EU Presidency Statement - The Administration of Justice at the Secretariat

Thank you, Mr.Chairman.

I have the honour to speak on behalf of the European Union. The acceding countries, Cyprus, the Czech Republic, Hungary, Lithuania, Malta, Slovakia, Slovenia, Poland and the countries associated with the EU - Bulgaria, Romania, and Turkey - as well as the EFTA countries of Iceland and Liechtenstein align themselves with this statement.

Following up on the Secretary-General's report A/56/800, the General Assembly has before it the Joint Inspection Unit (JIU) report on reform of the administration of justice in the United Nations system (JIU/REP/2002/5), as well as the comments thereon of the Secretary-General and of the United Nations System Chief Executives Board for Coordination (A/57/441/Add.1) and of the United Nations Administrative Tribunal (A/C.5/57/25). We have also before us the Advisory Committee's report A/57/736. Our thanks go to all of them for their pertinent input, greatly facilitating our work.

In a time of far-reaching reforms under way in the Organization, including the area of human resources management, we would be remiss not to address issues related to the functioning of the United Nations Administrative Tribunal, mindful of the need to protect the concerns and the rights of both the members of the personnel and the administration.

Concerning the functioning of the Joint Appeals Board, the European Union has taken note of the view expressed by both the Secretary General and the Advisory Committee that there is no need to change its nature.

We regret the particularly lengthy time elapsing between the filing of appeals before the Board and their actual handling. In this respect, we attach particular importance to receiving at the 58th Session of the General Assembly the outcome of the OIOS management review of the appeals process, in order to identify the causes of the delays and to make proposals to remedy the situation. It is essential that the procedure be significantly accelerated, including through the possible determination of clear deadlines for the handling of cases. We also trust that the institution of the Ombudsman will have a positive effect on the workload of the Joint Appeals Board.

The differences between the United Nations Administrative Tribunal and the Administrative Tribunal of ILO merit our attention and raise a number of questions.

Turning to the question of adding a third tier, we fear it would prolong the already excessively lengthy procedure and increase the cost by adding more attorneys' fees, thus leading to more frustration for the applicant.

We believe that reinforcement of administrative procedures in the context of the reform of human resources management would contribute to an improved system of administration of justice in the Secretariat.

Thank you Mr. Chairman.

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