The ADBAT before the Human Rights Committee: Globalising Waite and Kennedy but Failing to Protect Judicial Independence Effectively

In its views adopted on 18 July 2024 that concerned the Administrative Tribunal of the Asian Development Bank, the United Nations (UN) Human Rights Committee adopted the rationale of the Waite and Kennedy decision of the European Court of Human Rights, a decision aiming at ensuring procedural guarantees within international organisations. This is an important step towards addressing rule of law and fair trial issues within international organisations. This article analyses the way in which the Committee takes up the Waite and Kennedy approach, globalising it as a general standard for international organisations. Yet the article also shows that the Committee failed to apply the relevant legal standard in an appropriate manner in the case at hand, in particular in relation to the principle of judicial independence. It concludes by discussing whether the approach taken by the Committee strikes a convincing balance between the benefits and risks of establishing procedural requirements in a transnational manner.