GENEVA, September 2, 2026 — Ahead of the United Nations’ planned “Durban 25” commemoration on September 28, UN Watch and NGO Monitor today published a video panel of experts examining how the notorious 2001 World Conference Against Racism became a global forum for antisemitism and the demonization of Israel.

The event brought together leading figures who witnessed and confronted the Durban conference and its aftermath: former Canadian justice minister and attorney general Prof. Irwin Cotler; former UN Watch chair David Harris, now Executive Vice Chair of ISGAP; Yad Vashem chief historian Prof. Dina Porat; NGO Monitor President Prof. Gerald Steinberg; and UN Watch Executive Director Hillel Neuer.

The speakers warned that Durban’s legacy continues to shape the systematic targeting of Israel at the United Nations and in international civil society.

“What happened at Durban was truly Orwellian,” said Cotler. “That was a tipping point for the laundering of antisemitism at the UN. What emerged from Durban was the metastasized, newly legalized antisemitism under the cover of the UN.”

“This singling out of Israel has continued to metastasize since,” he added. “Durban is the ‘Mein Kampf’ of today.”

Harris recalled with pride the Sept. 3, 2001 decision by U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell to withdraw the American delegation from the conference:

Today I have instructed our representatives at the World Conference Against Racism to return home. I have taken this decision with regret, because of the importance of the international fight against racism and the contribution that the Conference could have made to it… I know that you do not combat racism by conferences that produce declarations containing hateful language, some of which is a throwback to the days of “Zionism equals racism;” or supports the idea that we have made too much of the Holocaust; or suggests that apartheid exists in Israel; or that singles out only one country in the world—Israel—for censure and abuse.

Harris explained how the Durban campaign refined the strategy behind the UN’s infamous 1975 “Zionism is racism” resolution.

“Whereas the 1975 effort on Resolution 3379 was a Soviet-Arab concoction, 2001 and thereafter was much more sophisticated: wrapping its agenda in a mantle of political progressivism, of the language of human rights,” said Harris. “The basic strategies and tactics employed then in Durban, and honed in the months leading up to Durban, continue until today with the BDS movement.”

Porat, who attended Durban as a member of the Israeli delegation, described how a conference that was supposed to confront racism abruptly turned against Israel and the Jewish people.

She recalled asking a senior European delegate how this had happened. His answer, Porat said, was startlingly candid: former colonial powers feared demands for compensation from countries they had once ruled, and therefore found a convenient diversion.

“‘The simple solution to this problem was to pick on Israel and the Jews,’” Porat recalled him saying. “He said it so simply and so openly that he left me speechless. That was a blunt and exact explanation of what happened at the Durban Conference.”

Steinberg reviewed the 25-year history of the Durban process and its role in enabling nongovernmental organizations to promote campaigns accusing Israel of racism, apartheid and other international crimes.

Neuer traced Durban’s ideological origins to the UN General Assembly’s 1975 “Zionism is racism” resolution, which he described as the institutional launch of the campaign to portray the Jewish state as inherently illegitimate and racist.

“The UN should be apologizing for Durban—not celebrating it,” said Neuer. “Unless the September 28 meeting unequivocally repudiates the antisemitism that engulfed the 2001 conference and renounces the discriminatory elements of the Durban Declaration that single out Israel, every democracy should refuse to participate.”

The 2001 conference in Durban, South Africa, descended into scenes of open antisemitism. Jewish participants were harassed, antisemitic literature was distributed, and the parallel NGO Forum adopted a declaration branding Israel a “racist, apartheid state” and calling for its international isolation.

In 2021, following a campaign led by UN Watch, 38 democracies refused to participate in the UN’s Durban IV anniversary event.

UN Watch has launched a petition and is now calling on those governments—and other democracies—to withdraw from the September 28, 2026 commemoration.

Watch the full panel on Durban 25

About UN Watch

UN Watch is a Geneva-based non-governmental organization dedicated to holding the United Nations accountable to the principles of its Charter and promoting human rights for all.

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As the 25th anniversary of the World Conference Against Racism is set to take center stage at the United Nations this month, former Canadian Minister of Justice Irwin Cotler outlines the historical trajectory and lasting global impact of the 2001 Durban conference.

“I can still hear the chants at Durban… the struggle against apartheid requires a dismantling of Israel.”

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Ahead of the UN General Assembly’s planned “Durban 25” celebration on September 28, UN Watch and NGO Monitor hosted a special event to remember the notorious hatefest that was the 2001 UN World Conference Against Racism, in Durban, South Africa.

NGO Monitor President Prof. Gerald Steinberg addressed the 25-year history since the Durban conference.

