Francesca Albanese to deliver 'symbolic' UN speech from South Africa after Trump sanctions

The United Nations special rapporteur on Palestine is set to deliver a speech before the UN General Assembly from Cape Town instead of New York due to the US sanctions imposed against her earlier this year.

Francesca Albanese will officially launch her new report on Tuesday on third-state complicity in the genocide in Gaza from the Desmond and Leah Tutu Legacy Foundation in Cape Town, South Africa.

In her speech, Albanese is expected to condemn the sanctions against her, imposed by the administration of Donald Trump in July, which effectively barred her from traveling to the US and froze her assets there.

She has since been unable to officially present her work at the UN General Assembly headquarters in New York, as is required for all UN experts. 

"In a few days, I will have the privilege of presenting my final report to the United Nations General Assembly, titled Gaza Genocide: A Collective Crime, and I will do so from Cape Town. How symbolic," she told a sizable audience at the annual 23rd Nelson Mandela lecture at the Sandton Convention Centre in northern Johannesburg on Saturday.

"While the United States has banned me - and with that, my analysis and recommendations - I am here, in this country that once again stands at the cusp of what can be the beginning of a new multilateralism, challenging once more colonial and imperial power structures."

Sanctions against Albanese marked a historic precedent in which a UN-affiliated individual was targeted with a punitive measure for their work.

The move has prompted calls by fellow UN experts for a case to be brought before the International Court of Justice alleging a breach of her diplomatic immunity to which UN experts are entitled to under international law.

Issued by the Trump administration, the sanctions shortly followed Albanese's scathing report on 30 June in which she named over 60 companies, including major US technology firms like Google, Amazon and Microsoft, for their involvement in "the transformation of Israel's economy of occupation to an economy of genocide".

Her latest report examines the responsibility of 63 states for the "collective crime" of enabling Israel's genocide against the Palestinians in Gaza. 

"Framed by colonial narratives that dehumanise the Palestinians, this livestreamed atrocity has been facilitated through Third States' direct support, material aid, diplomatic protection and, in some cases, active participation," she wrote.

Complicity of European and Arab states

Without the support of the US and mostly European countries, including Germany, Italy and the United Kingdom, Israel would not have been able to sustain its devastating assault on Gaza, she concluded.

Albanese also called out Arab states for complicity, including through the US-brokered normalisation deals with Israel. 

'I am here, in this country that once again stands at the cusp of what can be the beginning of a new multilateralism'

- Francesca Albanese, speaking in South Africa

"Open sources report that influential States in the region facilitated land routes to Israel, bypassing the Red Sea," she wrote.

"While Qatar and Egypt sought to broker ceasefire agreements, Qatar hosts the largest US military base in the region, and Egypt maintained significant security and economic relations with Israel, including energy cooperation and the closing of the Rafah crossing."

The report noted that over the past two years, only Belize, Bolivia, Colombia and Nicaragua have suspended diplomatic relations with Israel, and only seven states – Bahrain, Chad, Chile, Honduras, Jordan, Turkey and South Africa – have downgraded their relations with the country.

Albanese has backed The Hague Group, an alliance of global south states co-chaired by South Africa and Colombia formed in January to coordinate state action to hold Israel accountable for international law breaches.

On Saturday, during her Nelson Mandela lecture, she hailed South Africa for bringing the genocide case against Israel to the ICJ in December 2023 as "a moment of historic resonance".

"This act has rekindled faith in international law. So thank you, South Africa, for what stands as a symbolic restoration - a quiet revolution in the history of international law," she said.

"But as history teaches us, law on paper is never enough. Law is only as strong as the will of states to enforce it."