chapter 1 The Establishment of the UN Administrative Tribunal (1945–1949)

The Administrative Tribunal, which had already been envisaged by the found- ers of the United Nations, was set up only four years after the establishment of the United Nations Organization, by General Assembly resolution 351 (IV) adopted on 24 November 1949. It came into force on 1 .

The Need for a United Nations Administrative Tribunal

Since the United Nations Organization enjoys diplomatic immunity and cannot be sued by its employees before the national tribunals in their respective countries, it was imperative to devise an alternative judiciary system for the adjudication of ­disputes that might arise between staff and the Administration.­ In his policy state- ment to the Fifth Committee of the General Assembly in London in 1946, the Secretary-General mentioned that it was necessary, with a view to give international civil servants rights equivalent to those enjoyed by many national civil servants in the courts or administrative tribunals of their own countries, to establish a United Nations administrative tribunal. This idea was not, however, shared with equal enthusiasm by all the countries members of the United Nations. As stated at the Fifth Committee meeting of 29 by the Chairman of the Advisory Committee on Administrative and Budgetary Questions, “the very idea of an admin- istrative tribunal was of European origin. In that connexion, it was sufficient to recall the part played in France by the Council of State (Conseil d’État). The Anglo- Saxon countries had never been very much in favour of the establishment of an administrative tribunal, for that was an institution with which they were unfamiliar.”9

Historical Background

Its predecessor, the League of Nations Administrative Tribunal, was estab- lished in 1927, after a dispute between the League and one of its staff members

9 Official Records of the Fourth Session of the General Assembly, Fifth Committee Admin­ istrative and Budgetary Questions, summary Records of Meetings 20 September – 8 , Lake Success, New York.

© koninklijke brill nv, leiden, ���� | doi 10.1163/9789004301863_003

The Establishment of the UN ADMINISTRATIVE TRIBUNAL 9 had absorbed a considerable time of debate at the League’s Council. Upon the winding up of the League in , its Tribunal was transferred to the International Labour Organization (ILO) where it became, on 9 , the ILO Administrative Tribunal. By that time, the League’s Tribunal had dealt with 37 cases involving League’s as well as ILO’s employees. The League of Nations Administrative Tribunal served, however, somewhat as a model for the United Nations Administrative Tribunal. Indeed, in its rec- ommendations concerning the organization of the secretariat, the Pre­ paratory Commission of the United Nations specifically referred to the League tribunal in its 1945 proposal for a United Nations administrative tribunal, when stating: “An Administrativ­ e Tribunal, not unlike that estab- lished by the League of Nations in 1927, will probably be set up to hear complaints and settle disputes concerning the terms of employment of officials….” The League of Nations Administrative Tribunal, during its existence from 1928 to 1946, had been serving the League itself – the predecessor of the United Nations – and all the institutions and agencies which the League oversaw. These included the ILO, which had been established in 1919 and was an auton- omous agency of the League of Nations before becoming the first Specialized Agency of the United Nations upon the winding up of the League in 1946; a health organization (the precursor of the World Health Organization – WHO); the Permanent Court of International Justice (the predecessor of the Inter­ national Court of Justice); the Committee on Intellectual Cooperation (the precursor of the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organi­ zation – UNESCO) and the Commission for Refugees (the pioneer of the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees – UNHCR). It was, therefore, generally expected, at least until , that there would be again a single international administrative tribunal to serve the United Nations and all its Specialized Agencies. Indeed, on 21 , the United Nations Economic and Social Council gave its approval to draft general agree- ments with ILO, UNESCO and the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) which provide for cooperation – between them and the United Nations – in the establishment and operation of suitable machinery for the settlement of disputes between these organizations and their staff members. With the transfer of the League’s Tribunal to ILO and the setting-up less than four months later of ILOAT in October 1946, it would have seemed logical for the United Nations to rely then on the latter instead of setting-up another international tribunal, the United Nations Administrative Tribunal (UNAT).10

10 In order to avoid any confusion, the acronym “UNAT” is used in this book to designate exclusively the United Nations Administrative Tribunal. The United Nations Appeals