‘Rules for the rest but not for the West’? US sanctions on Francesca Albanese condemned

The US sanctions on UN Human Rights Council special rapporteur Francesca Albanese come barely a week after she presented the explosive report, 'From Economy of Occupation to Economy of Genocide' — exposing the complicity of multinational corporations with Israel’s genocide in Gaza — on 1 July. The meticulously prepared report showed how companies, including Google, Meta and even universities like MIT and multinational banks have profited from Israel’s genocidal acts.

"I am not the story, the story is that Palestinians risk being erased...the only way to comply with international law is imposing sanctions against Israel. May this be the last genocide in human history," Albanese was quoted as saying in the hours after the sanctions were announced. Even as support for her poured in from across the world with outrage at the US action, the overwhelming response of human rights activists has been that she is the one who deserves a Nobel Peace Prize, not Donald Trump.

Days before the sanctions were announced by the US, Albanese wryly reacted to reports that two multinational banks, namely UBS and Goldman Sachs, had refused to open a Swiss Bank account for the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF), the controversial US-Israeli backed organisation that began distributing humanitarian aid to civilians in Gaza after bypassing the United Nations and other channels.

“Banks can do the right thing, when they want. And in the face of the ongoing destruction of Gaza, it is better they do the right thing as they and their executives can be held accountable for aiding and assisting crimes,” Albanese asserted.

It is, therefore, not difficult to see why the United States and Israel are so upset with her. Hours before US Secretary of State Marco Rubio announced the sanctions, the Italian human rights lawyer posted on social media, “The governments of Italy, France, and Greece must explain why they provided airspace and safe passage to ICC-wanted Benjamin Netanyahu, whom they are obligated to arrest. Italian, French and Greek citizens deserve to know that every political action violating the international legal order, weakens and endangers all of them. And all of us.”

The post, when Netanyahu was still in the US and had just had dinner at the White House, was apparently deemed the last straw. Rubio retaliated with a post of his own.

“Today I am imposing sanctions on UN Human Rights Council Special Rapporteur Francesca Albanese for her illegitimate and shameful efforts to prompt @IntlCrimCourt action against U.S. and Israeli officials, companies, and executives. Albanese’s campaign of political and economic warfare against the United States and Israel will no longer be tolerated. We will always stand by our partners in their right to self-defence. The United States will continue to take whatever actions we deem necessary to respond to lawfare (sic) and protect our sovereignty and that of our allies.”

Rubio’s post appeared to suggest that it was Albanese who had threatened the sovereignty of the US and Israel. It was not, however, immediately clear what the sanctions would involve but the immediate question people began to ask was whether Albanese would be able to travel to the UN headquarters in New York with her diplomatic passport; and how the EU, the UK, the United Nations and the UN General Assembly would react to the sanctions.

“Special Rapporteurs are not appointed to please governments or to be popular but to deliver their mandate. Francesca Albanese’s mandate is to advocate for human rights and international law,” Amnesty International secretary Agnes Calamard said in a statement.

“Following the recent sanctions against the International Criminal Court, the measures announced today are a continuation of the Trump administration’s assault on international law and its efforts to protect the Israeli government from accountability at all costs.

"They are the latest in a series of Trump administration policies seeking to intimidate and silence those that dare speak out for Palestinians’ human rights. Instead of attacking the Special Rapporteur and further undermining the rule-based order, the US government should focus on putting an end to its unconditional support to Israel, enabling total impunity for its crimes in the Occupied Palestinian Territory,” her statement added.