Harassment Investigations in International Organizations: Rights of Claimants under the Jurisprudence of the International Labour Organization Administrative Tribunal (ILOAT)

Complaints of workplace harassment, including sexual harassment, are on the increase and the evolving jurisprudence of the ILOAT presents international organizations with new challenges to their investigations. In this chapter, the author provides an extensive overview of the ILOAT's jurisprudence on harassment investigations, focusing on key judgments that bear impact on the rights of employees who allege they are the victims of workplace harassment. The author highlights the developments in the ILOAT’s case law pertaining to due process rights of claimants (for the purposes of this chapter, “due process rights” are equated with “procedural fairness” or “procedural safeguards” in the context of internal investigations, and the term “claimants” refers to employees who claim to have been the victim of harassment and have submitted a formal grievance with their organization.) and considers whether there is coherent judicial precedent in this area providing clear guidance to international organizations and their employees.