The man the United Nations appointed to monitor human rights and counterterrorism stood before the UN Human Rights Council and declared Somalia a model “responsible state”, at the precise moment that Al-Shabaab terrorists were recapturing Somali territory, 854 civilians lay dead from terrorist attacks, and over half a million people had been driven from their homes. In the same breath in which he praised Somalia, he declared the United States guilty of “raining death” on the world.
Ben Saul, the UN Special Rapporteur on human rights and counterterrorism, told the Council: “Countering terrorism has excused naked aggression and renewed imperialism against Iran and Venezuela, raining death and making us all less safe.” He then offered Somalia as the antidote: “My report on visiting Somalia last year shows how a country facing an existential terrorist threat is strengthening, not sacrificing, human rights.”
Hillel Neuer of UN Watch, which monitors UN conduct, reported the remarks and called them a whitewash of documented atrocities.
Human Rights Watch reported that Somalia’s human rights situation deteriorated in 2025. Al-Shabaab not only continued its campaign of bombings, IED attacks, and targeted civilian killings, but it recaptured territory the Somali government had regained in 2022, advancing to areas south of Mogadishu. Amnesty International documented 854 civilians killed or injured between January and September 2024, with Al-Shabaab responsible for 65 percent of casualties. More than 552,000 people were internally displaced in the same period. Women and children made up more than 80 percent of the displaced.
The Coalition of Somalia Human Rights Defenders documented “abusive use of the death penalty, torture, extra-judicial killings, conflict-related sexual violence, violations against women and children, enforced evictions, and mass displacement” throughout 2025. Military courts sentenced terrorism suspects to death without meeting basic fair-trial standards, a problem flagged by Saul’s own report. In March, the information minister banned all reporting deemed a security threat. Police arrested at least 22 journalists following a single bombing. In Somaliland, 16 journalists were unlawfully detained in the first six months of 2025 alone. Somalia has still not ratified the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women. Consensual same-sex conduct remains criminalized.
U.S. Ambassador to the UN Mike Waltz publicly criticized the UN for assigning senior international positions to Somalia. His frustration is well-founded: as of January 2026, Somalia held the rotating presidency of the UN Security Council, chairing meetings and setting the agenda on counterterrorism and regional stability.
Questions have been raised about what is driving Saul’s conclusions. UN Watch reported that China donated funds to the OHCHR, the UN body that houses Special Rapporteurs, in 2025. The OHCHR’s own voluntary contributions table confirms a $200,000 donation from China that year. Saul serves without salary, and there is no evidence of direct personal payment. But member states whose counterterrorism practices fall directly within Saul’s oversight mandate are funding the institution in which he works. That is a documented conflict of interest by any standard.
The Human Rights Council has appointed China, which holds over a million Uyghurs in detention, to help select senior UN human rights officials. Iran, which executes citizens for social media posts, was appointed to chair the Council’s forum on technology and human rights. Egypt, Vietnam, Eritrea, Burundi, and Sudan, all rated as serial rights violators, hold or have held Council seats through a regional bloc system that eliminates competitive elections. Rapporteurs operate within that structure and answer to no independent standard.
Saul’s March 2026 statement fits a clear pattern. Across multiple statements on U.S. and Israeli counterterrorism operations, Western action is “naked aggression” and “imperialism.” States aligned against the West are examples of restraint. His own report documenting Somalia’s failures did not change his public praise of the country. The facts, apparently, are not the point.
Saul’s Somalia performance came as Iran fired ballistic missiles carrying cluster munitions — weapons banned by international law since 2008 — at Israeli civilian population centers, striking a daycare in Rishon Lezion. The UN issued no statement condemning the use of banned weapons against Jewish children. Iran then launched ballistic missiles at the joint US-UK base at Diego Garcia, demonstrating a long-range weapons capability Tehran had spent years publicly denying it possessed. Israel’s Chief of Staff, Lt. Gen. Eyal Zamir, stated the implications directly: “These missiles are not intended to strike Israel. Their range extends to the capitals of Europe. Berlin, Paris, and Rome are all within direct threat range.” Iran’s Foreign Ministry called the Diego Garcia strike a “false flag.” The UN said nothing about the deception or the weapons.
Saul himself posted multiple messages on X on February 28, exclusively condemning Israel and the United States. “I strongly condemn the Israeli & US aggression against Iran, in violation of the most fundamental rule of international law, the ban on the use of force,” he wrote. In another post the same day: “This is not lawful self-defence against an armed attack by Iran.” When Iran began violently cracking down on protesters on December 28, 2025, using live ammunition, mass arrests, and a nationwide internet blackout that preceded a massacre, Saul waited 54 days before personally signing a statement addressing it.
Secretary-General António Guterres condemned the US and Israeli strikes swiftly. When he later referenced Iranian counterstrikes at the Security Council, he named seven countries Iran had attacked: Bahrain, Iraq, Jordan, Kuwait, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, and the UAE. He omitted Israel. His initial statement had been silent on which countries Iran targeted. By contrast, when the Iranian regime was killing tens of thousands of its own protesters in January 2026, Guterres waited until reports of a massacre were already public before speaking. His statement expressed only “shock” at “reports of” violence resulting in “scores of deaths.” He did not use the words “condemn,” “kill,” or “murder.”
The UN Fact-Finding Mission on Iran, in a March 4 statement, “strongly condemned” the strikes by Israel and the United States, while describing Iran’s strikes as “retaliatory,” a framing that lends them implicit legitimacy. When Israel struck Hamas targets following the October 7 massacre, no UN body described Israel’s response as “retaliation.” The distinction between terrorism and self-defense was erased then. It is being erased again now.
