By Matthew Russell Lee, Patreon Appeal
UN GATE, Aug 19 – How corrupt and unaccountable is today's United Nations? Now a UN Appeals Tribunal case has been docketed, so perhaps we'll see (below).
On August 19, 2025 the UN Dispute Tribunal ruled that Antonio Guterres' lawyer "Alhagi Marong violated his standard of conduct by making a false statement about the composition of the selection panel. Then, he attempted to hide the truth by redacting the names of the panel members from the report. If the Tribunal had accepted counsel’s statement as true, as it should have been able to do, and had not gone behind it to ascertain the truth, the outcome of this litigation would have been different." What is not different is the UN under Guterres - it is shot through with lies and lack of accountability, with the Press still banned.
In November 2020 Inner City Press went to attend and report on a UN Dispute Tribunal proceeding about a case of sexual harassment in the UN, a proceeding which was announced as open to the public, as US court cases are.
But when Inner City Press signed in and gave its name, it was excluded. Later, when it obtained and published evidenc presented in the case, a UN Dispute Tribunal judge ordered it to destroy the evidence or be banned from all future proceedings. Now the UN Appeals Tribunal has acknowledged receipt of the appeal:
Weicheng Lin via unitednations.onmicrosoft.com 9:39 AM Dear Mr. Lee, I acknowledge receipt of your filing. As you do not have access to the eFiling portal, we at the registry will upload your filing in the eFiling portal for you and will forward your filing to the parties for comment. Please refrain from communicating directly with the Judges of the Appeals Tribunal. Under Section I(E) of our Practice Direction, which is available on our website for your perusal, no party or representative may contact a Judge directly. All correspondence concerning an appeal must be directed to the Registry. Thank you for your attention, Weicheng Lin Registrar United Nations Appeals Tribunal
Inner City Press asked, " Is there a case number assigned?"
Response: "Weicheng Lin via unitednations.onmicrosoft.com 10:06 AM We will process your filing in the eFiling Portal and give it a case number."
And later on December 23:
" Case: UNAT/2020/1502 Dear Respondents, We received an Appeal of UNDT Orders 178 (NY/2020) and 179 (NY/2020) filed by Mr. Lee on 21 December 2020. Mr. Lee who is not a staff member nor a party to the case of the Applicant filed an appeal against these orders with the Appeals Tribunal. The Registrar accepted the submissions and instructed that they be transmitted to the parties in the UNDT proceedings, and the Secretary-General for comments within 30 days. Thank you and best regards. United Nations Appeals Tribunal Registry Room DC2-2409 New York, New York 10017" Game on.
This while UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres falsely claims to have zero tolerance for sexual harassment and abuse, while himself banning Inner City Press from UN briefings now for 904 days.
Inner City Press is even banned from submitting questions by WebEx, on which the International Monetary Fund for example answers its questions. The only difference is Guterres and his corruption.
On the morning of December 22 Inner City Press emailed him and his spokespeople this question: "After UNDT purported to order me to destroy evidence of sexual harassment by UN staff Padula, what now are the responses of SG Guterres to the UNAT appeal and statement that the UNDT purported to order me to destroy evidence of sexual harassment / abuse within the UN, of the type that the UNSG and his spokepeople refuse to answer about or allow Inner City Press into its briefings to ask, even by WebEx which the IMF, for example, answers Inner City Press' over. All of this should be reversed. This is a request that you acknowledge receipt and also provide a case number. Where is the response?"
No answer. On June 19, 2025 Inner City Press re-applied to re-enter. Two months later, no response from Melissa Fleming, Tal Mekel, Stephane Dujarric. Corrupt.
Back on December 21 Inner City Press filed a formal appeal with the UN Appeals Tribunal, full filing here on DocumentCloud
Watch this site.
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