UN set to continue term of rapporteur with history of antisemitism
Francesca Albanese, known for her regular attacks on the Jewish state, is scheduled to have her appointment extended Friday amid pushback from US, European officials
Luke Tress is The Times of Israel's New York correspondent.
The United Nations Human Rights Council is scheduled on Friday to continue the term of an investigator into Israel with a history of antisemitism and vitriol against the Jewish state, amid fierce pushback from the US and other opponents.
Francesca Albanese, the UN special rapporteur for the occupied Palestinian territories, has been condemned by Jewish groups, Israel, the US, Canada, France, Germany and others. Lawmakers in the US, France, the UK and the Netherlands, and leading US Jewish groups have come out against her appointment.
Her opponents argue her conduct should disqualify her from the position, which the UNHRC says requires impartiality, integrity and objectivity. Albanese has called the criticism a smear campaign, and her supporters view her as an outspoken champion for the Palestinians.
She was appointed to the post in April 2022. Her opponents lodged a raft of complaints against her ahead of a UNHRC session on Friday scheduled to discuss special rapporteurs, who are typically appointed to three-year terms. After the complaints, the UNHRC said that Albanese is in a minority of rapporteurs — country-specific mandates, instead of “thematic” mandates — whose appointments are not separated into two three-year terms, and serve “no longer than six years.”
Albanese, an Italian lawyer, is a scholar at Georgetown University and a former staffer for the UN Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) for the Palestinians, which has itself been accused by Israel of pushing anti-Israeli narratives and harboring terror operatives as employees.
She has said that the “Jewish lobby” controls the US, repeatedly compared Israelis to Nazis, rejected antisemitic motivations for Hamas’s October 2023 attack on Israel, blamed Israel for the invasion, rejected Israeli security concerns, and denied Israel’s right to self defense, among other inflammatory statements.
US officials, under both the Biden and Trump administrations, have said she is unfit for her role. The US mission to the UN on Wednesday said it had sent a letter to United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres arguing against Albanese’s tenure. The House Foreign Affairs Committee last week demanded that the Human Rights Council reject her appointment. The former US antisemism envoy, Deborah Lipstadt, has called Albanese’s conduct antisemitic and “unacceptable,” and said that Guterres once called Albanese a “horrible person.”
The General Assembly oversees the UNHRC and its budget, including for special rapporteurs.
The US is the lead donor to the UN’s Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights, which oversees Albanese’s office, contributing more than $36 million last year.
To appoint UNHRC mandate holders such as Albanese, a consultative group within the council vets applicants for the position. The group then presents a report on its recommended candidates to the council’s president, who “identifies an appropriate candidate.” The applicant is then approved with a vote by the council. The specified criteria for mandate holders are expertise, independence, impartiality, personal integrity, and objectivity.
To renew appointments, the council reviews “implementation of the code of conduct” for mandate holders, and the council president brings up any cases of non-compliance. The council considers the information before renewing the appointments for a second three-year term. Appointments are capped at six years.
The UN’s coordination committee for special procedures dismissed complaints against Albanese late last month, according to a document shared by UN Watch, a nonprofit campaigning against Albanese.
Anne Bayefsky, the director of New York’s Touro Institute on Human Rights and the president of the Human Rights Voices advocacy group, said council members such as Germany could object to Albanese’s appointment at the Friday session. If Albanese is kept in office, the US could respond by withholding funding from the UN Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights, she said.
“There is no denying that Francesca Albanese violates UN rules theoretically requiring of so-called ‘experts’ satisfaction of the criteria of “independence, impartiality, and objectivity,'” Bayefsky said. “But that’s why she was appointed in the first place, namely, to spew the same anti-Israel and anti-Jewish bias as is characteristic of the Human Rights Council itself.”
Special rapporteurs operate independently, issue periodic reports related to their mandate, and receive a public platform and legitimacy for their field. Reports by UN investigators are significant outside of the UN because they are cited by media and other organizations, making their way to the public, which is likely unaware of bias allegations. Country-specific special rapporteurs have a budget of around $400,000 per year.
Albanese’s latest report, titled “Anatomy of a Genocide,” accused Israel of carrying out a “long-standing settler colonial process of erasure” and did not include any investigation into Hamas.
The UN established the special rapporteur position to investigate Israel in 1993. Albanese is the seventh officeholder. Previous rapporteurs were also harsh critics of Israel.
Other UNHRC special procedure mandates cover thematic subjects such as disability rights, climate change and education, in addition to country-specific mandates focused on states including Iran, Eritrea and Afghanistan. Some of the other positions are divisive, but the Palestinian position is likely the most controversial.
Hurst Hannum, professor emeritus of international law at Tufts University’s Fletcher School of International Affairs, said he was “not surprised” by the “vitriolic” disputes over Albanese’s appointment.
“I think that’s more a reflection of the context in which we’re working,” he said.
Contributing factors included the polarized discourse surrounding the war, the equation of anti-Israel rhetoric with antisemitism, the failed ceasefire in Gaza, and perceived threats to international law posed by the wars in the Middle East and Ukraine, he said. Hannum was critical of both Israel and Hamas, saying that both sides were likely “guilty of war crimes and crimes against humanity.”
Hannum added that if Albanese were replaced, her replacement “is going to be generally of the same political persuasion,” partially due to the UN’s official position that the Palestinians have a right to self-determination, and its opposition to Israel’s hold on the West Bank.
Israel’s advocates argue that Albanese’s position is part of a broader anti-Israel bias at the UN. In addition to Albanese’s mandate, a separate open-ended commission of inquiry at the UNHRC is dedicated to investigating Israel. That commission is also harshly critical of Israel, and one of its members has made antisemitic statements. Both the General Assembly and the UNHRC condemn Israel more than any other country.
The Times of Israel Community.