GENEVA – An independent United Nations panel on Tuesday sharply criticized several European ministers for launching disinformation-fueled assaults against Francesca Albanese, the UN special rapporteur on human rights in the Palestinian territories.
The UN Coordination Committee, comprising six experts overseeing special rapporteurs, accused officials from Germany, France, Italy, and the Czech Republic of relying on “manufactured facts” to demand her ouster. Czech Foreign Minister Petr Macinka misrepresented Albanese’s February 7 Doha speech on X by claiming she labeled Israel a “common enemy of humanity,” despite a Reuters-reviewed transcript showing no such words, though she has long critiqued Israel’s Gaza operations.
Albanese, an Italian lawyer, rejects the allegations amid a rising pattern of political intimidation against UN monitors, officials, and judges. The Committee called on ministers to prioritize accountability for alleged Gaza war crimes and crimes against humanity at the International Criminal Court rather than undermining her mandate. It noted U.S. sanctions under President Donald Trump’s administration following her letters to American companies over complicity in Israeli rights abuses in Gaza and the West Bank, emphasizing rapporteurs’ independence from the Human Rights Council and the absence of precedent for mid-term dismissal despite theoretical council motions unlikely to succeed given support for Palestinian rights.