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Having examined the evidence on record, the Tribunal identifies the following issues for determination:

Whether the Applicant is entitled to parental leave under staff rule 6.3

The entitlement under new staff rule 6.3 on parental leave is only effective as of 1 January 2023, and its application is subject to the “conditions established by the Secretary-General” as per staff rule 6.3(a). These conditions are set out in ST/AI/2023/2.

Section 1.2 of ST/AI/2023/2 provides that said administrative instruction governs the administration of parental leave in respect of a child born or adopted on or after 1 January 2023, provided that the staff member was in service at the time of the birth or adoption. Similarly, sec. 10.1 of ST/AI/2023/2 specifies that the new policy on parental leave entered into force effective 1 January 2023.

Equally clear is sec. 10.2 of ST/AI/2023/2, which excludes staff members who were “eligible” to “4 or 8 weeks of paternity leave or 8 weeks of adoption leave, on or before 31 December 2022” from the entitlement under the new policy on parental leave.

The fact that the Applicant requested paternity leave after 1 January 2023 is irrelevant to the applicability of new staff rule 6.3 and ST/AI/2023/2.

Therefore, the Applicant failed to demonstrate that he should have been eligible for the new parental leave benefit. As the parent of a child born on 29 December 2022, that is, two days before the entry into force of new staff rule 6.3 and almost two months before the issuance of ST/AI/2023/2, which set a cut-off date of 1 January 2023, the Applicant was indeed not entitled to 16 weeks of paternity leave.

Whether ST/AI/2023/2 is inconsistent with staff rule 6.3

The Tribunal found that ST/AI/2023/2 is consistent with new staff rule 6.3.

Whether ST/AI/2023/2 is discriminatory

While the new parental leave policy includes a transitional measure only for staff members who were on maternity leave on 1 January 2023, the Tribunal finds that this is not discriminatory.

As DMSPC indicated (see para. 13 above), the transitional measure was approved “to facilitate the transition from the previous maternity leave scheme to the new parental leave scheme, and to enable greater equity and fairness in the treatment of similarly situated staff members (i.e., those becoming parents by giving birth), while also being in line with [the recommendation of the World Health Organization] of six months minimum of breastfeeding”.

The fact that the Applicant’s situation does not fall within the scope of the transitional measure does not make it discriminatory against him.

The Tribunal recalled that the UN Secretariat is not bound by decisions made by other UN entities who are not part of the UN Secretariat concerning how they implement new policies, including whether they adopt transitional measures for other categories of staff. Each entity exercises its discretion when applying policies, and the fact that an entity exercises its discretion differently concerning the adoption of transitional measures does not affect the legality of the decisions made.

Whether the Applicant is entitled to the remedies requested

The Tribunal rejects the Applicant’s request for remedies.

In view of the foregoing, the Tribunal decided to reject the application in its entirety.