As Albanese stands tall, let’s stand by her

Francesca Albanese, United Nations Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in the Palestinian territories, speaks during the emergency conference of The Hague in Bogota on Tuesday. AFP

At a time when human rights monitoring has been outrageously politicised and is being shamelessly exploited by imperialists—and even by genocide-committing Zionists—to parade themselves as the paragons of virtue in world forums, one figure stands tall. She is Francesca Albanese, a rare kind of human rights warrior in a world where nations trade away their principles in pursuit of geopolitical and greed-driven economic goals.

In the form of regular reports to the United Nations Human Rights Council, her salvos expose Israel’s appalling human rights violations in the Palestinian territories. Refusing to bow under pressure and threats, she dared to call out Israel for the genocide it has been committing since October 7, 2023, in Gaza with the fullest complicity and immoral, military, and political support of the imperial West.

Last week, the Donald Trump administration accused Francesca Albanese of supporting terrorism and carrying out a campaign of political and economic warfare against the United States. If the Trump administration sees championing human rights as supporting terrorism, then something is seriously wrong with the people who run the US administration.

What a nadir the US has reached, compared to the zenith it once occupied as a champion of human rights—when Eleanor Roosevelt, wife of President Franklin D. Roosevelt, envisaged a world rooted in dignity and justice and presented to the post–World War II generation—and generations to come—the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR), hailed as a beacon of hope and a foundational blueprint for humanity.

Instead of upholding the UDHR, the US became one of the gravest human rights violators of the post–World War II era. In Vietnam, US troops committed numerous human rights violations, the most infamous being the My Lai massacre. They used banned napalm bombs on Vietnamese civilians and deployed chemical weapons, particularly Agent Orange, whose devastating effects continue to afflict the Vietnamese people.

Numerous instances of extrajudicial killings and drone attacks on civilians were reported during the US occupation of Afghanistan. When half a million children died as a result of sanctions spearheaded by the US against Iraq, then-Secretary of State Madeleine Albright described it as a price worth paying. During the US occupation of Iraq following the 2003 invasion, depleted uranium-based bombs were dropped on civilian areas, leading to widespread birth deformities among women in Fallujah, Iraq. Those arrested on suspicion of links to terrorism were tortured. They were subjected to waterboarding. The US even outsourced torture through a process known as extraordinary rendition—transferring suspects to countries notorious for their brutal interrogation practices.

To date, the US has neither apologised for its human rights abuses nor made a meaningful course correction in line with Eleanor Roosevelt’s vision. Yet it selectively seizes opportunities to spotlight alleged human rights violations—such as those by Russia or nations deemed hostile, like Sri Lanka under President Mahinda Rajapaksa, when it aligned with the United States’ geopolitical rival, China—often hauling them before the UN Human Rights Council in what many see as an attempt to deflect attention from its own record.

Albanese, who was appointed by the UNHRC in 2022 as the Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in the Palestinian territories occupied since 1967, became the first UN official to be sanctioned by the US for doing exactly what she has been commissioned by the world body to do. 

Two weeks ago, Albanese—a high-profile member of a group of UN experts—named several major companies, including US multinationals, in a report she filed to the UN, accusing them of assisting Israel in carrying out its war in Gaza. She stated that her report “shows why Israel’s genocide continues: because it is lucrative for many.” Titled From Economy of Occupation to Economy of Genocide, the report boldly denounces about 40 corporations that “profited from the Israeli economy of illegal occupation, apartheid, and now genocide.”

Pointing out the situation in Gaza is “apocalyptic,” she urged these companies to stop all business activities and relationships that contributed to rights violations and international crimes.

No sooner had her report become public than she came under attack from the United States. The sanctions were announced by US Secretary of State Marco Rubio. He lashed out at Albanese, claiming she “has spewed unabashed antisemitism, expressed support for terrorism, and open contempt for the United States, Israel, and the West.”

With millions of peace-loving people rallying around her online and expressing their support, Albanese, an Italian-born human rights law expert, accepted the US vilification as a badge of honour but took the bull by the horns, declaring, “The powerful punishing those who speak for the powerless is not a sign of strength but of guilt.” 

The world needs voices like Francesca Albanese now more than ever, says an online campaign collecting signatures to nominate her for the Nobel Peace Prize. No one deserves the Nobel Prize more than Albanese. Yet, given the idiosyncrasies of the Nobel Committee, her supporters wouldn’t be surprised if the Nobel were awarded to Donald Trump—despite his recent war on Iran, which violated Article 2(4) of the UN Charter, and his tariff war that has severely impacted poor countries still grappling with economic crises. Whether or not Albanese wins the Nobel, she has won the hearts of those who empathise with the Palestinians dying by the hundreds each day. At US-run Gaza Humanitarian Foundation food centres alone, some 900 people have been killed, including hungry children and parents who came hoping to find food for their starving children. Albanese condemned the US-led aid effort as “humanitarian camouflage” and “an essential tactic of this genocide.”

The U.S. witch-hunt and Israel’s intimidations—often directed at International Court of Justice prosecutors and judges—are unlikely to stop Albanese. On the contrary, every obstacle placed in her path seems to have only energised her further.

On Tuesday, in Bogota, Colombia, at a world conference of 30 countries (Sri Lanka was not among them) that support the call to coordinate legal, diplomatic, and economic measures aimed at halting Israel’s genocide in Gaza, keynote speaker Albanese said, “Each state must immediately review and suspend all ties with Israel... and ensure the private sector does the same. The Israeli economy is structured to sustain the occupation that has now turned genocidal.”

In yet another bold statement on Wednesday—or rather, an open challenge—this time directed at the European Union, which appears to have forgotten that its very foundation rests on a commitment to upholding human rights as enshrined in Article 2 of the Treaty on European Union, Albanese accused the EU of “consciously supporting Israel’s genocide of the Palestinians” following its refusal to suspend the 1995 Association Agreement with Israel. “Cut ties with Israel, starting with trade, including weapons. Do the right thing. Our European history commands it,” urged Albanese—whom money cannot buy and power cannot intimidate.

One wonders how a hypocritical EU can still continue to impose human rights conditions on countries like Sri Lanka as a prerequisite for GSP Plus concessions. 

In a world where many bend to big-power thuggery, we choose to rise—with Albanese, the human rights warrior driven by courage and conviction.