The United States (US) has put financial sanctions on Francesca Albanese, the UN special rapporteur who reports on human rights in the occupied Palestinian territories.
Albanese has repeatedly condemned Israel’s military campaign in Gaza and urged countries to cut arms, trade and finance links with Israel.
US Secretary of State Marco Rubio said Albanese deserved punishment for urging the International Criminal Court (ICC) to act against American and Israeli officials, companies and executives. Calling her efforts “illegitimate and shameful,” he announced the sanctions on Wednesday.
Albanese, an Italian lawyer and academic, responded on social media that she stands “firmly on the side of justice.” In a message to Al Jazeera, she called the US move “mafia-style intimidation.”
Earlier this month Albanese issued a UN report accusing more than 60 companies, including big arms and technology firms, of helping Israeli settlements and military operations.
She called on those companies to stop doing business with Israel and said executives involved should face legal action.
Israel is already fighting genocide charges at the International Court of Justice and war crimes allegations at the ICC.
Israel rejects all claims of wrongdoing and says its Gaza offensive is self-defense after Hamas’s deadly attack in October 2023.
Many human-rights advocates condemned Washington’s decision.
Dylan Williams of the Center for International Policy called it “rogue state behavior.”
Amnesty International’s chief, Agnes Callamard, herself a former UN rapporteur, said governments should protect the independence of UN experts, not punish them.
Since returning to office in January, President Donald Trump has further distanced the US from several UN bodies.
His administration has stopped working with the UN Human Rights Council, kept funding frozen for the Palestinian agency UNRWA, reviewed the UN cultural agency UNESCO, withdrawn from the Paris climate accord and the World Health Organization (WHO).
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