The U.S. introduced sanctions Wednesday towards Francesca Albanese, the U.N. particular rapporteur on human rights within the occupied Palestinian territories, citing her outspoken criticism of Israel’s battle in Gaza.
“Today I am imposing sanctions on U.N. Human Rights Council Special Rapporteur Francesca Albanese for her illegitimate and shameful efforts to prompt (International Criminal Court) action against U.S. and Israeli officials, companies, and executives,” Secretary of State Marco Rubio mentioned in a press release.
In a put up on X late Wednesday, Albanese wrote that she stood “firmly and convincingly on the side of justice, as I have always done,” with out straight mentioning the U.S. sanctions. In a textual content message to Al Jazeera, she was quoted as dismissing the U.S. transfer as “mafia-style intimidation techniques.”
Albanese, an Italian lawyer and educational, has referred to as on states on the U.N. Human Rights Council to impose an arms embargo and reduce off commerce and monetary ties with Israel whereas accusing the U.S. ally of waging a “genocidal campaign” in Gaza.
Israel has confronted accusations of genocide on the International Court of Justice (ICJ) and of battle crimes on the ICC over its genocidal battle on Gaza that has killed over 57,500 Palestinians. Israel denies the accusations and says its marketing campaign quantities to self-defense after the October 2023 Hamas incursion.
In a report printed earlier this month, Albanese accused over 60 firms, together with main arms producers and expertise companies, of involvement in supporting Israeli settlements and navy actions in Gaza. The report referred to as on firms to stop dealings with Israel and for authorized accountability for executives implicated in alleged violations of worldwide regulation.
Albanese is one in all dozens of unbiased human rights specialists mandated by the United Nations to report on particular themes and crises. The views expressed by particular rapporteurs don’t mirror these of the worldwide physique as a complete.
Rights specialists slammed the U.S. sanctions towards Albanese. Dylan Williams, vice chairman for presidency affairs on the Center for International Policy assume tank, labeled them as “rogue state behavior,” whereas Amnesty International mentioned particular rapporteurs should be supported and never sanctioned.
“Governments around the world and all actors who believe in the rule-based order and international law must do everything in their power to mitigate and block the effect of the sanctions against Francesca Albanese and more generally to protect the work and independence of Special Rapporteurs,” Amnesty International’s Secretary-General Agnes Callamard, a former U.N. particular rapporteur, mentioned.
Since returning to workplace in January, President Donald Trump has stopped U.S. engagement with the U.N. Human Rights Council, prolonged a halt to funding for the Palestinian reduction company UNRWA and ordered a evaluate of the U.N. cultural company UNESCO.
He has additionally introduced U.S. plans to give up the Paris local weather deal and the World Health Organization.
His administration imposed sanctions on 4 judges on the ICC in June in retaliation over the battle tribunal’s issuance of an arrest warrant for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and a previous resolution to open a case into alleged battle crimes by U.S. troops in Afghanistan.
Source: www.dailysabah.com