Reports by UKLFI and UNWatch of misconduct on the part of Francesca Albanese, UN Special Rapporteur on the occupied Palestinian territories, have been transferred to the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights for review.

Francesca Albanese

UK Lawyers for Israel (UKLFI) submitted a complaint to the UN’s Office of Internal Oversight Services (OIOS) on 9 May 2024 about her offensive and highly biased remarks on social media.  These include her social media posts which appear to minimise or justify the brutal attacks carried out by terrorist groups, Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ), against Israeli civilians.

Examples of her biased tweets are:

1. Tweet on 7 October 2023: “Today’s violence must be put in context. Almost six decades of hostile military rule over an entire civilian population (incomprehensibly ignored by too many official statements & media outlets) are in themselves an aggression, and the recipe for more insecurity for all.”
2. Tweet on 11 October 2023, referring to Israel’s operation against Hamas in Gaza as a “policy of revenge”.
3. Tweet on 11 October 2023, claiming that “Hamas’ crimes including rape” have not been confirmed, and that divulging information about the perpetration of rape by Hamas risks “to escalate tensions and endanger lives in a volatile context”.
4. Tweets on 14 and 26 October 2023, claiming that Israel is “carpet bombing” Palestinian civilians.
5. Tweets on 21 and 27 October 2023, claiming that Israel is not acting in self-defence and that it is committing “ethnic cleansing”.

Read more HERE.

UKLFI was notified on 24 May 2024 that the Investigations Division of OIOS had carefully reviewed UKLFI’s report and that OIOS management had determined that the matter would be best addressed by the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights.

UNWatch submitted a complaint on 2 June 2024 that Albanese improperly took external funds from pro-Hamas groups to pay for her $20,000 lobbying trip to Australia. UNWatch was informed by OIOS on 26 June 2024 that it has referred UNWatch’s report to the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights for attention and appropriate action.

UN Watch is asking the UN Human Rights Commission to terminate her mandate.