UN Watch Executive Director Hillel Neuer discussed the UN’s 1975 “Zionism is racism” resolution and the institutional launch of Israel’s demonization as a “racist” state.

David Harris, Executive Vice Chair of ISGAP and former Chair of UN Watch, detailed U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell’s decision to withdraw the United States from the conference.

Prof. Dina Porat, chief historian at Yad Vashem, recounted the hostility faced by the Israeli delegation and the NGO Forum’s refusal to acknowledge antisemitism.

Prof. Irwin Cotler analyzed how Durban weaponized human rights language to launder institutional antisemitism under the protective cover of the UN.

Irwin Cotler: “This was going to be the first international human rights conference where anti-racism was going to be the theme. What happened at Durban was truly Orwellian. That was a tipping point for the laundering of antisemitism at the UN. What emerged from Durban was the metastasized, newly legalized antisemitism under the cover of the UN. This singling out of Israel has continued to metastasize since. Durban is the Mein Kampf of today.”

David Harris: “Whereas the 1975 effort on Resolution 3379 (“Zionism is Racism”) was a Soviet-Arab concoction, 2001 and thereafter was much more sophisticated: wrapping its agenda in a mantle of political progressivism, of the language of human right. The basic strategies and tactics employed then in Durban, and honed in the months leading up to Durban, continuing until today with the BDS movement.”

Dina Porat: “I was a member of the Israeli delegation to Durban. Instead of dealing with the burning problem of genuinely confronting racism, which was increasing in Europe after the waves of immigration, Israel and the Jewish people were put on the table. So I went up to the Belgian representative, who was chairing the sessions, and said: ‘Could you tell me what is going on? How did it, with a snap of a finger, turn against us?’

He took me aside, as though explaining something so obvious. He said: ‘Listen, most of the countries that have delegations representing them — from South America, Africa and the Far East, mainly those that were under colonial rule — see racism very differently. They don’t see the problems that we see in Europe today or in North America. They remember, and cannot forget, what happened during colonial times. And what they want to use the conference for is to obtain compensation for what they suffered under colonial rule.’

‘Just imagine,’ he told me, ‘what would happen if Spain had to compensate so many countries in South America, Portugal had to compensate Brazil, and we Belgians had to compensate the Congo. We all know what Belgium robbed from the Congo.’

‘So I tell you frankly: The simple solution to this problem was to pick on Israel and the Jews.’

He said it so simply and so openly that he left me speechless. That was a blunt and exact explanation of what happened at the Durban Conference.”

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The remark follows last week’s Financial Times interview in which outgoing Secretary-General António Guterres admitted “we have many [rapporteurs] that are totally out of control, from the point of view of the Secretariat.”

Guterres had previously described Albanese privately as a “horrible person,” according to former U.S. antisemitism envoy Deborah Lipstadt. His spokesman has also said the Secretariat “doesn’t agree with much of what she says.”

Albanese responded by claiming the Secretary-General “never meant what the pro-Apartheid scavengers spread” and accusing critics of being “genocide enablers.”

UN Watch Executive Director Hillel Neuer noted that Albanese herself has said she has “never heard from” Guterres, making her poorly placed to interpret his words.

“Albanese has functioned as Hamas’s de facto spokesperson at the UN. Many leading democracies have condemned her for Holocaust inversion and other ethical violations, making her the first UN human rights official in history to be so denounced. The United States sanctioned her. Guterres called her a horrible person in private. Now Ambassador Waltz confirms what senior UN officials have been saying all along,” said Neuer.

“Albanese has functioned as Hamas’s de facto spokesperson at the UN,” said Neuer. “Iran’s regime and its terrorist proxies routinely praise her. But numerous democracies have called for her removal, condemning her for Holocaust inversion and other ethical violations, making her the first UN human rights official in history to be so denounced.”

“The United States sanctioned her. Guterres called her a horrible person in private. Now Ambassador Waltz confirms it: senior UN officials knew she was out of control. A human rights system that cannot remove its most notorious antisemite is not independent. It is broken,” said Neuer.

UN Watch reiterated its call for Albanese’s immediate removal, and for real accountability mechanisms before Guterres leaves office in December.

The post U.S. Envoy: U.N. Officials Knew Albanese Was ‘Out of Control’ appeared first on UN Watch.

UN Chief Guterres Admits Special Rapporteurs Are “Totally Out of Control” – After Privately Calling Francesca Albanese a “Horrible Person”

GENEVA, August 27, 2026 — In a Financial Times interview, United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres responded to charges of institutional anti-Israel bias at the world body by conceding that many of its independent special rapporteurs “are totally out of control.”

