United Nations Administrative Tribunal

Statement of Policy

(Internet Publication)

The following statement of policy was unanimously approved by the members of the Administrative Tribunal at its plenary meeting on 27 October 2006:

1.         With effect from 2006, the Tribunal launched a website which is linked from the United Nations website www.un.org/law.  The website contains the Statute and Rules of the Tribunal as well as all jurisprudence available in electronic format.

2.         The Tribunal takes note of complaints submitted by a small number of former Applicants that, as their names appear on the Judgements of the Tribunal, online publication of their cases violates their privacy.

3.         The Tribunal notes that its Judgements are not considered confidential documents but that, under article 11 of the Statute of the Tribunal, they are available to all “interested persons”.  Judgements have been disseminated in print and electronic format to parties, relevant offices within the Organization, libraries, law schools, attorneys and the press, either routinely or upon request.  The Tribunal is aware that its jurisprudence is also published on the Internet via other websites, over which it has no control.

4.         Prior to launching its website, the Tribunal considered privacy concerns and decided that, with effect from 2005, it would issue Judgements in an anonymous form for publication on the Internet.  However, it decided not to retroactively adjust all Judgements and internal citations.

5.         The Tribunal has decided to maintain its decision and will not adjust Judgements rendered prior to 2005 in order to render them anonymous.