UN reaffirms Francesca Albanese role as Special Rapporteur

Francesca Albanese will continue in her role as UN Special Rapporteur on human rights in the occupied Palestinian territories until 2028, the UN Human Rights Council confirmed on Saturday.

This follows the terms already set during her appointment in 2022, despite earlier reports suggesting that her three-year term was ending this week.

Pro-Israel advocates pushed against keeping Albanese in the position, claiming that the 58th session of the UNHRC on Friday was set to discuss her fate.

Several media outlets had reported that the continuation of Albanese’s tenure was made official during Friday’s session.

However, Pascal Sim, a spokesperson for the UNHRC, clarified to The New Arab that the agenda of the session did not include the approval or reappointment of any Special Rapporteurs, including any “renewal” of Albanese’s mandate.

Sim explained that Albanese is among the rapporteurs holding a country-specific mandate, which, unlike thematic mandates, is not divided into two terms of three years.

He reaffirmed that the tenure of special rapporteurs is limited to six years, and Albanese can serve in her role until 30 April 2028, as per the “no longer than six years” principle.

“At no time has the Human Rights Council, in any formal or informal way, been called to “reappoint” or “renew” a special procedures mandate-holder,” Sim added. 

“And this was not the case at the 58th session of the Council that just concluded yesterday.”

According to the UNHRC, Albanese was first appointed in April 2022, on the final day of the 49th session of the Human Rights Council, and officially began her role in May 2022. 

The New Arab has reached out to Albanese following these developments.

Debate over Albanese’s role intensified after reports of pro-Israel groups, such as UN Watch, calling for her removal, accusing her of promoting “anti-Semitism” and “Hamas propaganda”.

These groups have launched petitions urging the UN Human Rights Council not to renew her mandate, citing her pro-Palestine stance amidst Israel’s ongoing military actions in Gaza and the West Bank.

On Friday, Israel’s Ambassador to the UN, Danny Danon, condemned the alleged “renewal” of Albanese’s mandate as “a disgrace and a moral stain on the United Nations,” labelling her a “notorious antisemite” and accusing her of spreading “hateful rhetoric” targeting the Jewish people.

According to the Times of Israel, Anne Bayefsky, director of New York-based Touro Institute on Human Rights and president of the Human Rights Voices group, has since called on the US to halt its funding to the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights. 

On the other hand, prominent pro-Palestine voices have rallied in support of Albanese.

Lebanese-British journalist Hala Jaber posted on social media platform X, calling the accusations a smear campaign and celebrating Albanese’s continued role until 2028 as “a small but defiant victory for Gaza, truth, and human rights.”

Cuban-American lawyer Alfred de Zayas also defended Albanese online, praising her human rights record, particularly her work in issuing “substantive reports over the situation in Palestine and Gaza before and during the genocidal Gaza war.”

He added: “Unlike the ‘diplomats’, Albanese calls a spade a spade, a genocide a genocide.”

Albanese, also a scholar at Georgetown University and a former staff member of the UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestinian refugees (UNRWA), published a report in March warning of the imminent threat of mass ethnic cleansing facing Palestinians.

She accused Israel of pursuing a long-term strategy to seize Palestinian land and displace its people under the guise of war, amid the nearly two-year conflict that has seen Israel killing over 50,000 Palestinians since 7 October 2023.