51ÁÔÆæ

UNAT considered an appeal by the Appellant of judgment No. UNRWA/DT/2015/003. UNAT held that the Appellant failed to demonstrate that UNRWA DT erred in any way when it dismissed her application finding it to be moot, an outcome which was a natural consequence of the administrative rescission of the impugned decision, circumstances that contemplated the staff member¡¯s claim and rights, solving the previous irregularity. UNAT noted that the Appellant¡¯s request to amend her application to seek compensation for material and moral damages was filed after she had received notification of the...

UNAT considered appeals of both judgment Nos. UNRWA/DT/2014/026 (judgment on the merits) and UNRWA/DT/2014/051 (judgment on revision). UNAT held that the appeal against the judgment on the merits was filed out of time and was not receivable. UNAT held that the judgment on revision failed to identify a ground of appeal, expressed disagreement, and repeated arguments already considered and rejected by UNRWA DT. UNAT held that the appeal constituted an impermissible attempt to reargue the merits of the case. UNAT held that the fact upon which the Appellant had based his revision application did...

UNAT had before it an application for correction of judgment and an application for interpretation of judgment for judgment No. 2015-UNAT-499, both submitted by Mr Fedorchenko. UNAT held that Mr Fedorchenko¡¯s applications did not come within the criteria set forth in the relevant statutory provisions. On the application for correction, UNAT held that Mr Fedorchenko did not cite any clerical or arithmetical mistake to justify a correction of judgment and failed to identify any meaning or scope of the judgment to justify interpretation or identify which sentences or words were unclear or...

UNAT considered an appeal by the Secretary-General. UNAT allowed the appeal on the grounds that UNDT erred in reaching the merits of the present case in circumstances where it had confirmed by Order that it would only address receivability as a preliminary issue. UNAT held that it disagreed with UNDT on the matter of receivability and that there was no administrative decision capable of being appealed before UNDT. UNAT held that the administrative decision Mr Saffir impugned did not deprive him of his work or affect his function; it was limited to announcing recruitment round to fill three of...

UNAT considered an appeal by the Secretary-General. UNAT affirmed, albeit on different grounds, the UNDT award of compensation to Mr Pirraku. UNAT observed that the issues surrounding Mr Pirraku¡¯s non-promotion should not have been presented to, or addressed by, UNDT. UNAT held that the issues regarding Mr Pirraku¡¯s non-promotion were the subject of a settlement and release agreement reached through mediation and, as such, were not subject to judicial review. UNAT held that the issue for UNDT¡¯s determination was the execution of the settlement agreement. UNAT held that the issues of...

UNAT held that the Appellant did not establish any procedural errors warranting the reversal of the judgment. UNAT held that there was no evidence of any adverse administrative decision that stemmed from the Appellant¡¯s performance appraisal and that the comments of his Second Reporting Officer (SRO) reflected no more than a legitimate exercise of administrative hierarchy evaluating employees, and did not of itself constitute an independent, administrative decision capable of being appealed. UNAT held that UNDT correctly concluded that the Appellant¡¯s challenge which related to the comments of...

UNAT considered an appeal by the Commissioner-General. UNAT held that UNRWA DT set out the correct legal framework, but thereafter erroneously reviewed the evidence and interfered with the administrative discretion, since UNRWA had established the misconduct by clear and convincing evidence. UNAT held that UNRWA DT erred in law in its evaluation of the evidence and that UNRWA had established the existence of the facts warranting disciplinary sanction. UNAT held that the procedure and the subsequent decision were lawful and there was no basis to rescind the termination or to award any...

UNAT considered appeals by both Mr Aliko and the Secretary-General. UNAT held that UNDT correctly concluded that Mr Aliko¡¯s application contesting the decision refusing his request to change nationality for UN purposes was time-barred. UNAT held that UNDT did not err in rejecting as not receivable Mr Aliko¡¯s claims against the decisions on his ineligibility for education grant and on education grant recovery. UNAT held that it was lawful for the Administration to use Mr Aliko¡¯s pending entitlements to recover part of his indebtedness to the Organisation. UNAT held that UNDT erred in concluding...

UNAT considered an appeal by Mr Ovcharenko et al. and a cross-appeal by the Secretary-General. On the request of Mr Ovcharenko et al. for an oral hearing before the full bench of UNAT, UNAT held that the parties had no standing to request that the case be decided by a full bench and, accordingly, denied the request. UNAT held that UNDT was correct when it examined the merits of the application and concluded that the administrative decision was lawful. UNAT held that the Secretary-General had 51ÁÔÆæ the General Assembly decision 67/551 of 24 December 2012 and the ensuing enactment of...

UNAT considered an appeal by the Secretary-General. UNAT held that UNDT erred in law in concluding that the imposed disciplinary sanction was disproportionate and consequently substituting it for a lesser one. UNAT held that serious misconduct was established and the disciplinary measure of separation from service without termination indemnity was proportionate. UNAT noted that the misconduct put public health at risk as the food was distributed with altered expiration dates to hide the fact of its expiration. UNAT held that the imposed sanction was neither absurd nor disproportionate and...

