Sixty-fourth General Assembly

Plenary

98^th Meeting (PM)

General Assembly Fills Vacancies on Joint Inspection Unit,

 

Elects Judge to In-House Dispute Tribunal

 

The General Assembly today appointed Gérard Biraud ( France), István Posta ( Hungary), Papa Louis Fall ( Senegal) and Cihan Terzi ( Turkey) as members of the Joint Inspection Unit for a five-year term of office beginning on 1 January 2011 and expiring on 31 December 2015.

They fill vacancies on the Joint Inspection Unit — the only independent external oversight body of the United Nations mandated to conduct evaluations, inspections and investigations system-wide — that would arise from the expiration of each of their terms of office on 31 December 2010.

For those appointments, Assembly resolution 59/267 (2004) outlines that candidates have experience in at least one of the following fields:  oversight; audit; inspection; investigation; evaluation; finance; project evaluation; programme evaluation; human resources management; management; public administration; and monitoring/programme performance; as well as knowledge of the United Nations and its role in international relations.

Also today, the Assembly elected by secret ballot Marilyn Kaman ( United States) as an ad litem judge to the Dispute Tribunal — a key body created in 2007 to strengthen the United Nations’ system of dealing with internal grievances and disciplinary cases — for one year starting 1 July 2010.

Ms. Kaman joins Jean-François Cousin (France) and Nkemdilim Amelia Izuako ( Nigeria) on the Tribunal, whose terms of office were extended for one year beginning on 1 July 2010 at an earlier meeting.  The term of office for Michael Adams ( Australia) was also extended at that meeting; however, he subsequently informed the Assembly President that he would be unable to accept the extension, making today’s election necessary.

For such matters, delegates had before them a report of the Internal Justice Council (document A/64/791), a letter from the Secretary-General addressed to the President of the General Assembly (document A/64/793) and a memorandum of the Secretary-General (document A/64/797).  The Internal Justice Council presented Ms. Kaman and Virgilijus Valančius ( Lithuania) as the only two candidates from a list previously submitted to the Assembly who were not from countries currently represented on the Tribunal and who were available for appointment from 1 July.

By resolution 63/253 (2008), the Assembly decided to appoint three ad litem judges for a one-year term each to address the problem of the backlog of cases being transferred from the old system to the Dispute Tribunal.

The General Assembly will reconvene at a 10 a.m. Monday, 21 June, to continue and conclude its Special High-Level Meeting on Translational Organized crime.

Results for Vote to Fill Vacancy on Dispute Tribunal

The results of the balloting were as follows:

Number of ballot papers:	147
Number of invalid ballots:	0
Number of valid ballots:	147
Abstentions:	0
Required majority:	74
Number of votes obtained by candidate:
Marilyn Kaman ( United States)	118
Virgilijus Valančius ( Lithuania)	29

Having obtained the required two-thirds majority, Marilyn Kaman was elected to the Dispute Tribunal for a one-year term, beginning on 1 July 2010.

* *** *

For information media • not an official record