Srebrenica, Haiti, what is next? The future of the dispute settlement for private law claims brought against the United Nations

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The right to a fair trial is a fundamental human right. Compliance with this right is monitored at both the national and international level. In this regard, international organisations play a special role. However, as activities of such organisations expand, disputes to which they are parties arise more often. Hence, transparent and effective dispute settlement mechanisms should be provided for the injured party. Nevertheless, even a cursory search on dispute settlement in international law reveals the need for effective and transparent resolution mechanisms for disputes of a private nature. This is especially relevant for disputes arising due to activities of the United Nations. The purpose of this article is to determine whether the dispute settlement system for private law claims against the United Nations is effective and fair. Upon analysis of the system, the author came to the following conclusion: Despite the fact that the UN recognizes the need for appropriate methods of settlement for private law disputes, the UN in fact does not provide a well-functioning system. The analysis shows that at all levels (national, international, and institutional) there are certain obstacles that private actors come across when trying to get a remedy from the UN. In this light, this article illustrates and substantiates the claim that there is a need to reform the existing dispute settlement system. In particular, it proposes the creation of an alternative mechanism – a two-step dispute settlement mechanism that will consist of negotiations between the UN and the individual actors at the first stage, and ad hoc arbitration as a default rule at the second stage. This mechanism is designed to ensure a fair and transparent system of dispute resolution and, therefore, to mitigate the current situation of injustice.

About the author: Egor Fedorov, LL.M, is an Expert on Public International Law, International and Comparative Law Research Center, Moscow, Russia.

Citation: Fedorov E. (2018) Srebrenitsa, Gaiti, chto dal’she? Budushchie sistemy razresheniya chastnopravovykh sporov po iskam protiv OON [Srebrenica, Haiti, what is next? The future of the dispute settlement for private law claims brought against the United Nations], Mezhdunarodnoe pravosudie, vol.8, no.4, pp.35–54. (In Russian).

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