The United Nations has issued a sharp condemnation of the United States’ decision to sanction Francesca Albanese, the UN Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in the occupied Palestinian territories. The move, announced by US Secretary of State Marco Rubio on Wednesday, has been denounced by UN officials as a grave attack on the independence of international human rights mechanisms.

Addressing reporters in New York on Thursday, UN spokesperson Stéphane Dujarric warned of the precedent being set: "The imposition of sanctions on special rapporteurs is a dangerous precedent. Francesca Albanese, like all other special UN Human Rights rapporteurs, is an independent human rights expert appointed by the UN Human Rights Council and reporting to the UN Human Rights Council ... The use of unilateral sanctions against special rapporteurs or any other UN expert or official is unacceptable."

The US justified the sanctions by accusing Albanese of engaging in "lawfare", a term used to describe the strategic use of legal frameworks to target governments, for her support of International Criminal Court (ICC) investigations into war crimes by US and Israeli officials. "The United States will continue to respond to these efforts to weaponize international law and defend its sovereignty and that of its allies," Rubio said.

Targeted Truth

Albanese, an Italian human rights lawyer and academic, has consistently drawn the ire of "Israel" and its allies for her uncompromising assessments of the occupation. In recent reports, she has accused "Israel" of conducting a "genocidal campaign" in Gaza, called for ICC arrest warrants against Israeli officials, and criticized multinational corporations for allegedly profiting from the occupation. Her March 2024 report to the UN Human Rights Council concluded there were "reasonable grounds" to believe "Israel" had committed acts of genocide.

US and Israeli officials have labeled her statements as inflammatory and biased. Rubio accused her of "unabashed antisemitism" and of actively supporting terrorism, while Israeli government figures have repeatedly urged the UN to remove her from her position.

Read more: US sanctions on Albanese shamefully undermine justice: Amnesty

Despite the backlash, Albanese has received strong backing from international human rights groups and legal scholars.

Over 65 experts on antisemitism and Holocaust studies recently defended her against what they described as politically motivated attacks, and the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, Volker Türk, called on the United States to reverse the sanctions.