In adopting a resolution today, based on a report by Volker Ullrich (Germany, EPP/CD), PACE recommended to introduce, in the international organisations, “reasonable alternative means of legally protecting” the rights of staff, to ensure that these means of redress are also available to trade unions, staff committees and associations; and to introduce procedures for lodging appeals against decisions of the internal tribunals of international organisations in employment disputes, by creating tribunals of appeal.
In this context, PACE also called on the Committee of Ministers to consider whether the Administrative Tribunal of the Council of Europe should be complemented by an appellate judicial body.
International organisations enjoy jurisdictional immunity – which can be waived only in exceptional circumstances – the parliamentarians recalled; however, this immunity should not absolve them from their accountability for human rights violations.
Finally, the Assembly recommended that information on procedures relating to employment disputes is accessible to the staff of international organisations.