Asked about Israel’s argument that the UN as an institution is biased against it, Guterres replied: “There are different entities in the U.N. and I cannot respond for the U.N. in its entirety because there are many entities in the U.N. that are independent. We have independent rapporteurs and we have many that are totally out of control, from the point of view of the Secretariat.”

The admission comes after Guterres privately described UN Special Rapporteur Francesca Albanese as a “horrible person” – twice, according to then-U.S. Special Envoy on Antisemitism Deborah Lipstadt. Lipstadt revealed that Guterres made the remarks to her during a conversation at the 2024 Munich Security Conference after she raised U.S. concerns about Albanese’s record.

Albanese, appointed by the UN Human Rights Council in 2022, has drawn widespread condemnation from the United States, France, Germany, Canada, Italy, and others for antisemitic rhetoric, comparisons of Israel and its leaders to Nazis, denial of Israel’s right of self-defense, and other statements that violate the UN Code of Conduct for special rapporteurs.

Despite the private criticism and public distancing by Guterres’ office earlier this year – when his spokesperson stated that the Secretariat “doesn’t agree with much of what she says, and wouldn’t use the language that she uses” – the Secretary-General has never publicly denounced her or called for her removal.

Guterres’ own words now effectively corroborate the findings of UN Watch’s 104-page investigation From Watchdogs to Ideologues, released on  May 26, 2026. That report examined 13 of the UN Human Rights Council’s 59 Special Rapporteurs – more than a fifth of the system – and documented a systemic pattern of ideological bias, financial conflicts of interest with authoritarian regimes, and conduct that would end careers in any other institution.

Among the cases detailed: Alena Douhan received $1.3 million from China, Russia and Qatar while defending those regimes; Ben Saul took $150,000 from China while remaining silent on the Uyghur persecution; Tlaleng Mofokeng declared “Hamas are not terrorists”; and others systematically attacked democracies while shielding dictatorships. The report found no meaningful mechanism to remove or discipline such mandate-holders. Three months later, the Secretary-General himself has confirmed that many of these rapporteurs are “totally out of control.”

“Guterres’ interview is a rare moment of candor,” said Hillel Neuer, Executive Director of UN Watch. “For years the UN has described its special rapporteurs as the ‘crown jewels‘ of the UN human rights system. Now the Secretary-General himself admits many of them are ‘totally out of control.’ The most egregious example is Francesca Albanese, whom he privately called a ‘horrible person’ yet refused to rein in. This is not about independent experts but rather it is institutional failure — which fuels antisemitism and undermines the credibility of the entire United Nations human rights system.”

UN Watch has repeatedly documented how the special procedures system has been captured by ideologues who systematically single out Israel while ignoring far worse abuses by dictatorships. The organization has called for fundamental reform, including greater accountability, transparent funding rules, and mechanisms to remove mandate-holders who breach the Code of Conduct.

Guterres’ term ends in December 2026. UN Watch urges member states and his successor to treat the Secretary-General’s own words as a mandate for urgent change: special rapporteurs who are “totally out of control” cannot continue to speak in the name of the United Nations.

BREAKING: Secretary-General admits anti-Israel bias among UN's human rights experts, saying “many rapporteurs are totally out of control.”

António Guterres previously called UN rapporteur Francesca Albanese “a horrible woman.” pic.twitter.com/ozaPx8ncH3

— UN Watch (@UNWatch) August 26, 2026

The post UN Chief Guterres Admits Special Rapporteurs Are “Totally Out of Control” — After Privately Calling Francesca Albanese a “Horrible Person” appeared first on UN Watch.

In a response on X to a featured post by UN Watch Executive Director Hillel Neuer, Albanese wrote: “Calling me Hamas Spokesperson is outright defamation, something one might expect from a decent platform that breaks its own rules, but perhaps not from Twitter’s current patron. Am I right, @Twitter?”

Rather than address the extensive public record of her statements and conduct, Albanese is effectively calling on Elon Musk, the owner of X, to censor criticism of her pro-Hamas actions and statements.

Neuer replied directly: “Please sue me, Ms. Albanese. As you are a non-lawyer, let me explain: Truth is an absolute defense. I repeat: You are Hamas’s de facto spokesperson at the UN. I would love to put your record before a court. Of course, to sue me, you’d have to admit you know exactly who I am.”

In anticipation of such a court case, Neuer posted a series of evidentiary “exhibits,” including:

• Albanese’s own statements minimizing and “putting in context” Hamas’s October 7 massacre while it was underway, blaming Israeli “aggression.”
• Her repeated justification and praise of Hamas as a political force that “built schools, public facilities, hospitals” and her claim that eliminating Hamas is part of a “genocidal logic.”
• Multiple instances of senior Hamas officials publicly praising and thanking Albanese for her UN reports and speeches, along with calls to boycott the “rogue Zionist entity.”

