UN Gaza rapporteur Francesca Albanese sanctioned by US for supporting ICC arrest warrants. Who is she?
&imwidth=600&imheight=450&format=webp&quality=medium "UN Gaza rapporteur Francesca Albanese sanctioned by US for supporting ICC arrest warrants. Who is she?")
Francesca Albanese Photograph: (AFP)
Albanese is an international lawyer who has been a UN special rapporteur on human rights in occupied Palestinian territories since last three years
The United States has sanctioned an independent expert who has been commissioned by the United Nations to probe human rights violations in the Palestinian territories. UN special rapporteur Francesca Albanese has been a vocal critic of what she has termed the Israeli "genocide" against Palestinians in the Gaza Strip. She has also come out strongly in favour of arrest warrants issued against Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu by the International Criminal Court (ICC).
US Secretary of State Marco Rubio on Wednesday (July 9) announced the sanctions for what he described as "illegitimate and shameful efforts" of the special rapporteur to approach the ICC to "urge action" against America and Israel. “Albanese’s campaign of political and economic warfare against the United States and Israel will no longer be tolerated,” Rubio posted on X on Wednesday (July 9).
Who is Francesca Albanese?
Albanese is an international attorney who has served as a UN special rapporteur on human rights in occupied Palestinian territories since May 2022. She is an affiliate scholar with the Institute for the Study of International Migration at Georgetown University, and an expert in human rights and the Middle East.
Albanese co-authored Palestinian Refugees in International Law (2020) and has written at length on Palestine and the mandate and activity of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA). Albanese has vigorously criticised Israel's operations in Gaza from the start of its campaign against Hamas in October 2023, and of the Trump administration's efforts at repeated attempts to muffle voices critical of Israel.
On July 3, while addressing the United Nations Human Rights Council (UNHRC), she accused Israel for "one of the cruellest genocides in modern history", and having an "apocalyptic" scene in Gaza. The actions of Israel were but one manifestation of a decades-long "settler colonial project of erasure" that had been ratcheted up in recent months by means of military violence, starvation, and large-scale displacement, Albanese said.
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What does a UN special rapporteur do?
The special rapporteur is a UNHRC-appointed independent expert who reports on human rights situations in occupied Palestinian territories. The mandate for the special rapporteur has its origin in the 1993 Committee on Human Rights resolution. The rapporteur cooperates with governments and civil society, and reports her analysis of the human rights situation publicly. She conducts regular site visits and reports every year to the UNHRC, which also provides her with logistical support.
