UN Told Inner City Press To
Destroy Evidence of UN Sex Abuse So Now OHRM
Complaint Filed
By Matthew
Russell Lee, Patreon Appeal
BBC
- Guardian
UK - Honduras
- ESPN
UN GATE, Jan 18 –
How corrupt and unaccountable
is today's United Nations?
Well, 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
evidence presented in the
case, a UN Dispute Tribunal
judge ordered it to destroy
the evidence or be banned from
all future proceedings.
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 924 days. Now on this
record he wants a second term,
another five years.
On
December 21 Inner City Press
filed a formal appeal with the
UN Appeals Tribunal, full
filing here
on DocumentCloud.
Now in
mid-January, a related
complaint has been filed
against UN Legal Officers Lucienne
Pierre
and Ms.
Isavella Maria
Vasilogeorgi:
"This
is a formal report of
‘unsatisfactory conduct’ as
defined in ST/AI/2017/1 para
3.1, addressed to you under
ST/AI/2017/1 para 2.1(a)(v) as
the head of department or
office of the subjects, who
are two Legal Officers:
1. Ms. Lucienne Pierre
and 2. Ms. Isavella
Maria Vasilogeorgi, both
of whom appeared as Counsel
for the Respondent in the UNDT
case of Padula -v-
Secretary-General
(UNDT/NY/2019/047) and were
online, in that role, at a
hearing in that case on 3
November 2020. Mr. Omar
Shehabi (a Legal Officer in
the Office of Staff Legal
Assistance ) appeared as
Counsel for the Applicant
there, and negligently
compromised information the
Tribunal considers
confidential, resulting in
screenshots of those documents
being taken and subsequently
published by Mr. Matthew Lee
on InnerCityPress. In
UNDT Order No. 179 (NY/2020),
Judge Adda held Mr. Lee
accountable for failing to
abide by an instruction that
she did not know had ever been
communicated to him. If
that Order was motivated by a
genuine concern for the
integrity of the proceedings
(and not just to further
punish Mr. Lee for reporting
the extent of corruption and
mismanagement in the U.N.)...
Given that fact, I would draw
your attention to references
in the attached statement to
the arguments put forward by
their colleagues, Mr. Romy
Batrouni and Ms. Miryoung An
in the case of ASSlicaQW
(UNDT/NBI/2020/058), where the
driver of a U.N. vehicle was
sufficiently guilty of
misconduct under ST/AI/2017/1
para 3.6 .. I am assured
that both Ms. Pierre and Ms.
Vasilogeorgi have adequate
eyesight and adequate hearing.
They could have prevented this
confidential information being
shown to the general public
but clearly failed to do
so. I appreciate, of
course, that it may be your
considered opinion that the
unidentified U.N. staff member
who shared those images with
Mr. Lee did NOT engage in
misconduct by so doing, so no
one else can be guilt of
aiding and abetting them.
Given the unseemly rush to
judgment against Mr. Lee, that
would be an interesting
argument and I would be
interested to hear our views
on the matter. As things
stand, Mr. Lee ALONE has been
penalized for the collective
failures of the various
professional staff involved in
that case, which is
fundamentally unjust, to say
nothing of being suspicious.
As such, I do not believe
there is any good reason why
he should not be made aware of
this complaint against Ms.
Pierre and Ms. Vasilogeorgi,"
By, Peter A Gallo, cc: Matthew
Russell Lee.
The formal appeal
was prefaced by this:
"While I have
conferred with UN
practitioners on that
attached, I would like to add
that as a US journalist I find
it particularly outrageous
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."
And still,
nothing from the corrupt UN of
Antonio Guterres. #No2dTerm
#DumpGuterres
We will have
more, including listing those
who have received the filing
without response, complicit in
the UN's cover up of abuse.
Watch this site.
***
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