Francesca Albanese, an Italian lawyer and scholar, is the United Nations’ Special Rapporteur on the Occupied Palestinian Territories, comprising the West Bank, Gaza Strip and East Jerusalem. Her job is to report to the UN on the human rights situation in these territories.
Since its inception in 1993, the role of rapporteur has been controversial and at times adversarial. Previous appointees were regularly castigated by Israeli governments and pro-Israel lobby groups for their perceived biases against Israel.
The same is true for Albanese. Since she assumed her position in May 2022, she has been an outspoken and persistent critic of Israel’s occupation and especially its war on Gaza. She has argued that Israel’s actions amount to genocide.
