Time for the UN to salvage its credibility
The United Nations is in the midst of a profound legitimacy crisis.
Israel’s Ambassador to the United Nations Danny Danon
Nothing has more starkly illuminated this institutional decay than recent public comments made by Reem Alsalem, the U.N. special rapporteur on violence against women and girls. The comments were so reckless and so corrosive that they demand a decisive response from Secretary-General António Guterres and the world body he leads.
Earlier this month, Alsalem took to social media to cast doubt on the sexual violence, torture and gender-based crimes that survivors, investigators, journalists, medical personnel and multiple U.N. bodies have documented in connection with the Hamas-led terrorist attacks in southern Israel on Oct. 7, 2023. Her post did not merely misinterpret the evidence. It flatly contradicted it and denied its existence.
This wasn’t a subtle disagreement between experts. It wasn’t a cautious request for further data. It was a public repudiation of a finding the United Nations itself has already codified.
In the latest annual report on conflict-related sexual violence issued by the Secretary-General, Hamas is explicitly listed among parties credibly suspected of perpetrating patterns of sexual violence during and after the Oct. 7 atrocities. That designation is not handed down lightly; it reflects extensive review of information and witness testimony, and an assessment that grave concerns exist regarding sexual violence committed by members of the organisation.
For a U.N. special rapporteur on violence against women to dismiss these findings is not only indefensible. It is shameful and signals a contempt for the international body’s own standards. It directly undermines victims and survivors who have displayed unimaginable courage in recounting their experiences. And it tears at the already-fraying fabric of trust that the world places in the human-rights mechanisms of the United Nations.
Most disturbingly, Alsalem’s rhetoric echoes the tactics long used to silence victims of sexual violence: gaslighting, delegitimising, casting doubt where the facts are already painful and clear. Survivors like Amit Soussana and Mia Schem, who spoke publicly about the brutality she endured in captivity, or Ilana Gritzewsky, who briefed the Security Council earlier this year, deserve a U.N. advocate who listens and not one who erases them.
This is not merely poor judgment but a breach of mandate. Special Procedures mandate holders are bound by a Code of Conduct that requires impartiality, accuracy, respect for victims and strict adherence to U.N. standards. Alsalem’s recent statements run counter to these obligations in both letter and spirit. Her pattern of commentary raises legitimate and concerning questions about bias. These are questions that now jeopardise the integrity of the very mandate she is entrusted to uphold.
For Guterres, this is a moment of truth. The United Nations cannot continue insisting it stands with all survivors of conflict-related sexual violence while allowing one of its own senior experts to publicly contradict official findings and demean victims whose suffering the institution itself has acknowledged. The contradiction is morally obscene.
Alsalem cannot represent women and girls anywhere after these disgraceful remarks. The United Nations must initiate a process to replace her with someone capable of restoring the neutrality, professionalism and integrity that this mandate demands.
The mandate on violence against women and girls is too important to be entrusted to someone who undermines survivors and contradicts the agency’s own documented findings. The secretary-general must act. The longer this silence continues, the more it signals a harrowing message: that the United Nations is willing to tolerate denialism when the victims are politically inconvenient.
The world is watching. Survivors are watching. Unless decisive action is taken now, the United Nations will once again demonstrate that its greatest enemy is its own failure of moral courage.
