In June 2025, the UN Special Rapporteur on violence against women and girls, Reem Alsalem, released a report entitled “Sex-based violence against women and girls: new frontiers and emerging issues” (“the Report”). Instead of addressing the root causes of the global rise in femicide and domestic violence — such as violent conflict zones and increased displacement, Alsalem used her platform to push a trans-exclusionary radical feminist (TERF) agenda, scapegoating gender-diverse individuals for violence against women and girls (VAWG). In endangering trans and intersex individuals the world over, the Report does not conform to the Code of Conduct for Special Procedures Mandate-holders of the Human Rights Council, to which Alsalem is bound, because it fails to meet the required standards of integrity, impartiality, and credibility.

At Article 3(e), the Code of Conduct obliges all mandate-holders to uphold “the highest standards of … integrity, meaning in particular … equity, honesty, and good faith.” Later, at Article 6(c), the Code of Conduct demands that mandate-holders: “Always seek to establish the facts, based on objective, reliable information emanating from relevant credible sources, that they have duly cross-checked to the best extent possible.” Finally, Article 8 binds mandate-holders to “(a) [b]e guided by the principles of discretion, transparency, impartiality, and even handedness” and “(c) [r]ely on objective and dependable facts” based on appropriate “evidentiary standards.”

In the Report, rather than establishing facts based on reliable information, Alsalem gives deference to pseudoscientific claims and presents disinformation as fact. Her partiality and lack of even-handedness are especially evident in her footnotes: she exclusively cites TERF organizations when discussing gender and sex diversity, and disregards the submissions made by trans advocacy groups. The Report takes as true the premise that everyone can and should be defined exclusively by their sex assigned at birth and fails to acknowledge the harm this causes.

When discussing harmful stereotypes, the Report breaches its duty to establish facts through credible sources by making the unsubstantiated and uncited claim that prohibiting youth access to gender-affirming care, including puberty blockers, is in their best interest. In fact, review of the peer-reviewed research on this subject reveals that such bans result in increases of suicide amongst trans and nonbinary youth.

Elsewhere, in two clear examples of breaches of the duty of integrity, Alsalem falsely attributes transphobic statements to credible sources. On page seven of the Report she cites Rape Crisis England and Wales’s submission to support her contention that a “progressive elimination” of funding to support victims of VAWG is linked to a policy shift from “sex equality” to “gender equality,” the latter of which can be described as gender-inclusive policy. However, Rape Crisis England and Wales did not blame the lack of funding to support VAWG victims on a move towards better gender inclusion by the United Kingdom, but rather they explain that this funding crisis has existed for decades. Alsalem is injecting her own ideological stance into their submission to bolster her transphobic position.

Even more damningly, when advocating for sex-designated prisons, the Report misquotes a report from Correctional Service Canada (CSC). According to the CSC report, “trans-women are more likely to experience verbal, physical, and sexual assault while in-custody [sic], particularly when housed according to their biological sex.” Alsalem cites this same report to support her claim that “female [cis women] prisoners, when housed and required to share facilities with male [transgender women] prisoners, experience harassment and physical, psychological and sexual violence.” This completely misunderstands the meaning of the statement in the CSC report, portraying transgender women as perpetrators of violence, rather than victims. The CSC report states the opposite of the position for which Alsalem invokes it as authority. This is a blatant falsehood uttered to justify policies which endanger transgender women.

These sparingly chosen examples provide a mere snapshot of the Report’s obvious shortcomings in integrity and academic rigour. Such blatant breaches of the Code of Conduct should not be allowed to pass by unchecked. With this Report, and her recent speech at the General Assembly, Alsalem is taking advantage of her office to contribute to the normalization of anti-gender discourse at the highest international level, which is directly contrary to her mandate to combat violence. She must be called to account by the Human Rights Council.