Neuer said:

“Francesca Albanese cannot refute the facts of her record, so she resorts to crying ‘outright defamation’ and trying to get X to censor the truth on her behalf. This is the classic tactic of those who abuse the language of human rights while whitewashing terrorists.”

“For years we have documented that Albanese functions as Hamas’s de facto spokesperson at the United Nations. She has repeatedly inverted the Holocaust, invoked classic antisemitic tropes about Jewish power and the ‘Jewish lobby,’ justified or “contextualized” the October 7 massacre, and received open praise from Hamas leaders. Multiple democratic governments—including the United States, France, Germany, and Canada—have condemned her for antisemitism and Holocaust inversion. She is the first UN expert in history to receive such rebukes from these countries.”

“Truth is an absolute defense. If Albanese believes she has been defamed, she should sue me. I invite her to put her full record before a court of law. Discovery would expose many of her private antisemitic emails and Whatsapp messages that are well known among UN insiders. Until then, her demand that Elon Musk, as the owner of the X platform, should silence accurate criticism only underscores how far she has fallen from any pretense of impartiality or integrity.”

UN Watch has long tracked Albanese’s pattern of conduct, including her appearances before audiences linked to Hamas, her refusal to condemn Palestinian terrorism while systematically demonizing Israel, and her violations of the UN Code of Conduct for Special Procedures Mandate Holders. The organization has repeatedly called for her removal and documented that her purported term renewal was carried out in violation of UN rules.

The post Francesca Albanese Cries “Defamation,” Demands Elon Musk Censor Hillel Neuer For Calling Her “Hamas’s De Facto Spokesperson” appeared first on UN Watch.

At a UN memorial ceremony on June 8, 2026, both officials helped light an eternal flame honoring fallen UN personnel, with El Samhouri’s name read aloud before them.

According to a Hamas martyr video, El Samhouri served as a field commander in the Muhammad al-Shamali Battalion of Hamas’s Al-Qassam Brigades. The footage shows him emerging from terrorist tunnels and declaring that jihad was his chosen path:

El Samhour’s publicly available social-media record also documented close ties to Hamas officials, glorification of terrorism, and the use of UNRWA schools to host Hamas figures and steer students toward Hamas-linked organizations.

In the open letter below, Neuer demands an independent investigation into how a Hamas commander was permitted to run UNRWA schools for more than a decade—and who within the agency knew or should have known. He also calls on Guterres and Baerbock to apologize to Hamas’s victims, disclose all UNRWA employees found to have terrorist ties, and hold accountable the supervisors and senior officials responsible.

Meet Imad Yousif El Samhouri, veteran UNRWA teacher and school principal.

L: Samhouri honored by UN chief Antonio Guterres
R: Samhouri in Hamas terrorist martyr video

Samhouri’s terror ties were known. 🧵⬇️

Why are 🇫🇷🇩🇪🇬🇧🇳🇴🇳🇱🇨🇭🇮🇹🇨🇦 funding terrorists to teach Palestinian kids? pic.twitter.com/7e4WmR3rfQ

— Hillel Neuer (@HillelNeuer) August 13, 2026

Open Letter to Secretary-General Antonio Guterres and UNGA President Annalena Baerbock from Hillel Neuer

Dear Secretary-General Antonio Guterres,
Dear UNGA President Annalena Baerbock,

Will you apologize for lighting a flame at a recent UN ceremony to honor a Hamas terrorist commander before the world?

Will you finally acknowledge that UNRWA is simply unwilling or unable to root out the terrorists who have taken over its schools?

On June 8, 2026, on the one-year anniversary of UNRWA teacher Imad El Samhouri’s death, you lit an eternal flame to “pay tribute” to his memory and that of other UN “family members.”

(His name was read out in front of both of you, at 27:45 in this video, as seen here.)

But El Samhouri was not only a teacher and principal in multiple UNRWA schools. He was a military commander in the Hamas terrorist organization, seen with grenades, machine guns, and coming in and out of terror tunnels.

When wearing his UNRWA educator uniform, your colleague brought Hamas officials into UNRWA schools to address students and preside at ceremonies. He used your schools to scout and recruit “talent” for Hamas-linked clubs.

A quick glance at your colleague’s social media—photos of him with Hamas officials, posts glorifying the kidnapping and murder of Jews—shows that he was hiding in plain sight. UNRWA officials and colleagues knew.

