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Amnesty International on Friday called on European lawmakers to withdraw their call for Francesca Albanese, the UN special rapporteur on the situation of human rights in the Palestinian Territory occupied since 1967, to resign. Amnesty’s statement comes following the February 11 announcement by the French foreign minister, Jean-Noel Barrot, that France will call for Albanese’s immediate resignation at the opening of the UN Human Rights Council session on February 23.
In her statement, Amnesty International Secretary General Agnès Callamard called out ministers from Austria, Czechia, France, Germany, and Italy for their “attacks” on the UN special rapporteur. She claimed that the ministers have spread disinformation and that they must go beyond just deleting their inflammatory social media posts but must also publicly apologize to Albanese. She further called the campaign to discredit Albanese a “smokescreen to deflect attention away from Israel’s genocide in Gaza.” Callamard concluded by arguing that this is the moment where states should demonstrate their commitment to international law by holding Israel accountable, rather than “weaponizing disinformation” against Albanese.
The attacks by European foreign ministers were sparked by an edited video of Albanese speaking in Qatar at the Al Jazeera Forum. In the full, uncut video, Albanese states that humanity has a common enemy, the “system which has enabled the genocide in Palestine.” In the edited video, Albanese says, “Instead of stopping Israel, most of the world has armed, given it political excuses, political sheltering, economic and financial support,” before cutting the video to conclude, “[W]e now see that we as a humanity have a common enemy.”
The comments by Barrot have garnered harsh reactions abroad and domestically. The Association of Jurists for the Respect of International Law (JURDI), a group of French international lawyers, has filed a report to the French public prosecutor over the dissemination of false information. In their press release, JURDI stated that Minister Barrot’s portrayal of Albanese’s statements as hate speech targeting “Israel as a people and as a nation” is a “clear misrepresentation of [the statement’s] content.” They further stated that making these statements in an institutional setting “may constitute dissemination of false information” as it attributes statements to the UN special rapporteur which she neither made nor endorsed.
Albanese has been challenged by Western governments in the past for her role as a UN special rapporteur. In July 2025, the US President Donald Trump’s administration imposed sanctions on Albanese for “biased and malicious activities,” “spewed unabashed antisemitism,” and “expressed support for terrorism.” The sanctions were applied pursuant to Section 1(a)(ii)(A) of Executive Order (E.O.) 14203, which prevents the sanctioned person from using any property or interest held in the US or held by a “United States person.” Albanese has stated that these sanctions have made her a “non-person” as she can no longer open credit cards, receive reimbursement for medical expenses from US insurance companies, or book hotels.
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In her statement, Amnesty International Secretary General Agnès Callamard called out ministers from Austria, Czechia, France, Germany, and Italy for their “attacks” on the UN special rapporteur. She claimed that the ministers have spread disinformation and that they must go beyond just deleting their inflammatory social media posts but must also publicly apologize to Albanese. She further called the campaign to discredit Albanese a “smokescreen to deflect attention away from Israel’s genocide in Gaza.” Callamard concluded by arguing that this is the moment where states should demonstrate their commitment to international law by holding Israel accountable, rather than “weaponizing disinformation” against Albanese.
The attacks by European foreign ministers were sparked by an edited video of Albanese speaking in Qatar at the Al Jazeera Forum. In the full, uncut video, Albanese states that humanity has a common enemy, the “system which has enabled the genocide in Palestine.” In the edited video, Albanese says, “Instead of stopping Israel, most of the world has armed, given it political excuses, political sheltering, economic and financial support,” before cutting the video to conclude, “[W]e now see that we as a humanity have a common enemy.”
The comments by Barrot have garnered harsh reactions abroad and domestically. The Association of Jurists for the Respect of International Law (JURDI), a group of French international lawyers, has filed a report to the French public prosecutor over the dissemination of false information. In their press release, JURDI stated that Minister Barrot’s portrayal of Albanese’s statements as hate speech targeting “Israel as a people and as a nation” is a “clear misrepresentation of [the statement’s] content.” They further stated that making these statements in an institutional setting “may constitute dissemination of false information” as it attributes statements to the UN special rapporteur which she neither made nor endorsed.
Albanese has been challenged by Western governments in the past for her role as a UN special rapporteur. In July 2025, the US President Donald Trump’s administration imposed sanctions on Albanese for “biased and malicious activities,” “spewed unabashed antisemitism,” and “expressed support for terrorism.” The sanctions were applied pursuant to Section 1(a)(ii)(A) of Executive Order (E.O.) 14203, which prevents the sanctioned person from using any property or interest held in the US or held by a “United States person.” Albanese has stated that these sanctions have made her a “non-person” as she can no longer open credit cards, receive reimbursement for medical expenses from US insurance companies, or book hotels.
The post European states urged to withdraw statements against Francesca Albanese appeared first on JURIST - News.
Continue reading...
Note: We don't have any responsibilities about this news. Its been posted here by Feed Reader and we had no controls and checking on it. And because News posted here will be deleted automatically after 21 days, threads are closed so that no one spend time to post and discuss here. You can always check the source and discuss in their site.