In her report, Special Rapporteur Francesca Albanese has accused Israel of “settler-colonial genocide” and called upon member-states to intervene to prevent further scarring of human history.
“The impunity that has been granted to the state of Israel for 76 years.”
Israel’s war on the @UN is maniacal. They’ve destroyed more than 70% of UN structures in Gaza and killed more than 200 UN workers.
It’s long past due for member states. Invoke Article 6. #UNseatIsrael pic.twitter.com/nMtfwwb6EA
— Samira Mohyeddin سمیرا (@SMohyeddin) November 2, 2024
United Nations Special Rapporteur on the Occupied Palestinian Territories Francesca Albanese makes the case for the ‘unseating’ of Israel from the UN by outlining some of Israel’s violations against international humanitarian law organisations in an interview with Democracy Now. pic.twitter.com/4DfESmC6AK
— Middle East Eye (@MiddleEastEye) November 2, 2024
Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in the Palestinian Territory occupied since 1967
About the mandate
The Special Rapporteur is an independent expert appointed by the United Nations Human Rights Council to follow and report on the human rights situation in the Occupied Palestinian Territory.
The task of the Special Rapporteur is to assess the human rights situation in the Occupied Palestinian Territory, report publicly about it, and work with governments, civil society, and others to foster international cooperation. The Special Rapporteur undertakes regular visits or missions to the Occupied Palestinian Territory and reports annually to the Human Rights Council. OHCHR provides the mandate holder with logistical and technical assistance.
The mandate of the Special Rapporteur derives from the 1993 resolution from the Committee of Human Rights. The mandate calls on the Special Rapporteur:
- To investigate Israel’s violations of the principles and bases of international law, international humanitarian law, and the Geneva Convention relative to the Protection of Civilian Persons in Time of War, of 12 August 1949, in the Palestinian territories occupied by Israel since 1967;
- To receive communications, to hear witnesses, and to use such modalities of procedure as he may deem necessary for his mandate, and
- To report, with his conclusions and recommendations, to the Commission on Human Rights at its future sessions until the end of the Israeli occupation of those territories.
Current mandate holder
Ms. Francesca Albanese is an Affiliate Scholar at the Institute for the Study of International Migration at Georgetown University and a Senior Advisor on Migration and Forced Displacement for the think tank Arab Renaissance for Democracy and Development (ARDD), where she co-founded the Global Network on the Question of Palestine (GNQP), a coalition of renowned professional and scholars engaged in/on Israel/Palestine. She has published widely on the legal situation in Israel/Palestine; her latest book, Palestinian Refugees in International Law (Oxford University Press, 2020), offers a comprehensive legal analysis of the situation of Palestinian refugees from its origins to modern-day reality. She regularly teaches and lectures on International Law and Forced Displacement in European and Arab universities, and frequently speaks at conferences and public events on the legal situation of Palestine. She worked for a decade as a human rights expert for the United Nations, including the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights and the Relief and Work Agency for Palestine Refugees. In these capacities, she advised the UN, governments, and civil society across the Middle East, North Africa, and the Asia Pacific on the enforcement of human rights norms, especially for vulnerable groups, including refugees and migrants. She holds a Law Degree (with honors) from the University of Pisa and an LLM in Human Rights from the University of London, SOAS.
Editorial by Bergensia
United Nations’ creation of Israel in 1948, with no strings attached, was a terrible idea from the very beginning. Already the next day, it became clear that Israel was a rough state. The oppressed Jews surviving Nazi rule immediately became an oppressor force, brutally killing its “hosts,” the Palestinian people who were native to the land. It is documented that the Israelis killed, raped, and tortured Palestinians and even British soldiers who stood in their way.
The Israeli Apartheid state has, for 76 years, constantly killed and maimed Palestinian children and bombed its neighboring states with impunity. Since October 7. 2023, the USA, UK, and Germany, among others, have enabled the live-streamed genocide that we all bear witness to, first in Gaza, later in the West Bank, and for the last few months in Lebanon (in the two latter there is no Hamas and no Israeli hostages!).
It’s time to move the headquarters out of New York and start the process of establishing it in a free Palestine protected by peacekeeping forces from UN member states that are not complicit in the ongoing Genocide.
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