WHO Compendium of misconduct matters

Overview

In support of the WHO Human Resources Strategy¹ cross-cutting principle of “Accountability” and its Pillar III on “An enabling working environment”, which includes a “Respectful and ethical work environment”, the Department of Human Resources and Talent Management (HRT) publishes the compendium of misconduct matters.²

The compendium contains anonymized summaries of cases where one or a combination of disciplinary or administrative measures were imposed by the respective authority or would have been warranted, had the staff member or affiliate personnel remained in service with the Organization. The compendium covers the period from December 2011 onwards and is updated quarterly. The compendium lists the major office, the type of misconduct, a short description of the misconduct and the disciplinary and/or administrative measure imposed or warranted had the staff member or affiliate personal remained in service. Conduct issues of staff members that were dealt with by means other than disciplinary measures are not listed in the compendium. Misconduct committed by affiliate personnel³ has been included to the compendium as from second quarter 2023. Due regard has been given to confidentiality requirements and the protection of the privacy of individuals concerned.

The cases have been categorized into the following types of misconduct:

• abusive conduct
• abuse of authority
• assault against a colleague (physical and/or verbal)
• discrimination
• false and malicious complaint
• fraud (misrepresentation, theft, misappropriation, false certification)
• fraud (SHI)
• fraud (Procurement)
• gross negligence
• harassment
• selection irregularity
• failure to comply with private legal obligations
• procurement irregularity (no financial profit)
• retaliation
• sexual harassment⁴
• sexual exploitation and abuse⁵
• sexual misconduct (sexual harassment, sexual exploitation and/or sexual abuse)
• unauthorized outside activities
• violation of standard of conduct
• other.

Once downloaded, the Excel document allows users to sort data by period, major office, type of misconduct, short description of the misconduct, disciplinary and administrative measure imposed or warranted had the staff member or affiliate personnel remained in service.

Learn more: misconduct

¹ EB134/INF./2

² Excluding PAHO.

³ All individuals who are engaged through contractual arrangements other than staff appointments under Staff Rule 420. This includes, but is not limited to, temporary advisers, consultants, special services agreement (SSA) holders, interns, individuals on loan to WHO, UN volunteers (UNV), junior professional officers (JPO), stand-by deployees, contractors under an Agreement for Performance of Work (APW), and third-party entities such as grantees, and technical partners.

⁴ The definition of the term changed with the entry into force of the Policy on Preventing and Addressing Sexual Misconduct (PASM) (8 March 2023).

⁵ Ibid.