CETIM condemns US sanctions against Special Rapporteur Francesca Albanese

PRESS RELEASE

CETIM strongly condemns the sanctions imposed by the United States against Ms Francesca Albanese, UN Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in the occupied Palestinian territories¹. These sanctions, motivated uniquely by the fact that she is rigorously and independently fulfilling her UN mandate, constitute a frontal attack on the international human rights protection system, as well as a new attack on the multilateral system.

By imposing sanctions on Ms Albanese, the US government aims not only to prevent any independent investigation into serious and systematic violations against the Palestinian people but also to prevent the Special Rapporteur from attending the UN General Assembly (based in New York) to brief its Member states. Through these sanctions, the United States is threatening any critical voice and the functioning of any international institution considered to be contrary to its interests.

By seeking to protect Israel, as well as US companies and US nationals involved in the war in Gaza, the Trump government is complicit in, and even jointly responsible for, war crimes. By defending human rights violators, the United States is promoting impunity for those responsible for these crimes.

Accusing the Special Rapporteur of violating the sovereignty of the United States is simply grotesque. As a member of the UN and a signatory to numerous international human rights standards, the US is bound to honour its commitments.

The work of the UN Special Rapporteur is part of the application of international law. In her report last year, she analysed the war in Gaza and concluded that the Israeli government and its army were responsible for the crime of genocide². Since then, she has become a target of the Israeli and US authorities. She and her family have even received threats.

In this context, CETIM commends the thorough and courageous work of Ms Albanese, whose latest report highlights the complicity of transnational corporations (particularly Western ones) in the war in Palestine³. According to the Special Rapporteur’s well-documented analysis, there is an economy structured around the dispossession and destruction of the Palestinian people. She highlights the involvement of certain companies not only in the economy linked to the occupation but also linked to the genocide. Some companies play a direct role in this destruction, while others actively collaborate to reap significant financial benefits.

That is why UN Member States must firmly oppose the US sanctions against Ms Francesca Albanese, take all necessary measures to protect and support the Special Rapporteur, and work for the immediate lifting of sanctions against her.

More generally, CETIM calls on all States to commit themselves firmly to defending the multilateral system and international law, based on the Charter of the United Nations and the right of peoples to self-determination. In this regard, they must, among other things, implement, without delay, the measures recommended by the International Court of Justice for Israel to prevent the commission of the crime of genocide against the Palestinian people.

Geneva, 11 July 2025

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