UNITED NATIONS — U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon has refused to comply with numerous orders from a new U.N. personnel tribunal to hand over confidential documents and other sensitive information needed to resolve legal claims by U.N. employees of unfair treatment, according to court documents.
The dispute has set the stage for a power struggle between the secretary-general, trying to fend off court challenges to the authority of his office, and the tribunal’s judges, who say claimants can’t prove they have been wronged without access to internal documents or confidential witnesses.
More than 160 cases have moved through the tribunal, established last July. But challenges from the secretary-general’s office have posed an early test of the new system; so far, the tribunal has ruled 35 times against Ban, and his lawyers have filed 25 appeals. Ban has won 33 judgments.
