

OAJ prepared this case law summary for informational purposes only. It is no official record and should not be relied upon as an authoritative interpretation of the Tribunals' rulings. For the authoritative texts, please refer to the judgment or order rendered by the respective Tribunal. The Tribunals are the only bodies competent to interpret their respective judgments, as provided under Article 12(3) of the UNDT Statute and Article 11(3) of the UNAT Statute. Any inaccuracies in the publication are the sole responsibility of OAJ, which should be contacted directly for any correction requests. To provide comments, don't hesitate to get in touch with OAJ at oaj@un.org.

The judgment summaries were generally prepared in English. They were translated into French and are being reviewed for accuracy of the translation.

Applicants/ Appellants
Nadeau
Entity
Case Number(s)
Tribunal
Registry Location :
Date of Judgment
Judge(s)
Language of Judgment
Issuance Type