UNDT/2010/139, Muratore
In its Judgment 2010-UNAT-029, El-Khatib, the Appeals Tribunal upheld the jurisprudence of the former UN Administrative Tribunal whereby only circumstances beyond the applicant’s control that prevented him from timely pursuit of his appeal can be regarded as exceptional. The fact that the applicant believed at first that the contested decision was lawful is not an exceptional circumstance, the more so as he had the possibility to obtain information on the applicable rules from the Administration. In El-Khatib, the Appeals Tribunal further recalled that “candidates for a public post are presumed to know the rules applicable to the employing public corporation”.
OHCHR published several vacancy announcements in the framework of a broad posts regularisation exercise. The applicant applied to 21 of them. On 6 February 2006, the applicant received notice that none of his applications had succeeded. On 24 May 2006, he requested review of the decision not to select him for any of the advertised positions and subsequently filed an appeal with the JAB. The JAB rejected his appeal on the grounds that the time limit for requesting administrative review had not been complied with.
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