U.N. envoy on Palestinian rights Francesca Albanese mentioned Tuesday that U.S. sanctions towards her, imposed after her criticism of Washington’s Gaza coverage, violate her diplomatic immunity.
The United Nations’ Special Rapporteur on the occupied Palestinian territories made the feedback whereas visiting Bogota, almost every week after U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio introduced the sanctions, calling her work “biased and malicious.”
“It’s a very serious measure. It’s unprecedented. And I take it very seriously,” Albanese advised an viewers within the Colombian capital.
Albanese was in Bogota to attend a world summit initiated by leftist President Gustavo Petro to seek out options to the Gaza battle.
The Italian authorized scholar and human rights knowledgeable has confronted harsh criticism for her long-standing accusations that Israel is committing “genocide” in Gaza.
“It’s clear violation of the U.N. Convention on Privileges and Immunities that protect U.N. officials, including independent experts, from words and actions taken in the exercise of their functions,” Albanese mentioned.
Rubio on July 9, introduced that Washington was sanctioning Albanese “for her illegitimate and shameful efforts to prompt (ICC) action against U.S. and Israeli officials, companies, and executives.”
The sanctions are “a warning to anyone who dares to defend international law and human rights, justice and freedom,” Albanese mentioned.
On Thursday, the U.N. urged the United States to reverse the sanctions towards Albanese, together with sanctions towards judges of the International Criminal Court, with U.N. chief Antonio Guterres’s spokesman calling the transfer “a dangerous precedent.”
On Friday, the European Union additionally spoke out towards the sanctions dealing with Albanese, including that it “strongly supports the United Nations human rights system.”
Albanese, who assumed her mandate in 2022, launched a damning report this month denouncing firms – a lot of them American – that she mentioned “profited from the Israeli economy of illegal occupation, apartheid, and now genocide” within the occupied Palestinian territories.
The report provoked a livid Israeli response, whereas a few of the firms additionally raised objections.
Washington final month slapped sanctions on 4 ICC judges, partially over the courtroom’s arrest warrant for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, barring them from the United States.
U.N. particular rapporteurs like Albanese are unbiased specialists, who’re appointed by the U.N. human rights council, however don’t converse on behalf of the United Nations.
Hamas’ Oct. 7, 2023, incursion triggered the conflict, inflicting 1,219 deaths and taking 251 hostages, largely civilians, in line with Israeli official figures.
Israel’s genocidal conflict, compared, has killed over 57,800 folks in Gaza, largely ladies and kids, in line with the Health Ministry, displaced virtually the complete inhabitants of greater than 2 million folks, sparked a humanitarian disaster within the enclave and left a lot of the territory in ruins.
Israel has occupied the West Bank since 1967 and violence has surged within the territory since October 2023.
Source: www.dailysabah.com