UN rights chief Volker Turk. AFP
UN human rights chief Volker Turk issued a statement on Thursday urging the “prompt reversal” of the sanctions, warning against what he described as escalating “attacks and threats” targeting UN-appointed experts and officials from other international bodies, including the International Criminal Court (ICC), whose judges have also faced US sanctions.
“I urge the prompt reversal of US sanctions against a Special Rapporteur of the UN Human Rights Council, Francesca Albanese, in response to work she has undertaken under the mandate on the situation of human rights in the occupied Palestinian territory,” Turk said.
Albanese said the measures were “calculated to weaken my mission,” but pledged to continue her work.
“I will continue to do what I have to do,” she told reporters during a visit to Slovenia. “Yes, of course, it will be challenging… I’m putting everything I have on the line.”
US Secretary of State Marco Rubio announced the sanctions on Wednesday, claiming Albanese had engaged in “illegitimate and shameful efforts” to prompt ICC action against US and Israeli officials, as well as executives and companies linked to the war.
Rubio accused her of “biased and malicious activities,” alleging she had “spewed unabashed antisemitism [and] support for terrorism.” He said the sanctions were a response to her call for arrest warrants against Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
“We will not tolerate these campaigns of political and economic warfare, which threaten our national interests and sovereignty,” he said.
Albanese has consistently described Israel’s war on Gaza as genocidal. In her latest report, published earlier this month, she identified companies—many of them American—that she said “profited from the Israeli economy of illegal occupation, apartheid, and now genocide.”
Israel has condemned the report and welcomed Washington’s response. “Albanese has consistently undermined the credibility of the UN Human Rights Council by promoting false narratives and pushing for illegitimate legal actions that ignore the realities on the ground,” said Israel’s UN Ambassador Danny Danon.
The current president of the Human Rights Council, Swiss ambassador Jürg Lauber, also denounced the sanctions and called on UN member states to “refrain from any acts of intimidation or reprisal” against mandate holders.
UN Special Rapporteurs operate independently and do not speak on behalf of the United Nations. Albanese, an international law scholar born in Italy, was appointed to the position in 2022.
Washington has escalated efforts to shield Israeli officials from legal accountability. Last month, the US imposed sanctions on four ICC judges following the court’s decision to seek arrest warrants for Netanyahu and Defence Minister Yoav Gallant over alleged war crimes and crimes against humanity in Gaza.
Albanese’s mandate includes investigating violations of international law in the occupied Palestinian territories. She has previously warned that the war has stripped Palestinians of all legal protections and constitutes an “extermination.”
More than 58,000 Palestinians, most of them women and children, have been killed in Israel’s genocidal war on Gaza since October 2023, according to Gaza’s health ministry. Independent estimates suggest the true death toll may be closer to 100,000.
* This story has been edited by Ahram Online
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