2025-UNAT-1542, AAO
UNAT Held or UNDT Pronouncements
The UNAT held that there was no error of law or fact by the UNDT in finding that the allegations of sexual harassment and workplace harassment were proven to the clear and convincing evidence standard. The UNDT had the advantage of seeing and hearing the evidence of the principal witnesses to, and relating to, the events. There was therefore ample evidence to confirm the UNDT’s assessments of the occurrence and significance of the events. The UNDT was also entitled to draw the inference that AAO, rebuffed in his sexual advances by the complainant, retaliated subsequently through workplace harassment.
The UNAT found that there was clear justification for the former employee’s severance from the Organization and there was no deprivation of his due process rights in how the Organization handled AAO’s case.
The UNAT dismissed the appeal and affirmed the UNDT Judgment.
Decision Contested or Judgment/Order Appealed
AAO, a former staff member of the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC), contested his separation from service for sexual harassment and workplace harassment.
By Judgment No. UNDT/2024/016, the UNDT concluded that the Administration had demonstrated by clear and convincing evidence that AAO engaged in sexual harassment and workplace harassment and that the disciplinary measure was a proportionate response to the established conduct. The UNDT dismissed AAO’s application.
The former staff member appealed.
Legal Principle(s)
In sexual harassment cases, while no single event may have reasonably amounted to sexual harassment, when considered together, the events may establish a subtle, deliberate and an intentional pattern of conduct which can be preparatory to a sexual encounter, which is all the more egregious when there is an imbalance of power.