According to a recently-published martyr video, Hamas confirmed that the UN colleague whom you honored—as “fallen in the line of duty”—held the rank of Hamas Field Commander in the Muhammad al-Shamali Battalion of the Al-Qassam Rafah Brigade.

The UNRWA teacher and school principal whom you honored is seen in the video declaring that “Death in the cause of Allah is our highest aspiration.”

Excellencies, is this not the complete antithesis of the values of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, which enshrines the right to life?

The person who served as a UN teacher and principal at multiple Gaza schools for over a decade said, “We have chosen Jihad as our path.”

Excellencies, is this not a betrayal of the United Nations Charter, whose preamble calls on us to “practice tolerance and live together in peace”?

The UNRWA teacher for whom you lit the eternal flame says, “Praise be to Allah [for] the tunnels… the Zionist enemy never imagines we will emerge from beneath the ground, the rubble.”

Excellencies, how many UNRWA teachers must emerge from Hamas tunnels before you admit that the terrorists are not merely beneath UNRWA’s schools, but actually inside them?

Excellencies, if an UNRWA children’s school principal emerging from Hamas tunnels does not compel you to confront the agency’s terrorist infiltration, what possibly will?

Secretary-General Guterres, I must remind you: not only did you honor this UNRWA teacher with the eternal flame, but you said that it was “the privilege of my life” to work alongside people like him; that you “commit to carrying forward their work”; that people like El Samhouri “made our world a better place.”

Now that the man you praised has been exposed as a Hamas field commander, do you stand by those words? Is Imad El Samhouri’s work—the jihad, the terror tunnels, the indoctrination of children—the work you intend to carry forward?

Will you retract your tribute, apologize to the victims of Hamas, and order an independent investigation into how a terrorist commander was allowed to run UNRWA schools for more than a decade?

Mr. Secretary-General, will you hold to account—including by supporting criminal prosecutions on charges of material support for terrorism—all of the complicit UNRWA colleagues, supervisors, and high officials including Philippe Lazzarini?

President Baerbock, this is also a question for you. During the years you served as Germany’s foreign minister, your government provided UNRWA with €570 million ($620 million). Germany was one of the agency’s largest donors.

Madam President, after committing nearly €570 million of German taxpayer money to UNRWA, how did you fail to discover that one of its longtime school principals—working as part of a network of more than 400 other UNRWA staff—was openly involved with Hamas?

In our UN Watch reports, we warned your government multiple times.

Why did you resume funding UNRWA before demanding genuine accountability for its terrorist infiltration?

Will you now acknowledge that Germany’s assurances about UNRWA oversight were catastrophically wrong?

Will you apologize for joining in the tribute to the Hamas commander your government helped employ?

Excellencies, please be aware that we will be writing to the foreign ministers of all UNRWA donors—including the European Union (which gave UNRWA $134 million last year) Germany ($119M), Spain ($38M), Norway ($38M), France ($31M), Ireland ($21M), Denmark ($21M), Swiss ($17M), Netherlands ($16M), Luxembourg ($16M), Belgium ($13M)—to urge their government to stop funding Hamas terrorists as UNRWA teachers and school principals who teach hate and jihad to Palestinian children.

We urge you to retract the tribute to Imad El Samhouri, apologize to the victims of Hamas, commission a genuinely independent investigation, and disclose the identities of every UNRWA employee found to have terrorist ties, as well as every supervisor and senior official who knew or should have known.

There can be no immunity, impunity, or eternal flame for terrorists who infiltrate the United Nations.

Sincerely,
Hillel C. Neuer
United Nations Watch
Geneva, Switzerland

Dear Secretary-General @antonioguterres,
Dear President Annalena Baerbock @UN_PGA,

Will you apologize for lighting a flame at a recent UN ceremony to honor a Hamas terrorist commander before the world?

Will you finally acknowledge that UNRWA is simply unwilling or unable to… https://t.co/A23p3LTxjN pic.twitter.com/lGEf3ShdBD

— Hillel Neuer (@HillelNeuer) August 14, 2026

Transcript of El Samhouri’s Hamas martyr video:

[Song] O free men marching toward Jerusalem, Who is like you, O people of sacrifice? O procession of the pure, O martyrs from among our noble people. With love and greetings Heroes of the Flood.

Samhouri: “This is the roadmap to liberation and glorious victory we trace it with our blood and chart it with steadfast resistance.

A morning’s or evening’s journey in the cause of Allah is better than this world and all it contains. The call to arms has resounded in the hearts of the faithful and they have answered the call. Allah is the Greatest. Here I am for you, O Holy City. Here I am, O site of the Messenger of Allah’s Night Journey.

