Drugs, Abortion, Prostitution: Tlaleng Mofokeng, An Extremist at the UN

In June 2024, Tlaleng Mofokeng, the UN Special Rapporteur on the Right to Health since 2020, called for an end to the “war on drugs” in her annual report to the UN General Assembly. As a Special Rapporteur she was appointed by the UN Human Rights Council, to investigate and report on world health issues. This pro-drug stance is serious, but not surprising. Indeed, Tlaleng Mofokeng has always defended the most libertarian positions since the beginning of her mandate. For example, in another report, she described the criminalization of prostitution as a “structural violence.” She is also vigorously advocating for abortion, which she describes as “a radical act of self-love.”

Ideology and militancy to the detriment of health

For Tlaleng Mofokeng, abortion, prostitution, and drug use represent opportunities for oppression of a mighty minority that wishes to restrict individual “freedoms.” This vision is guided by an extreme libertarian and progressive ideology and an assertive militancy. She places herself within an “intersectional” framework, according to which the oppressions suffered by an individual are interwoven and combined. Thus, her understanding of the world leads her to believe that a health problem only really makes sense when taken through the prism of society’s shortcomings, such as discrimination and racism. This vision does not lead her to defend the health of individuals, but rather her conception of “social justice.”

On the subject of drugs, for example, she sees no need for any prevention policy. On the contrary, she calls for a policy of non-discrimination and support for consumers, providing them with products that limit the serious effects of taking drugs. The problem, then, is not drug use as such and its individual and social consequences, but the “disorders” it can cause and the resulting discrimination (§30). According to her, “the criminalization of drug use and possession of drugs for personal use can pose a threat to health and well-being” (§55). She also considers the treaties defining the legal framework for drug control to be detrimental, as they propose repressive policies and “punitive approach to suppress the market in illicit drugs” (§22). Tlaleng Mofokeng calls for the decriminalization of drug use (§57). She goes on to regret that the international legal framework has favored the criminalization of drug use and designated drug addiction as a “evil” that States must combat (§5). In the face of States’ desire for control, Mofokeng denounces repressive policies as having no dissuasive effect on consumers, but as infringing their rights (§33). She therefore asks States to renounce on criminal law, for reducing harm drug use and drug use disorders and to take a “compassionate” approach instead (§80).

Similarly, with regard to prostitution, the problem is not the commodification and exploitation of a woman for money, but only its criminalization as “a subtle and quite often invisible form of violence” that founds its “roots in legacies of colonialism, racism, apartheid and structural socioeconomic inequalities” (§70). In her view, prostitution is a job like any other that should be protected: “sex work is work”. Thus, in April 2021, she explained that one of her priorities was to “further explore the concept of morality as linked to sex work.” A morality she describes as conservative and rooted in colonialism (§77). Consistently, in its July 2022 report, she recommended to States “the removal of all laws and policies criminalizing or otherwise punishing [...] sex work” (§92). These positions are untenable, given that prostitution plays a major role in human trafficking for sexual exploitation.

With her “intersectional” vision, discrimination intersects. In her view, drug control exacerbates discrimination against social groups she considers oppressed and disadvantaged: sex workers, women, children, Blacks persons, Indigenous Peoples, migrants... (§9). She therefore calls for “a decolonial approach to drug use” (§10). Already in her first report to the UN Human Rights Council in 2021, she wanted to highlight struggles against “intersections of oppression” and against “patriarchal laws”. Of course, on the topic of abortion, she highlighted the discrimination caused by restrictive laws (§71).

Indeed, Tlaleng Mofokeng has a particularly militant approach to abortion. On this last point, it’s worth recalling her activism, since she sits on the board of at least eight organizations promoting abortion in Africa and presents herself as an “abortion provider.” Even in her report on drugs, she repeatedly calls for greater access to abortion, while acknowledging that this is irrelevant (§53). In this respect, her intervention before the U.S. Supreme Court in the Dobbs case is revealing. She explains that “safe and legal abortion access constitutes a critical part of human rights,” in the same way as “the right to freedom from torture and cruel, inhuman and de- grading treatment.” In the same “intersectional” logic, she also considers that African-American women and girls, who “have historically been subjected to racism,” suffer particularly from laws restricting abortion. For her, a “denied abortion” is a form of violence (§53). She therefore calls for States to provide free access to abortion (§§40-41).

The social consequences of Tlaleng Mofokeng’s ideology

Through her ideology, Tlaleng Mofokeng ignores science and facts to defend practices that are dangerous to health. Her aim is to change the laws of the land in a harmful way.

It should also be noted that her report on drugs encourages serious behavior, such as the practice of “chemsex” (sex on drugs). She regrets that, “despite some progress in recent years,” this practice “remains heavy stigma and taboo.” “Chemsex” was recently highlighted in France, as it led comedian Pierre Palmade to cause a car accident, resulting in the death of a child before birth. This is not the only shocking practice that Tlaleng Mofokeng defends, as since taking up her post at the UN, she has been regularly self-promoting her book: “Dr T: A Guide to Sexual Health & Pleasure”, which teaches, among other things, sadomasochistic practices.

In 4 years, Tlaleng Mofokeng has become the figurehead of progressive extremism at the United Nations. Her tenure has been marked by senseless, ill-considered and excessive proposals and publications, which have significantly undermined the credibility of the UN Human Rights Council. There are two main possible explanations for this significant drift. The first is an attempt by certain States to undermine the credibility of the institution. The ECLJ interviewed a number of experts for its report on the financing of UN experts. This was the case of Gabor Rona, who was a member of the body coordinating the UN Human Rights Council experts until 2018. He regretted the politicization of the expert selection process. In his view, some “States were actively seeking to sabotage the special procedure mandate through the process of selecting mandate holders.” It is therefore possible that Tlaleng Mofokeng was elected to this position thanks to the support of the most criticized states wishing to weaken the institution. Another hypothesis could be the progressive tendencies of certain member states, which have found in the profile of Tlaleng Mofokeng, a South African, the ideal person to promote abortion and birth control in poor African countries.