UNAT considered both an appeal by the Secretary-General and also a cross-appeal by Mr Nwuke requesting additional compensation. UNAT held that UNDT erred in law in deciding that the appointment of the rostered candidate was unlawful and in breach of Mr Nwuke¡¯s rights. UNAT held that no illegality occurred and that the appointment was entirely within the Administration¡¯s discretion, which was not abusive. UNAT allowed the Secretary-General¡¯s appeal, vacated the UNDT judgment and dismissed Mr Nwuke¡¯s cross-appeal.

UNAT considered appeals by both the Secretary-General and Mr Bastet. UNAT held that the disciplinary measure was regularly adopted by an individual properly vested with the delegated authority to make that decision and that therefore, the imposition of the disciplinary measure was valid and its rescission as ordered by UNDT had to be vacated. UNAT upheld the appeal from the Secretary-General, accepting the argument that Staff Rule 10. 1(c) expressly provided that the authority to impose disciplinary measures was vested in the Secretary-General or officials with delegated authority and did not...

On the question of maintaining confidentiality, UNAT held that the Appellant had not provided persuasive reasons for maintaining the confidentiality of his case and did not grant his petition. UNAT held that a decision not to review the closure of an investigation, which had been impugned by a staff member as procedurally or substantively irregular, was a decision that affected a staff member¡¯s legal rights and that it, therefore, constituted an administrative decision subject to judicial review. UNAT held that the specific provisions of ICAO¡¯s personnel instruction should have led to a...

UNAT considered Mr Gakumba¡¯s application for revision of judgment No. 2013-UNAT-387. UNAT held that it did not fulfil the statutory requirements and was seemingly disguised as an attempt to re-open the case. UNAT held that it would be manifestly unreasonable to submit that the UNDP Conversion Policy issued in 2010 could not be argued by the staff member in 2012 before the UNDT, or in 2013 before UNAT. UNAT held that no valid reason had been provided about the untimely submission of the application for revision. UNAT dismissed the application for revision.

UNAT considered the Secretary-General¡¯s appeal as to whether Ms Carrabregu was eligible to be considered for a permanent appointment. UNAT noted that the factual sequence clearly showed that Ms Carrabregu freely and willingly resigned from her service with UNDP to take up an appointment with a different entity (UNV), thereby causing a break in service. UNAT held that this break in service should have led UNDT to uphold the administrative decision that Ms Carrabregu was not eligible for conversion to a permanent appointment. UNAT further noted that Ms Carrabregu¡¯s service to UNV could not be...

UNAT held that the Appellant did not succeed in establishing any error of fact or law which would warrant the reversal of the UNDT judgment. UNAT held that UNDT correctly concluded that the termination of the Appellant¡¯s appointment was firmly supported by the evidence relative to the necessities of service in the context of a downsizing exercise, and no bias or improper purpose vitiated the impugned decision. UNAT held that as the Appellant did not effectively rebut the conclusions of the impugned judgment, he did not satisfy the burden of demonstrating that it was defective such as to...

UNAT held that the Appellant did not succeed in establishing any error of fact or law that would warrant reversal of the UNDT judgment. UNAT held that UNDT correctly concluded that the non-selection of the Appellant was not vitiated by any improper motive. UNAT noted that, even if the alleged flaws were to be considered irregularities, they would not be important enough to render the proceedings null or to reflect a violation of rights and actual harm or discrimination suffered by the Appellant. UNAT held that no compensation should be awarded to the Appellant, as no illegality or breach of...

UNAT considered the appeals by the Secretary-General challenging UNDT¡¯s determination that the decision not to investigate UNSU election matters was receivable. UNAT held by majority that the appeal was not receivable, based on jurisprudence that a party may not appeal against a judgment in which it has prevailed. UNAT noted that although UNDT reviewed the merits of the decision despite the Secretary-General¡¯s argument that the decision was not receivable ratione materiae, UNDT found in favour of the Secretary-General. UNAT held that, as there was no negative impact to the Secretary-General...

As a preliminary matter, UNAT denied the Appellant¡¯s request for an oral hearing. UNAT noted that UNJSPF correctly applied Article 45 of the UNJPSF Regulations and relied on an internationally binding judgment about spousal and child support, issued by an Austrian court, which was not contradicted by the divorce decree issued by a Portuguese court. UNAT found no error of law or fact such as to vitiate the contested decision and upheld UNJSPF¡¯s ¡°reasoned and well-founded decision.¡± UNAT dismissed the appeal and upheld the UNJPSB decision.

UNAT found that the Appellant and her counsel were provided with an adequate opportunity to file an application in a timely manner, but failed to do so, causing her application before UNRWA DT to be non-receivable. UNAT further held that, even if it were to disregard the untimely submission of the application before UNRWA DT, the application would remain non-receivable because the Appellant did not seek in a timely manner the required request for review of the contested administrative decision she intended to overturn. UNAT dismissed the appeal and affirmed the UNRWA DT judgment.