The United Nations shouldn’t be allowed to assert that Francesca Albanese, a U.N. special rapporteur, holds immunity in a civil lawsuit in which two U.S. Christian charities allege that she defamed them, the National Jewish Advocacy Center said last week.
The center represents Christian Friends of Israeli Communities and Christians for Israel USA. It said in a filing last week that Albanese was improperly granted a second term as an unpaid U.N. adviser—what the global body calls an “independent expert”—which nullifies her mandate.
The National Jewish Advocacy Center also told the court that Albanese has no claim of immunity after the U.S. federal government sanctioned her for harassing and intimidating American businesses and organizations with ties to Israel.
A federal magistrate judge in the U.S. District Court for the District of Colorado recommended last week that the court grant a motion, made on the last day before Albanese was to default, letting the United Nations intervene.
“Special rapporteur Albanese is an expert on mission for the United Nations and enjoys immunity from legal process of every kind in connection with the performance of her mission, including in relation to this complaint,” Stéphane Dujarric, a spokesman for U.N. Secretary-General António Guterres, told JNS.
“You will appreciate that we cannot discuss the details of this case,” Dujarric said.
The charities were among those who received threatening letters from Albanese as she readied a report, in which she alleged that nonprofits and others involved with Israel could face war crimes and crimes against humanity charges in international court
The report led Washington to sanction Albanese, whom Jewish and other groups have long accused of antisemitism.
The two charities accuse Albanese of making false statements tying them to “genocide” and war crimes in Gaza and “knowingly spreading malicious lies.”
The two say that they focus on building friendships between Christians and Jews and supporting communities in Israel. Albanese’s accusations caused them reputational harm and hindered their ability to carry out their work, they allege. They also say that Albanese intended to cause them such harm.
Albanese accused Christians for Israel of financially supporting Jewish communities in Judea and Samaria and training residents on using guns. The nonprofit said that claims of military aid are false and that it is involved in humanitarian aid to prospective and new immigrants to Israel and elderly Holocaust survivors and assistance for Arab Christians in the region.
Christian Friends of Israeli Communities said that it supports projects for disabled and elderly Israelis and children in Judea and Samaria.
The latter nonprofit faces “a serious risk of being implicated in international crimes” that may result in “criminality liability,” Albanese threatened in her letter.
The plaintiffs are asking the court to force Albanese to retract her statements, refrain from making them again and pay monetary damages.
In their objections to the magistrate’s decision, the plaintiffs say that the judge wrongly asserted that the charities say that Albanese acted outside the scope of her immunity. Instead, they said, she doesn’t hold immunity.
Questions raised over Albanese’s second term
The U.N. Human Rights Council reportedly didn’t follow its procedures when it appointed Albanese to a second term in 2025.
Jürg Lauber, then council president, 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 and said that she had repeatedly violated the terms of her mandate.
According to the Human Rights Council’s rules, the council president “will convey,” which means has to pass along, 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.
The council’s procedures call for it to “consider such information and act upon it as appropriate.”
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 say.
Lauber’s failure to pass along the information made Albanese’s second term illegitimate, stripping her of any immunity, the plaintiffs say.
The judge’s recommendation “also overlooks the position of the U.S. government, to which courts defer on immunity questions,” they wrote. “The government treated Albanese as subject to its laws by sanctioning her and has continued to do so by defending that designation in a lawsuit filed by Albanese’s family challenging the sanctions.”
The plaintiffs are also challenging whether the United Nations can be allowed to intervene in a case when it says it isn’t bound by the court’s decision because of its claimed immunities.
Albanese tried to escape service of the lawsuit in 2025. She appeared to have been properly served last year while visiting South Africa, but the South African government later said that the service was not properly authorized. It made that claim although a document showed that a high-ranking South African justice department official had approved it.
In May, a U.S. district court acknowledged that the suit had been properly served via email and social media to Albanese, who is believed to be in Tunisia. The case was allowed to move forward.
Albanese has repeatedly made antisemitic statements. Last week, she told the Irish Parliament’s European affairs committee that “Israel has always killed children, extrajudicial killings, arbitrary detention, the use of torture, even rape.”
“You know it when you read the testimonies of people who have been tortured, have been raped, raped by dogs trained in European countries,” she said. “European people are profiting from selling dogs that will rape people.”
Experts have said that dogs cannot be trained to rape.
“Every time this lunatic speaks, she dishonors the work of U.N. employees in the field who risk their lives to deliver food, medicine and shelter in some of the remotest locations on earth,” wrote Jeff Bartos, U.S. ambassador to the United Nations for management and reform, in response to Albanese’s claim.
“Where is the leadership of the so-called human rights pillar when one of its own foments hatred and spreads blood libels, all to applause from far too many member states?” Bartos stated.
Dujarric told JNS that he “has repeatedly defended the institution of special rapporteurs but underscores the secretary-general does not hire the special rapporteurs, who report to the president of the Security Council.”
