Francesca Albanese, the UN Special Rapporteur on Human Rights in the Palestinian territories, has spoken of the “profound” and “personal” effects of US-imposed sanctions on her and her family, and described Israel’s military campaign and the humanitarian crisis in Gaza as a “failure of the law”.
The firebrand lawyer has been one of the most vocal critics of Israel’s occupation of the Palestinian territories and the military campaign in Gaza. But she has also made enemies with her rhetoric and was sanctioned by the US in July for “lawfare that targets US and Israeli persons”.
Speaking at an event hosted by ODI Global in London on Friday, Ms Albanese revealed the impact of the sanctions, which include a ban on her travelling to the US. She previously had a professional base in the country and members of her immediate family are US citizens.
“It also has a very personal dimension. I am the mother of a young daughter, of an American citizen. Where is our First Amendment?” she said, referring to the section of the US Constitution that protects rights including freedom of speech.
“It's such a betrayal. I used to live in the US. I had an affiliation with a US university. I used to lecture there. Everything has been cut down, and the chilling effect on those US persons working with me,” she said.
The travel ban meant she could not present her reports to the UN General Assembly, but the sanctions have also had wide-reaching consequences for her and her family.
“What happens to us personally, it's even more pernicious. We are financially censored. We cannot open a bank account, and not just in the US, because wherever we are, when it comes to banks, we are dominated, we are under US law,” she said.
Sanctions were also applied to the International Criminal Court’s prosecutor Karim Khan and eight other officials this year, after the court issued arrest warrants for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and former defence minister Yoav Gallant.
“It's about me, but it's not about me,” Ms Albanese said, “Through sanctioning me, or the ICC or Palestinian human rights organisations, they're trying and failing to sanction the truth, to silence the truth.”
Her comments came amid claims that the UK government had threatened to stop its funding to the ICC and to leave the Rome Statute, the court's foundational treaty, if judges issued the arrest warrants for the two Israeli leaders. Mr Khan made the allegation in a submission to the court defending his decision to prosecute Mr Netanyahu, according to the The Guardian.
The ICC’s attempts to bring the Israeli leaders to The Hague have become embroiled in an investigation into Mr Khan following allegations of sexual misconduct, which he firmly denies. He stepped aside from his role temporarily in May while the investigation is under way.
Ms Albanese accused the international community of not mounting a “robust enough” opposition to the sanctions. “I am the first UN person in 18 years to be sanctioned. There has not been robust enough response to this to have the sanctions lifted,” she said.
“This is the world we live in right now.”
Jurists working on justice for the Palestinian cause may not get their “Nuremberg”, she said, referring to the landmark trials of Nazi officials that paved the way for the establishment of international courts.
International law had so far “failed” to protect Palestinians in Gaza. “What we see today in Gaza, is it the failure of the law? Yes, to an extent, because law, the international legal system, would have been sufficient to prevent, to stop and to make reparations for what is happening,” she said.
Yet efforts to prosecute world leaders allied to Israel in national and international courts could work in the long road to justice, Ms Albanese added.
Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni was recently referred to the ICC by an unnamed group for “complicity” in Israel’s military campaign in Gaza. Albanese described the move as the “right course of action”. She also referred to the recent release of a film about the trial of Nazi leaders at Nuremberg.
“We might not have another Nuremberg, but the Palestine trials might be [for] those who have committed crimes and those who have been complicit with Israeli crimes [to] face justice wherever they are: here, in the UK or elsewhere,” she said.
Ms Albanese's appointment was for a three-year term beginning on May 1, 2022. In April 2025, the UN Human Rights Council voted to renew her mandate for a second three-year term.
