UN panel says European calls for resignation of Albanese ‘rooted in disinformation’

A panel of six United Nations experts on Tuesday rebuked European nations over their calls for the special rapporteur on Palestine Francesca Albanese to resign, condemning the campaign as "rooted in disinformation".

“We denounce actions by ministers of certain states to rely on manufactured facts and criticise Ms Albanese for statements that she never made at the 17th Al Jazeera Forum,” the Coordination Committee of the Special Procedures of the Human Rights Council said.  

The foreign ministers of France, Germany, Italy, Austria and the Czech Republic have called for Albanese's resignation based on an edited version of a speech she delivered at the Al Jazeera Forum earlier this month.

The video, circulated by the pro-Israel group UN Watch, falsely suggested that Albanese called Israel "the common enemy of humanity".

The UN special rapporteur used the phrase "common enemy" twice in Doha speeches in February and December in the context of criticising the political, military and economic forces that have enabled and sustained Israel's genocidal war on Gaza. 

"We now see that we as a humanity have a common enemy and the respect of fundamental freedoms is the last peaceful avenue, the last peaceful toolbox that we have to regain our freedom," Albanese said in remarks delivered remotely at the Al Jazeera Forum on 7 February.

The panel of experts, which facilitates the work of UN special rapporteurs and reviews complaints about them, said that states, instead of targeting Albanese - whose mandate is to report on Israeli violations of human rights - should invest their energy in holding Israel accountable under international law. 

“Instead of demanding Ms Albanese’s resignation for performing her mandate in very challenging circumstances - including persistent intimidation, coordinated personal attacks and unlawful unilateral sanctions - these government representatives should join forces to hold accountable, including before the International Criminal Court, leaders and officials accused of committing war crimes and crimes against humanity in Gaza,” the committee said.

It added that states should scrutinise their own support for unlawful actions allegedly committed by the government of Israel.

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“States must look in the mirror and undertake urgent course correction. States must choose to stand on the right side of history.”

Last week, a French group of international lawyers filed a report with the Paris public prosecutor accusing Foreign Minister Jean-Noel Barrot of disseminating false information about Albanese in his call for her resignation.

Albanese was sanctioned in July by the United States in connection with her work investigating genocide in Gaza. The sanctions effectively barred her from travelling to the US and froze her assets there.

She told MEE that the sanctions have also cut her off from the global financial system, including by blocking her ability to carry out regular daily transactions.

As part of her mandate, Albanese has issued three reports since October 2023 labelling Israel's war on Gaza as a genocide and denouncing the global economic and political systems that have supported Israel's war.  

In an interview with Middle East Eye's Expert Witness podcast in November, where Albanese discussed the findings of her latest report Gaza Genocide: A Collective Crime, she accused 63 states of enabling Israeli breaches of international law. 

She said that despite overwhelming evidence of genocide and mass atrocities in Gaza and the occupied West Bank, Europe's most powerful states, including Italy, Germany and France, continue to provide diplomatic, military and political cover for Israel.