Case Update: Steven Griner v Secretary General of the OAS

Administrative Tribunal of the Organization of American States (OAS), 31 August 2022 The Issues This case concerned a complaint against the Secretary General of the by Mr Steven Griner, the former Director of the Department for Sustainable Democracy and Special Missions (Complainant). The case is unusual in the sense that it raises three distinct issues […]

2022 FICSA Legal Standing Committee Session

In April 2022, Modulaw was invited to attend the 75th Council of the Federation of International Civil Servants Associations (FICSA) which was held in Vienna, Austria. Here is our overview of the key issues that we discussed in the Legal Standing Committee sessions. For more information, check out FICSA’s 2022 Magazine.

Fireside chat with Andres Orias-Bleicher

Andres is the current Chair of the FICSA Legal Standing Committee and has held this position on numerous occasions. After studying law and history, he joined the United Nations system as an editor for the WMO and the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change in Geneva. He quickly became involved in the WMO Staff Association as […]

Sources of Law in International Organisations

The laws of an international organisation (IO) can often be difficult to identify. They may be contained in multiple documents that are not stored together or are not publicly available, they may have different names (rules, manuals, handbooks, policies, instructions, etc.) and they may be administered by internal and external stakeholders. This blog seeks to […]

A Practical Guide to ABCC Claims

The Advisory Board on Compensation Claims (ABCC) was established by the UN Secretary-General to consider claims for compensation arising from service-incurred death, injury or illness and to make recommendations thereon to the Secretary-General. The ABCC is a joint board made up of three representatives of the staff (appointed by the Secretary-General on the recommendation of staff representative […]

Case Update: Rodriguez et al v Pan-American Health Organization

US Court of Appeals, District of Columbia Circuit, No. 20-7714 In the wake of Jam v International Finance Corporation (Jam), the appeal in Rodriguez offered US courts an unparalleled opportunity to achieve greater clarity in relation to the scope and interpretation of IO immunities. Summary of Facts Rodriguez involved a class-action suit by a group of Cuban doctors against the […]

Blowing the whistle on wrongdoing

Whistleblowers play an essential role in reporting wrongdoing, exposing abuse and preventing corruption in both the public and private sectors. Giving employees the right to whistleblow and providing adequate protections for whistleblowers is therefore a key feature of transparency and accountability mechanisms within IOs. Offering these protections to employees is essential as they are often […]

Do international organisations have a positive duty to prevent harassment?

Since the birth of the #MeToo movement, it is more important than ever before that IOs recognise and address claims of harassment. Best evidenced by the adoption of the International Labour Organization’s Violence and Harassment Convention (No. 190) and its accompanying Recommendation (No. 206), the international community has made it clear that violence and harassment will no […]