The U.N. agency shut down discussion last week about the renewal of Francesca Albanese’s role as special rapporteur on Palestinian rights.
(March 31, 2025 / JNS) Paul Empole Efambe, the Congolese ambassador to the United Nations in Geneva and a vice president of the U.N. Human Rights Council, gave the floor to Hillel Neuer, executive director of UN Watch, during a March 26 council meeting.
“Mr. Chair,” Neuer began, “history will record that on this day we came here to fight for the conscience of the United Nations,” noting that the council was “days away” from renewing Francesca Albanese’s term for another three years as special rapporteur on Palestinian rights.
Some 35 seconds into Neuer’s remarks, Efambe called a point of order, during which Ibrahim Khraishi, the Palestinian “observer” to the global body in Geneva, asked the body’s vice chair to stop Neuer from speaking. He added, without evidence, that Neuer is “affiliated with the Mossad and he should not be allowed even to take the floor in this council and to attack the special rapporteur.”
“The speaker is, in fact, authorized to represent the NGO in question, which is accredited with the Economic and Social Council,” Efambe said of Neuer. He gave the floor back to Neuer, but some 50 seconds into Neuer’s subsequent remarks, the Palestinian observer interrupted again. This time, the U.N. agency vice president did not yield the floor back to Neuer, even though he said Neuer had a few more seconds left on his time, instead calling for “tolerance” and avoiding “disrespectful” comments.
Neuer noted in the few remarks he was able to deliver that the U.S., French, Canadian and German governments have denounced Albanese’s antisemitic remarks. Special rapporteurs, which the United Nations considers “independent experts,” are unpaid, and they are appointed by the Human Rights Council without accountability to the broader U.N. body or its member states.
JNS has frequently sought comments from the U.N. secretary-general about Albanese’s antisemitic remarks and has been told that the U.N. cannot and does not police her speech, nor do her remarks represent the global body.
Albanese’s three-year term, to which she was appointed on April 1, 2022, and which she began on May 1 of that year, is up for approval this week and requires tacit approval of the 47-member council but not an outright vote.
“Astonishingly, the United Nations itself is refusing to say when reappointment takes place. In a March 27 closed meeting between NGOs and Ambassador Jürg Lauber of Switzerland, the president of the Human Rights Council, was specifically asked about this and declined to answer,” Neuer told JNS.
“Likewise, on March 28, in an email reply to a reporter, U.N. Human Rights Council spokesperson Pascal Sim refused to give the date when the matter would be discussed by the council,” said Neuer, stating that “special procedures mandate holders have always been tacitly renewed. There is no formal process for the council to renew a mandate holder.”
Neuer told JNS that there is reason to believe that the Human Rights Council would renew Albanese’s mandate during the last week of its 58th session, which ends on April 4, during which there is a scheduled meeting to appoint new special procedure mandate-holders.
“The Dutch Foreign Ministry further indicated that there is no specific council act or decision that will reappoint Albanese, but rather it will be automatic, provided no action is taken to stop her reappointment,” Neuer told JNS.
Neuer told JNS that the Human Rights Council adopted a procedure in June 2008 whereby the council president will tell the council about information brought to his or her attention “concerning cases of persistent noncompliance by a mandate-holder” with the council’s code of conduct, especially prior to the renewal of mandate-holders in office.”
“The council will consider such information and act upon it as appropriate,” per the rules adopted in 2008. “In the absence of the above-mentioned information, the terms in office of the mandate-holders shall be extended for a second three-year term by the council.”
“However, it seems that over the years, the United Nations and various stakeholders have decided to ignore this provision and to pretend that it doesn’t exist,” Neuer told JNS. “When diplomats ask the United Nations about the reappointment procedure, they never mention” that procedure, he added, “because diplomats and NGOs have close relationships with the special rapporteurs, and they are afraid of a system that would hold them to account or hinder their reappointment.”
“They will cite their concern that dictatorships, if allowed to use this procedure, would harm the good special rapporteurs,” he added.
“We are calling on as many governments as possible to formally notify the president of the Human Rights Council that they object to the reappointment of Francesca Albanese,” Neuer told JNS. “To date, I understand that only Israel and Argentina have done so. For reasons unknown, the Dutch Government—despite stating in writing to members of Parliament that they oppose Albanese’s reappointment—has not yet sent in their objection to the United Nations.”
The Dutch government stated in Dutch on March 26 that “several of her social media statements are at odds with the code of conduct” and that the “cabinet disapproves of these expressions” and “does not support Albanese’s possible reappointment.”
The World Jewish Congress and Anti-Defamation League are also urging the Human Rights Council not to renew Albanese’s term. In a letter to the French foreign minister, 42 members of the French Parliament wrote in French that renewing Albanese’s mandate “would send a regrettable signal to victims, human rights defenders and states committed to credible multilateralism.”
“Ms. Albanese’s actions have been widely condemned, and her unfitness to hold U.N. office has been pointed out by multiple government officials from Canada, France, Germany and the United States,” wrote Jonathan Greenblatt, CEO and national director of AIPAC, in a letter to the Human Rights Council president.
“She has fostered for antisemitic narratives and Holocaust distortion and has amplified unverified claims from terrorist organizations like Hamas,” Greenblatt wrote in the latter. “Her rhetoric, including recent comments accusing Jewish organizations of using ‘mafia tactics’ for advocating on behalf of Jewish communities, further demonstrates her unfitness for any U.N. post.”
“Such statements not only perpetuate harmful antisemitic tropes but also compromise the credibility of the UNHRC in fighting prejudice and hate, and the secretary-general’s expressed commitment to combating global antisemitism,” he added.
Maram Stern, executive vice president of the World Jewish Congress, also penned a letter to the council president.
“Ms. Albanese has repeatedly made public remarks that propagate harmful antisemitic tropes, question the legitimacy of the State of Israel and employ rhetoric that undermines the credibility of the Human Rights Council itself,” Stern wrote. “Her persistent lack of objectivity and failure to uphold a balanced and impartial approach required of her as special rapporteur compromises her credibility as an independent expert.”
Simone Rodan-Benzaquen, managing director of the American Jewish Committee’s European offices, stated that Albanese “has systematically demonstrated a troubling pattern of conduct and expression that is incompatible with the responsibilities, neutrality and integrity expected of a U.N. special rapporteur.”
“Instead of unequivocally condemning the Oct. 7 atrocities, Ms. Albanese has routinely contextualized and relativized such violence, portraying it as the inevitable outcome of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict,” Rodan-Benzaquen added. “This approach dangerously undermines the rights of victims, emboldens extremists, and discredits the UN’s claim to moral leadership.”
31/03/2025 by JNS
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