UN Rights Office Expresses Concern Amid Calls for UN Rapporteur’s Resignation
GENEVA, Switzerland – A UN human rights spokesperson on Friday voiced “very worried” sentiments regarding escalating personal attacks against independent UN experts, following a surge in European governments demanding the resignation of Francesca Albanese, the UN Special Rapporteur for the Palestinian Territory occupied since 1967. The calls for her removal stem from recent statements perceived as anti-Israel.
“We are very worried. We are concerned that UN officials, independent experts and judicial officials are increasingly subjected to personal attacks, threats and misinformation that distracts from the serious human rights issues,” UN human rights office spokesperson Marta Hurtado stated during a press briefing in Geneva.
UN rapporteurs are appointed by the Geneva-based Human Rights Council to monitor and document specific human rights crises, operating independently from the organization itself.
While there is no established precedent for removing a special rapporteur mid-term, diplomats suggest that member states of the 47-member council could theoretically propose a motion to do so. However, they also noted the strong support for Palestinian rights within the body makes such a motion unlikely to succeed against Albanese, who was appointed in 2022 and is scheduled to complete her term in 2028.
The controversy ignited after Albanese spoke via videoconference at a forum in Doha, Qatar, organized by the Al Jazeera network on Saturday. During the forum, she referenced a “common enemy” that she asserted was enabling Israel’s actions in Gaza – a characterization Israel strongly rejects. She has been repeatedly accused of antisemitism and extremist rhetoric toward Israel.
Pro-Israel activists interpreted Albanese’s remarks as directly labeling Israel as the “common enemy,” a claim she has denied. She subsequently posted an unedited clip of her comments on social media, clarifying that the “common enemy of humanity is THE SYSTEM that has enabled the genocide in Palestine, including the financial capital that funds it, the algorithms that obscure it and the weapons that enable it.”
The Czech Republic’s Foreign Minister Petr Macinka, a staunch supporter of Israel within the European Union, quoted Albanese on X (formerly Twitter) as having called Israel a “common enemy of humanity,” and subsequently called for her resignation on Friday.
German Foreign Minister Johann Wadephul stated on Thursday that Albanese’s position was “untenable,” while French Foreign Minister Jean-Noel Barrot accused her of making “outrageous and reprehensible remarks” against Israel. Austria and Italy, Albanese’s home country, also expressed the view that her comments rendered her unsuitable for her post.
Albanese has a documented history of statements that have been criticized as antisemitic, anti-Israel, and pro-Hamas.
On October 11, 2023, just days after the October 7th attacks, Albanese reportedly expressed doubt regarding reports of rape and sexual violence, suggesting instead that the US and Israel were disseminating these claims to escalate tensions. She also stated that Israel had no right to self-defense following the Hamas invasion, suggested Israelis should be “considered suspect” and investigated when abroad, and called for other countries to halt pharmaceutical exports to Israel. She characterized Israel as a “genocidal society” and positioned the Jewish state as an impediment to global justice.
During a gathering at Harvard University, she stated that when Hamas refers to killing Jews (Yahudi), they do not actually mean Jews.
She has also dismissed accusations that UNRWA employees participated in the October 7th massacre as “fallacious allegations,” despite evidence supporting those claims. Last November, she posted a cartoon denouncing Israel, which experts said echoed age-old antisemitic tropes.
Last year, the US government sanctioned Albanese for her “unabashed antisemitism” alongside other international legal figures. The European calls for her resignation followed a letter from the Trump administration in June demanding her removal, alleging “virulent antisemitism and support for terrorism.”
Responding to the latest calls for her resignation, Albanese posted on X overnight, stating that European governments “accuse me — based on statements I never made — with a virulence and conviction that they have NEVER used against those who have slaughtered 20,000+ children in 858 days” since the Hamas-led onslaught of October 7, 2023, which sparked the war in Gaza.
Albanese was citing figures from Gaza’s Hamas-run health ministry, which reports a death toll exceeding 72,000 people, including over 500 since the October 2025 ceasefire. The toll does not differentiate between civilians and combatants.
The Israeli military believes Hamas’s overall toll is largely accurate, with IDF officials estimating that two to three civilians were killed for every combatant.
The IDF claims to have killed over 23,000 combatants in Gaza and another 1,600 terrorists inside Israel during the October 7th onslaught. Israel maintains its commitment to minimizing civilian fatalities and asserts that Hamas uses Gaza’s civilians as human shields, operating from civilian areas, including homes, hospitals, schools, and mosques.
