The three-year extension of Francesca Albanese’s role as a U.N. special rapporteur is “invalid” and “without any legal effect,” Hillel Neuer, executive director of UN Watch, wrote on Monday to António Guterres, the U.N. secretary-general.
Albanese, who has a long history of anti-Israel bias, began her second and final three-year term on Thursday. Neuer wrote to Guterres that the global body didn’t follow the proper process to extend Albanese’s mandate.
Jürg Lauber, the president of the U.N. Human Rights Council, failed to present letters from the Argentine, Hungarian and Israeli governments, and from Rep. Brian Mast (R-Fla.), chair of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, to the council, which is responsible for Albanese’s appointment. In the letters, the countries and the congressman opposed her reappointment, stating that she had repeatedly violated the terms of her mandate.
Per the Human Rights Council’s rules, the council president “will convey” any information that he or she is provided, including from states, “concerning cases of persistent non-compliance by a mandate-holder” before that person’s mandate is renewed, Neuer noted.
The council’s procedures call for it to “consider such information and act upon it as appropriate,” Neuer added. Only “in the absence of the above-mentioned information, the terms in office of the mandate-holders shall be extended for a second three-year term by the council,” the council’s rules state.
Lauber abdicated his responsibility by sharing the letters opposing Albanese’s reinstatement only with the special procedures office, but not with council members. (The special rapporteurs and independent “experts” in the special procedures office stated last year that Albanese was falsely accused and denounced her accusers.)
JNS asked Lauber about the allegations during a U.N. press briefing on April 25. “If there are allegations, they go to the coordination committee,” he told JNS. “The coordination committee looks into it, and if the coordination committee again concludes that there is persistent non-compliance with the code of conduct, there will be a communication through the president to the council to see whether the council wants to take any measures upon this conclusion.”
The special procedures office hasn’t said publicly—nor has any other U.N. entity—that it forwarded the letters to the council for consideration.
Neuer also wrote to Marco Rubio, the U.S. secretary of state, stating that Albanese’s reappointment was “illegally carried out in violation of express U.N. rules requiring investigation of her misconduct, rendering her term renewal null and void.”
Albanese “holds no U.N. mandate, no immunity and can be sanctioned and denied entry,” he wrote.
Neuer advised Rubio to sanction Albanese, deny her entry to the United States and “affirm that she no longer benefits from any form of diplomatic immunity” and is now “subject to civil and criminal legal proceedings in U.S. courts.” (JNS sought comment from the U.S. State Department.)
“As you have emphasized, individuals who endorse or abet terrorist organizations must face consequences, including visa denial,” he wrote. “Francesca Albanese’s abuse of a global platform to spread hatred and legitimize terrorism demands an unequivocal response.”