Here I am for you, O beloved Palestine. The suns of my beloved have set; they dismounted and departed. We press on in our jihad, our hearts yearning for Al-Quds Al-Sharif, our eyes fixed on our heroic prisoners, and the plight of the refugees alive in our hearts.

We have chosen jihad as our path; our anthem is that Death in the cause of Allah is our highest aspiration, and our resolve will not waver, no matter how long the road or how great the sacrifices. Our grief is deep—so be patient.

They were here; we were together, but they have departed from this place. Praise be to Allah, Lord of the Worlds who has honored us with the tunnels and made them a means of resistance a means by which the Zionist enemy never imagines we will emerge from beneath the ground, from beneath the rubble, from between the demolished homes.

With my heart, my soul, and my conscience, my brothers, I weep for you. I see you, layer upon layer, O our refuge.

Companions on Allah’s path in this life you are our pride this life is our pride. My family and my brothers, by Allah, I love you with a love known only to Allah; but this is the call the call to jihad, which the prophets the righteous, and the martyrs answered and they charted the path for us with their blood.

In conclusion, I bear witness I bear witness before Allah the Exalted and Glorious that I have forgiven everyone who has wronged me even with a single word. My brothers, this will was written on Tuesday, December 11, 2007.

This was not my first will— it may be my second or third in 2007 at 4:25 p.m. And as you depart, my heart, once desolate is now satisfied. Your brother, a living martyr, Allah willing: Abu Yusuf, Imad Yusuf al-Samhouri.

The suns of my beloved have set; they dismounted and departed. And my heart, once desolate, has now found solace.”

6/ Evidence from Samhouri's network confirms that UNRWA became a subsidiary of Hamas.

Muhammad Al-Bardawil headed UNRWA's Rafah Prep School B for Boys. His deputy Samhouri was a Hamas Commander.

They repeatedly brought Hamas terrorists into the school: https://t.co/4l5HVZzVq0 pic.twitter.com/lJkTDuIEaZ

— Hillel Neuer (@HillelNeuer) August 13, 2026

The post UN Leaders Lit an Eternal Flame for a Hamas Commander appeared first on UN Watch.

Letter urges Guterres to denounce Tlaleng Mofokeng’s mayoral candidacy while still holding her UN mandate, and to reject immunity for personal social-media abuse

GENEVA, July 27, 2026 — UN Watch today filed a formal complaint with United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres over what it described as “grave violations and serious misconduct” by Dr. Tlaleng Mofokeng, the UN Special Rapporteur on the right to health.

The post UN Watch Files Complaint Against UN Health Rapporteur Over Partisan Candidacy and Misuse of UN Immunity appeared first on UN Watch.

As written in the official letter to Secretary Rubio and U.S. Ambassador Mike Waltz, “the Administration established an important precedent when it sanctioned Francesca Albanese. This principle should now be applied to other Special Rapporteurs as appropriate.”

The letter directly cites UN Watch’s recent report, From Watchdogs to Ideologues, which exposed a pattern of ideological bias and financial conflicts of interest by so-called UN human rights experts.

One of the UN officials named in the letter is Reem Alsalem, the special rapporteur on violence against women who has repeatedly denied the Hamas atrocities against Israeli women. Last month, the world witnessed Alsalem smirk at the heartbreaking testimony of Hamas sexual violence survivor Ilana Gritzewsky. Now she’s under U.S. scrutiny.

The four other UN experts listed have also come under scrutiny by UN Watch:

• Ben Saul, the UN counterterrorism expert, who has denounced the U.S. killing of a senior Al-Qaeda leader as “unlawful.” As exposed by UN Watch, his office received $150,000 from China.

• Tlaleng Mofokeng, the outgoing UN expert on health, who has stated that “Hamas are not terrorists” while endorsing “the legitimacy of armed struggle.”

• George Katrougalos, the chair the UN committee overseeing all human rights experts, who has embraced the Islamic Republic of Iran and praised Xi Jinping at an event after accepting $100,000 from China.

• Ashwini K.P., the special rapporteur on racism, who devoted one of her annual visits to investigate the United States to accuse it of “systemic racism” and “settler-colonialism.”

In a hearing of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, Congressman Wilson raised the issue directly with Ambassador Waltz and formally entered his letter into the record without objection.

