The UN Watch report reveals funding from China and Russia to UN speakers: from Francesca Albanese to Alena Douhan, the shadow of authoritarian regimes.
Money from China, Russia and Qatar, triumphal trips to Cuba and Iran, extreme pro-Pal positions and the finger always pointed at the West, starting with United Statesresponsible for all the evils in the world. We are not talking about activists with a one-sided political agenda, but about the plethora of special rapporteurs appointed by the UN Human Rights Council. There are around sixty in total: 46 on global issues from poverty in the world to the right to housing and 13 relating to specific countries.
The pro-Gaza passionarian, Francesca AlbaneseUN special rapporteur on the Palestinian territories, is just the tip of an iceberg of “independent guarantors” who are in reality ideologues. A Watcha non-governmental organization based in Geneva, close to Israel, but very precise in its complaints, has slain the super experts in a report that highlights “how politicized UN rapporteurs are subverting human rights”. Valeria Robecco, president of the Association of United Nations Correspondents, explains to Panorama that “officially these are independent speakers and their conclusions are not binding. Italy is a country that is very attentive to these figures, like Francesca Albanese, but in other nations they do not provoke heated debates like here”.
The shadow of authoritarian regimes on Geneva appointments
The same Council that appoints the “special rapporteurs” is made up of 47 members, who largely do not come from democracies.
“Instead of acting as independent and impartial experts, many mandate holders use country visits and thematic reports to promote politicized narratives – denounces the UN Watch report – They disproportionately target democratic states while protecting authoritarian regimes from scrutiny”. Apart from the famous Albanese, there are 13 cases of “guarantors” analyzed, who resemble bad teachers.
Michael Fakhri, a Lebanese-Canadian law professor who teaches at the University of Oregon, is special rapporteur on the right to food. Mandate created on the initiative of the Castro government Cuba. The professor “has repeatedly promoted narratives critical of free market economies, particularly those of the United States and the European Union” reports UN Watch. And he even managed to accuse Canada of having committed “genocide” against indigenous populations.
During his mandate he made only one visit abroad, to Venezuela, in 2024. The Foreign Minister, Yván Gil, welcomed him with full honors. At the end of the mission Fakhri painted the regime as a victim of the USA, asking for the lifting of sanctions. The paradoxical aspect is that the following day the same Foreign Minister closed the United Nations human rights office in Caracas. “In his first public response to the October 7 massacre, Fakhri did not condemn Hamas” denounces the report of the Geneva NGO. And it has never said a word about the Israeli hostages reduced to starvation and filmed specifically by their captors.
The dossier against the West and the issue of foreign funds
The Special Rapporteur on the right to adequate housing should deal with housing, but Balakrishnan Rajagopal promotes a harshly anti-Western narrative.
“His social media posts regularly condemn the United States – highlights UN Watch – while justifying or ignoring the abuses of authoritarian regimes such as China, Russia and Iran”. In last year’s report to the Human Rights Council he outdid himself: The strong migratory pressure on Western countries is “artificial” and driven by “racist and nativist” sentiments. For Rajagopal the term “migration crisis” is a “political slogan” and claims that the “real faults” of the West are “the burdens of the colonial era”. There Germany she is the largest known donor of her term with $287,676 over four years. In 2023, 80 thousand dollars also arrived Open societythe political tool of the controversial billionaire George Soros. “They are also convenient for the UN because they take positions that the official bodies of the United Nations cannot take – Andrea Angeli, with 34 years of international missions behind him, points out to Panorama – However, rapporteurs like Francesca Albanese should understand that a certain form must be maintained, always leaving the channel of dialogue open”.
The independent expert “for the promotion of a democratic and equitable international order” could only have solid ties with China, Russia, Iran and Cuba. George Katrougalos he is the former Foreign Minister of the Greek government when the far left Syriza was in power. Among the known funds, 100 thousand dollars from Beijing stand out in 2025. In its September 2024 report it questioned whether democracy is a “universal value and the only legitimate form of government”. For lawyer Katrougalos, international law continues “the legacy of colonialism and racism”. In January last year he met in Cuba with the secretary of the communist party, which leads the country, Miguel Díaz-Canel, praising the island’s “cooperation” with the United Nations for human rights. Who knows what the political prisoners in Castro prisons think about it. Katrougalos made several visits to China and praised the vision of Xi Jinping of “openness, development and dialogue”. In November 2025, he traveled to Tehran to speak at a conference blaming Western powers. Ten days before the invasion of Ukraine he criticized the sanctions against Moscow and called for Russia to be admitted into the European “security architecture”. Supporter of Francesca Albanese defended pro-PAL protests on American college campuses, which targeted Jewish students and the Freedom Flotilla headed to Gaza.
The role of Beijing and the normalization of autocratic narratives
Another special rapporteur “on human rights and countering terrorism” receives the most funding from China$150,000 in 2024. The Australian Ben Saul he taught at Oxford, Harvard and the Chinese Academy in Xiamen. In an article for Just Security, a digital newspaper, he branded the United States a “gangster state”. In March 2026, speaking at the Human Rights Council, he accused the US of “blatant aggression and renewed imperialism against Iran and Venezuela” while praising Somalia as a “responsible state” that “is committed to strengthening human rights”.
Alena Douhana Belarusian lawyer, is a specialist in “normalizing” authoritarian narratives as a speaker “on the negative impact of unilateral coercive measures,” which means sanctions. The mandate was born at the instigation of Iran and the non-aligned countries movement. The main financiers raise concerns about the independence of the UN “guarantor”. From 2020 to 2024, China paid almost 1 million dollars, the Russia 265 thousand and the Qatar 50 thousand. UN Watch points out that Douhan “never revealed how this money was used.” For the Special Rapporteur, countries such as China, Iran, Syria, Cuba, Venezuela and Zimbabwe are innocent victims of Western oppression. When Assad was still in power in Damascus, the United Nations expert, after a visit to the country, “went so far as to declare that Western sanctions could amount to “a crime against humanity” against “the entire Syrian population”. She obviously defends Cuba vigorously and argued that US sanctions are the cause of “food insecurity in North Korea”. In December 2022, while much of the world condemned the Islamic Republic for the brutal repression of protesters following the death of Mahsa Amini, “Douhan absurdly chose to publish a letter blaming Iranian air pollution on US sanctions.”
Among other special speakers, Tlaleng Mofokeng has “an obsession with demonizing Israel”, Gina Romero criticizes Western countries such as Germany, the United Kingdom, the Netherlands and the United States more than Cuba on “freedom of assembly”, Reem Alsalem condemns rapes everywhere, but downplayed or questioned those of Hamas on October 7th. Irene Zubaida Khan, rapporteur on freedom of expression pursues a strongly anti-Western agenda and coincidentally received support for the nomination from China.
“The UN 2030 agenda is the meeting between post-Marxism and far-left green ideology – highlights Marco Bassanifull professor of History of political doctrines of UniPegaso, with Panorama – In this context, characters, internal officials and external special speakers, who are the emblem of an ultra-ideological elite, thrive”.
