Al-Haq condemns as reckless and disturbing the decision announced on 9 July 2025 by the United States government to impose sanctions on Francesca Albanese, the United Nations Human Rights Council’s Special Rapporteur on the Situation of Human Rights in the Palestinian Territories Occupied since 1967.
By this action, taken in response to the effectiveness of the Special Rapporteur’s enduring and powerful human rights advocacy, the United States seeks to further disrupt and dismantle the capacity of Palestinians to advocate for their human rights and for accountability. This action constitutes an assault on the very framework of international law and on the United Nations itself, aiming to frustrate international solidarity with Palestinians, and to render useless international institutions for justice and accountability.
This latest attack on the Special Rapporteur, whose office has been prevented by Israel since 2008 from visiting Palestine is one of a series of efforts taken to delegitimise and threaten human rights defenders, and follows a pattern of attacks on the capacity of the United Nations to serve its mandate as set forth in the UN Charter.
Israel has previously moved to designate the UN Secretary-General as a persona non grata, and has utterly undermined UNRWA’s capacity to provide life-saving aid and support to Palestinians. More recently, on 25 June, Israel issued a directive banning dozens of political and legal advocates, including banning former Special Rapporteur John Dugard and former Special Rapporteur Michael Lynk, from entering Palestine. Even as the US sanction was announced, UNRWA’s Commissioner-General warned that plans by Israeli officials to force additional mass displacement on the Palestinian people in Gaza ‘would de-facto create massive concentration camps at the border with Egypt for the Palestinians, displaced over and over across generations.’
The Special Rapporteur’s consistent affirmation of the primacy of human rights, and the quality and impact of her reporting and analysis, including forensic detail and innovative recommendations for ensuring the enforcement of international law can be found in reports including Anatomy of a Genocide (2024), Genocide as colonial erasure (2024), and From Economy of Occupation to Economy of Genocide (2025). These documents powerfully engage with and address the root causes of Israel’s ever escalating racist and colonial violence against Palestinians, and the extent to which the international community has tolerated and been complicit in these violations.
UN officials have condemned the sanctions, but it is imperative that all UN agents, staff, and organs, be protected, supported, and encouraged in their work to promote an international system committed to respect for human rights. Already during 2025 the United States has issued sanctions against individual staff members, including members of the judiciary, at the International Criminal Court, intending to obstruct the administration of justice as part of a campaign to shield Israel war criminals and genocidaires from accountability.
Al-Haq will continue to stand firmly with Special Rapporteur Francesca Albanese and express our profound condemnation for the continued inaction and complicity of Third States, including who have joined the Israeli-led campaign against the mandate holder. We remind these states that their legal obligation is to uphold international law, not to support campaigns that seek to dismantle it, nor to attack, or to be complicit in attacks, against individuals and institutions mandated and committed to upholding the promise of the rule of law and enjoyment of human rights. Al-Haq in particular calls for EU Members States to implement the EU Blocking Statute to protect those working on accountability at the United Nations and International Criminal Court from US sanctions.