Implementation of the Duty of Care by the United Nations

The duty of care of the United Nations corresponds to a ‘non-waivable duty on the part of the organization to mitigate or otherwise address foreseeable risks that may harm or injure its personnel and their eligible family members’. It is crystallised in an implicit and explicit way in the obligations the organization has towards its staff that are contained in both hard and soft law instruments, policies, regulations and rules, administrative instructions, other internal acts of the organization. Its components have been further delineated through the jurisprudence of the organization’s administrative tribunals. Recent reviews conducted by the Joint Inspection Unit and the High-Level Working Group on ‘reconciling duty of care for UN personnel with the need ‘to stay and deliver’ in high-risk environments’ have upheld that, apart from selected critical areas that need further development and attention, the main issue at stake for ensuring the duty of care of the UN vis-à-vis its staff is the enforcement of compliance with, and further operationalization of, existing rules and policies in a coherent and systematic manner throughout the UN System. This chapter undertakes a survey of relevant legal sources to frame the contours and content of the duty of care of the UN as an employer. It identifies the personal and geographical scope of such obligation and focuses on its key components rationae materiae for then reflecting on challenges that need to be addressed to ensure that the health, well-being, security and lives of staff will not be subject to unnecessary risks.