Today, U.S. Congressman Joe Wilson of South Carolina, who serves as Assistant Majority Whip, urged Secretary of State Marco Rubio to take action against five extremist UN officials exposed by UN Watch for subverting human rights.
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.”
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
