UN refers Albanese probe, for alleged pro-Hamas funded trips, to colleagues who defended her

MIKE WAGENHEIM

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Francesca Albanese, U.N. special rapporteur to the Palestinians, during a session of the UN Human Rights Council, in Geneva, on March 26, 2024. Photo by Fabrice Coffrini/AFP via Getty Images.

The Magna Carta entitles the accused to a “lawful judgment of his peers.” The United Nations appears to take that literally in assigning an investigation of Francesca Albanese, special rapporteur for the Palestinians, to her colleagues in the global body’s Coordination Committee for Special Procedures.

Not only will the six special rapporteurs and independent experts on the committee—all unpaid advisers to the United Nations who essentially hold the same role as Albanese—judge whether their colleague indeed traveled on the dime of pro-Hamas groups, in violation of U.N. rules, but the sextet publicly supported Albanese against the same accusations that it is now probing.

“It would be a travesty of justice for the high commissioner to pass the buck in this case, particularly because the coordination committee has already pronounced itself on this matter, in at least two statements,” Hillel Neuer, executive director of the Geneva-based nonprofit UN Watch, told JNS.

The U.N. Office of Internal Oversight Services told Neuer on June 26 that it had referred the allegations against Albanese to Volker Turk, U.N. high commissioner for human rights, for “attention and appropriate action,” Neuer told JNS.

That correspondence came hours after the publication of a widely-circulated video clip of JNS asking a U.N. spokesman why Albanese and other of the global body’s entities refused or ignored requests to clarify or refute details of accusations that she traveled to Australia and New Zealand on trips funded by pro-Hamnas lobbying groups.

Turk has no jurisdiction over the matter and sent the complaint to the Coordination Committee for Special Procedures, a spokeswoman for the U.N. high commissioner for human rights told JNS.

‘Unfounded allegations’

The U.N. Human Rights Council appoints the special rapporteurs and “independent experts” who make up the committee and serve on a voluntary basis. All of the committee members, and Albanese, fall under the U.N. “special procedures” category and are considered to be technically independent of the global body.

By design, U.N. officials do not challenge the work and public statements of the committee, which is supposed to follow established procedures, including operating with “integrity, independence and impartiality,” in its investigation of Albanese.

On May 16, all six members of the committee issued a statement defending unnamed “U.N. human rights experts” from attacks, including “unfounded allegations of misuse of resources and claims of bias and unprofessional conduct intended to damage reputations, on social media, during U.N. meetings and even when experts are on official country visits.”

Although the committee didn’t name Albanese, it did state that “our colleagues addressing the situation in the Occupied Palestinian Territory and Israel face severe targeting in social media and baseless accusations that question their integrity and motivations.” Albanese’s mandate covers that region.

Officials of the U.N. special procedures unit are supposed to document their travel in the unit’s annual report; however, Albanese’s trips to Australia and New Zealand, which UN Watch estimates to have cost more than $20,000, do not appear. That, the nonprofit says, calls into question whether Albanese’s stays were official visits.

JNS sought comment repeatedly from Albanese’s office about the source or sources of funding for the trip to the two countries. Three U.N. offices—that of Secretary-General António Guterres, the Human Rights Council and special procedures—declined to respond to a JNS question on whether they could demonstrate that the global body funded Albanese’s trip to the two countries.

Several pro-Hamas groups have said that they supported the trips and one publicly claimed that it sponsored the trip. Albanese has denied the charge that pro-Hamas groups funded her travel on her social media account, and she has also said that allegations that her staff accepted honoraria outside established frameworks are untrue. She has not provided evidence publicly that disproves the allegations.

The United Nations pays for some of the expenses of those in its special procedures unit via a designated budget, and officials are permitted to fundraise from states and private donors, all of which they are supposed to include in their annual report.

Accepting payment, including for travel, and honoraria from “any governmental or non-governmental source” for “activities carried out in pursuit” of the special rapporteur’s mandate is prohibited, per the United Nations.

‘Total disregard for rules and regulations’

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