BREAKING: Five pro-Hamas UN rapporteurs face potential sanctions after @RepJoeWilson entered into the record of today's Congressional Hearing his letter to @SecRubio calling for an investigation into abuses by Reem Alsalem @UNSRVAW, @profbensaul, @drtlaleng, @gkatr & @AshwiniKP_. https://t.co/ZS0nZdJz8q pic.twitter.com/Uuv9ZrBBhN

— UN Watch (@UNWatch) July 22, 2026

View the Letter to Secretary Rubio Here

The Honorable Marco Rubio
United States Secretary of State
Department of State
2201 C Steet NW
Washington D.C. 20520

The Honorable Mike Waltz
Representative to the United Nations
U.S. Mission to the UN
799 United Nations Plaza
New York, NY 10017

Dear Secretary Rubio and Ambassador Waltz, 

I write to urge the Administration to take action regarding additional United Nations Special Rapporteurs by conducting a review to examine whether any should be sanctioned for abusing their UN mandates to advance campaigns that target the United States and its allies. 

Malign conduct by numerous of these UN Human Rights Council appointees, known collectively as “UN human rights experts” or “the Special Procedures,” was exposed in the recent report by UN Watch, From Watchdogs to Ideologues. Among other alarming findings, the report documents how these UN mandate-holders have been promoting an extremist ideology, including an anti-American, anti-Western, and anti-Israel political agenda, subverting the human rights they are pledged to protect. 

The report also raises serious concerns that many of these UN experts have accepted significant funding from U.S. adversaries, including China and Russia, while using the authority and credibility of the UN system to attack American policy, undermine the national security of the United States and Israel, and deflect scrutiny from authoritarian regimes. 

Last year, the Administration established an important precedent when, pursuant to Executive Order 14203 signed by President Trump on February 6, 2025, it sanctioned Francesca Albanese. UN affiliation can no longer shield individuals from accountability when they misuse their positions to harm the United States and our allies. This principle should now be applied to other Special Rapporteurs as appropriate. 

Among those that warrant review: 

• Ben Saul, the Special Rapporteur on Human Rights While Countering Terrorism, has repeatedly used his mandate to undermine U.S. counterterrorism policy. He has repeatedly called for the arrest of President Trump and Secretary Hegseth for “mass murder.” Saul has denounced the U.S. killing of a senior Al-Qaeda leader as “unlawful.” He deemed the U.S. drone strike on Qasem Soleimani illegal. He criticized America’s designation of the Houthis as a Foreign Terrorist Organization. He defended the PFLP-linked Addameer despite U.S. sanctions on the group. Speaking at the UN Human Rights Council in March, Saul accused the U.S. of “naked aggression and renewed imperialism against Iran and Venezuela,” while he simultaneously praised Somalia as a “responsible state” that “is committed to strengthening human rights.” Saul’s office received $150,000 in funding from the Chinese government, after which he failed to issue any statements on China’s persecution of the Uyghurs, an issue falling squarely under his mandate.
• Tlaleng Mofokeng, the Special Rapporteur on the Right to Health, has demonstrated a pattern of anti-American hostility and ideological extremism, including by labeling President Trump a “fascist,” endorsing claims that the U.S. is “occupying” Haiti, and branding American foreign aid as “neocolonialism.”’ While frequently accusing Israel of “genocide,” Mofokeng has stated that “Hamas are not terrorists,” and endorsed “the legitimacy of armed struggle.” Her first response after the October 7th massacre was to justify the violence by Hamas, writing that “you cannot extinguish the human desire for freedom.” Mofokeng has repeatedly turned a blind eye to abuses by the world’s worst abusers of human rights. For example, she has never condemned Cuba’s horrendous state-sponsored health system, and its notorious practice of sending doctors to work abroad to profit the regime, all of which has inflicted great harm upon its population. On the contrary, Mofokeng venerated Cuba’s Che Guevara, amplifying his claim that the United States is “the perpetrator of exploitation and oppression against the peoples of the world,” and affectionately referring to him as “Grandfather.”
• Reem Alsalem, the Special Rapporteur on Violence Against Women, has used her mandate to repeatedly dismiss or minimize Hamas’s atrocities on October 7th. In November 2025, Alsalem asserted that “No independent investigation found that rape took place on October 7,” despite a 2024 UN report documenting the crime. In April 2026, she doubled down on denying that Hamas committed rape on October 7th — calling it “misinformation” to “justify the genocide against Palestinians.” At the same time, Alsalem declared that even the gravest terms in human rights discourse — “genocide,” “Holocaust,” “war crime,” and “forced starvation” — are inadequate to capture the “sheer depravity and heinousness” of Israel’s actions.
• George Katrougalos, the Independent Expert on Democratic and Equitable International Order, uses his UN mandate to question whether democracy is a “universal value and the only legitimate form of government.” Katrougalos has repeatedly supported authoritarian regimes. In November 2025, he traveled to Tehran to meet with Deputy Foreign Minister Kazem Gharibabadi, lamenting purported American and Israeli “crimes” against the Iranian regime. In January 2025, he met with the Cuban dictatorship’s Miguel Diaz-Canel before condemning the U.S. for re-designating Cuba as a state sponsor of terrorism. In June 2025, Katrougalos praised Chinese dictator Xi Jinping’s “vision of openness and dialogue” — in the same year that his office received $100,000 from the Chinese government. There has been no accounting or transparency on how he used the Chinese funds.
• Ashwini K.P., the Special Rapporteur on Racism, decided to devote one of her annual visits to investigate the United States, resulting in a scathing report that accused the U.S. of “systemic racism” and “white supremacy” rooted in “settler-colonialism” and the “slave trade.” Ashwini’s report sought to undermine U.S. immigration enforcement, likening it to “chattel slavery,” while condemning the U.S. for “aggressively externalizing and militarizing its borders.”

