Judges of the United Nations Internal Justice System

Job Description

The United Nations (UN) is seeking judges for its internal system of administration of justice that addresses employment-related disputes.

The internal justice system includes a first instance United Nations Dispute Tribunal (UNDT) and an appellate instance United Nations Appeals Tribunal (UNAT).

The UNDT sits in New York, Geneva and Nairobi and is comprised of three full-time judges and six half-time judges. The full-time and half-time judges serve for non-renewable seven-year terms.

The UN is presently undertaking a selection process to fill four half-time judicial positions in the UNDT. Half-time judges work for up to six months in a calendar year in New York, Geneva or Nairobi. Half-time judges may not be deployed in a particular year or may be deployed less than a cumulative period of six months a year if their deployment is not justified by the UNDT’s caseload. The President of the UNDT decides whether and where to deploy a half-time judge, including whether to make use of telecommuting in their deployment.

Mandatory qualifications for judges of the UNDT:

• All persons applying to serve as a judge of the UNDT must be of high moral character and impartial.
• Candidates must have at least 10 years of judicial experience (i.e. experience as a judge or equivalent) in the field of administrative law, or the equivalent (e.g., employment law, law applicable to civil servants, civil litigation) within one or more national jurisdictions.
• English and French are the working languages of the United Nations. All candidates must be fluent, both orally and in writing, in English or French in order to conduct judicial proceedings, and draft decisions or judicial orders in either of the two languages.

Applications:

Interested candidates are invited to apply by completing the prescribed application form in either English or French. The prescribed form is available at
(Click here for English) (Click here for French) .

The completed form must be sent by email to internaljusticecouncil-application@un.org to be received by 11:59 p.m. (U.S. Eastern time) on 31 March 2019.

Special Notice:

• Candidates who do not meet the mandatory qualifications set out above or who do not apply using the prescribed form will not be considered.
• The form must be completed electronically (handwritten forms will not be accepted).
• Candidates under serious consideration for selection will be subject to reference checks to verify the information provided in the application, invited for a written or other form of assessment and will be interviewed by the Internal Justice Council (IJC), a body established by the General Assembly.
• The UN is an inclusive work environment and encourages all qualified applicants, irrespective of gender, nationality, disabilities, sexual orientation, and cultural, religious and ethnic backgrounds to apply.

Applications from women are strongly encouraged.

Applications are sought on a wide geographic basis and candidates from Asia-Pacific, Latin America and the Caribbean, and Africa are strongly encouraged to apply.

The list of UN Member States comprising these regional groups is available at (English) or (French).

Remuneration package and additional information:

As per UN General Assembly resolution 63/253, the UNDT judges are remunerated at a level equivalent to D-2 step IV on the United Nations salary scale for the Professional and higher categories. (For indicative purposes, the monthly net salary levels at D-2 step IV, including post adjustment, in effect as from 1 January 2019, are as follows: US$ 15,945.42 (New York), US$ 16,480.50 (Geneva) and US$ 13,007.34 (Nairobi). Other benefits and entitlements of the UNDT judges may include: annual leave, dependency allowances, medical and dental insurance, rental subsidy, education grant for children, home leave, paid sick leave; maternity / paternity / adoption leave. The half-time judges are remunerated for each month of their deployment (if any) in a calendar year. Transportation costs and daily subsistence allowance may be covered if deployment requires travel.
The qualifications and terms of judicial office of the judges and the articles governing the operation of the UNDT are set out in the Statute of the UNDT available at
(Click here for English) or (Click here for French)

About the Organization

UN system staff members, wherever they may work, are bound by the Organization’s Staff Regulations and Rules and administrative issuances, and, must also comply with the local laws of the country they work in. At the same time, UN staff members cannot take workplace disputes to local courts and authorities, due to the privileges and immunities the UN has from the laws of Member States. The UN’s special status leaves the Organization with the responsibility to provide its own staff with an internal justice system which is fair and impartial and which can effectively resolve disputes arising from staff members’ employment.

The UN’s internal system for the administration of justice is a means for UN staff to try to resolve dispute informally, and if informal means do not work, to resolve disputes formally through the management evaluation process, UN Dispute Tribunal and UN Appeals Tribunal.

The current internal justice system was approved by the General Assembly, and came into effect on 1 July 2009. The goal at the time was to create an adequately resourced and decentralized system which is independent, transparent and professional, and whose working methods are consistent with international law, and the principles of the rule of law, and due process.

In creating the system, the General Assembly emphasized the need to try informal resolution of work-related disputes.

If informal resolution attempts do not lead to a satisfactory outcome for a staff member, they have the option to then initiate a formal process. If the staff member chooses to do so, he/she should feel confident that the UN’s internal justice system will be accessible and professional, independent judges will hear their case, the judgment will be fair, and they can have access to professional legal advice.

More information on the system of administration of justice can be found at (Click here for English) or (Click here for French).

The candidates are encouraged to familiarize themselves with the jurisprudence of the UNDT which is available on the website.