UNDT/2021/029, Brown
The Applicant is a former staff member who separated from OHCHR in May 2015. Following her separation from service, the Applicant made declarations on her own volition and in an individual capacity to a journalist alleging that her contract was not renewed “after†she engaged in so-called whistleblowing activities during her employment with the Organization. The journalist contacted the Spokesperson, OHCHR and requested OHCHR’s comments in relation to the Applicant’s allegations. In March 2018, the Spokesperson, OHCHR, exchanged three “off the record†emails with the journalist and it was the content of those emails that led to the Applicant’s complaint under ST/SGB/2008/5 against the Spokesperson, OHCHR. The Tribunal found that there was an insufficient nexus between the Applicant’s former employment with OHCHR and the contested decision because the act that led to her complaint for harassment and abuse of authority, that is, the Applicant’s declarations to the journalist who later contacted the OHCHR Spokesperson, was the result of her actions taken in her individual capacity, which cannot be considered as having a nexus with her former employment contract. The Tribunal considered that the contested decision was not linked to the Applicant’s employment status since it involved a self-created fact (the Applicant’s initiative to speak to a journalist), which happened more than three years after her contractual link with the Organization had ceased. The Tribunal recalled that in its Judgment Brown UNDT/2017/048, it decided that the non-renewal of the Applicant’s fixed-term appointment was lawful and that it was not tainted by extraneous factors.
The manner in which the Applicant’s ST/SGB/2008/5 complaint was processed and the decision not to initiate a disciplinary process.
There must be a sufficient nexus between the former employment and the impugned action.