The record demonstrates that this is not a matter of isolated misconduct. Rather, it reflects a broader pattern in which UN mandate holders have exploited the credibility and authority of their offices to advance extremist ideologies and political agendas completely at odds with the principles of impartiality, universality, and independence that are meant to define the UN human rights system. 

Moreover, as recently documented by UN Watch, each of the mandate holders identified above has engaged in conduct substantially similar to that which led to the designation of Francesca Albanese under Executive Order 14203, including active cooperation with, support for, and advocacy on behalf of efforts by the International Criminal Court to investigate, prosecute, and secure arrest warrants against Israeli officials. They have signed submissions urging the ICC to expedite arrest warrants against Israeli leaders, called for additional ICC investigations, publicly defended the Court’s arrest warrants against Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and former Defense Minister Yoav Gallant, urged states to cooperate with and enforce those warrants, and opposed U.S. measures designed to protect American and allied interests from politically motivated ICC action. 

Accordingly, we urge the Administration to conduct a comprehensive review of these individuals and to consider all appropriate measures available to address the conduct described above. Whether under existing authorities or additional measures the Administration may determine are warranted, those who exploit the authority of a UN mandate to advance politically motivated campaigns against the United States and its allies should not enjoy immunity from scrutiny or consequences. 

Thank you for your consideration of this matter. I look forward to your response. 

Sincerely,

Joe Wilson
Member of Congress

CC: The Honorable Jeff Bartos, Representative of the United States of America to the United Nations, UN Management and Reform 

CC: The Honorable Scott Bessent, U.S. Secretary of Treasury

The post Congressman Urges Rubio to Sanction UN Officials Exposed by UN Watch appeared first on UN Watch.

Speaking at the U.N. Human Rights Council on behalf of UN Watch, terror survivor and human rights attorney Arsen Ostrovsky delivers a harrowing and emotional testimony regarding the rise of antisemitism. Having traveled from Sydney to address the Council’s review of Australia, Ostrovsky details his personal experience surviving a brutal terror attack at a Hanukkah celebration on Bondi Beach, where 15 people were killed and he was shot in the head.

Full Speech:

Mr President, Excellencies, My name is Arsen Ostrovsky. I have travelled from Sydney today to speak not only on behalf of UN Watch and the Australia/Israel & Jewish Affairs Council, but as a survivor of antisemitic terror.

Last November, Australia submitted its Universal Periodic Review to this Council. But just weeks later, during a Chanukah celebration on Bondi Beach, my country suffered the worst terror attack in our history.

Fifteen people, including a 10-year-old girl, were murdered. I was at the festival with my family, but was shot in the head when I ran towards them.

I speak before you today though not seeking sympathy, but sounding a warning. That hatred directed at Jews, when ignored, excused or mainstreamed, inevitably leads to violence.

Mr. President, Excellencies, Bondi did not occur in a vacuum. It was built chant-by-chant, march-by-march.

For two years, repeated warnings from the Jewish community went largely unheeded. Synagogues firebombed. Jewish children harassed. People afraid to wear the Star of David. Even teachers now reluctant to teach about the Holocaust for fear of causing offence.

This should indeed concern us all. As the late Chief Rabbi Sacks warned, antisemitism is the early warning sign of a wider societal breakdown.

When antisemitism is allowed to thrive, it erodes the very foundations of a free society: tolerance, social cohesion, the rule of law and moral clarity.

Australia has taken important steps, including establishing a Royal Commission into Antisemitism, which I addressed just days ago. But more must be done.

I urge this Council to encourage Australia to confront antisemitism in all its forms, including when it masquerades as anti-Zionism, so every citizen can live openly and safely.

Because history teaches while Jews may be the first target when antisemitism flourishes, we are seldom the last.

Thank you.

The post “I Was Shot in the Head” — Terror Survivor, Arsen Ostrovsky, Stuns UN with Powerful Warning appeared first on UN Watch.