A U.N. special rapporteur has been sanctioned by the United States over her work as an independent investigator scrutinizing human rights abuses in the Palestinian territories, with Washington decrying what it called a ''campaign of political and economic warfare'' against the U.S. and Israel.
Francesca Albanese is a high-profile member of a group of experts chosen by the 47-member U.N. Human Rights Council in Geneva. They report to the body as a means of monitoring human rights records in various countries and the global observance of specific rights.
Special rapporteurs don't represent the U.N. and have no formal authority. Still, their reports can step up pressure on countries, while their findings inform prosecutors at the International Criminal Court and other venues working on transnational justice cases.
U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio said in a statement announcing sanctions against Albanese on Wednesday that she ''has spewed unabashed antisemitism, expressed support for terrorism, and open contempt for the United States, Israel and the West.''
Albanese said Thursday that she believed the sanctions were ''calculated to weaken my mission.'' She said at a news conference in Slovenia that ''I'll continue to do what I have to do.''
She questioned why she had been sanctioned — ''for having exposed a genocide? For having denounced the system? They never challenged me on the facts.''
The U.N. high commissioner for human rights, Volker Türk, called for a ''prompt reversal'' of the U.S. sanctions. He added that ''even in face of fierce disagreement, U.N. member states should engage substantively and constructively, rather than resort to punitive measures.''
Prominent expert