An international lawyer and Italian academic researcher, she assumed the position of Special Rapporteur on human rights in the occupied Palestinian territories in May 2022. She is distinguished by her positions in support of the Palestinian cause and all just causes based on international law, and calls for finding just solutions to the Palestinian-Israeli conflict.
She was subjected to smear campaigns and attacks because of her principled positions that emphasize the necessity of ending the Israeli occupation and achieving just solutions to the Palestinian issue.
Birth and upbringing
Francesca Albanese was born in 1977 in the city of Ariano Erbino, southern Italy, and grew up in a political and legal family in which political and social issues such as the right of peoples to self-determination were constantly discussed.
Her first memories of foreign affairs were images of the Sabra and Shatila massacre in Lebanon in 1982, and this was the first time she heard about Palestinian refugees.
She is always proud of her hometown, which she said has people who contributed to her education and upbringing on precious values, which are land, justice, and freedom.
She lives in Tunisia, and is married and has two children to Massimiliano Cali, the responsible economist at the World Bank since 2012, who was working as an economic advisor to the Palestinian Ministry of National Economy in Ramallah.
Study and academic path
Francesca received her primary, secondary and university education in Italy, obtaining a Bachelor of Laws with distinction from the University of Pisa.
She then obtained a master’s degree in law from the School of Oriental and African Studies in London, a stage that was special for her, as she says that she learned the importance of law in the Palestinian-Israeli conflict.
Francesca Albanese is writing her doctoral thesis in international refugee law at the University of Amsterdam Law School in the Netherlands. She is also a researcher at the Institute for the Study of International Migration at Georgetown University in the United States of America and the Issam Fares Institute of the American University of Beirut.
In addition, the UN official holds the position of senior advisor on migration and forced displacement at a specialized research center affiliated with the Arab Renaissance Organization for Democracy and Development.
She also lectures on the “Palestinian refugee issue” at a number of universities and research centers, including the “MICAD” program, which is a graduate level program specializing in sustainable development affiliated with the University of Bethlehem in the West Bank.
Professional experiences
Albanese was appointed Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in the Palestinian territories occupied in 1967. She was appointed to this position by the United Nations Human Rights Council at its forty-ninth session held in March 2022, and she assumed her duties on May 1 of the same year.
She worked at the United Nations between 2003 and 2013, including in the Legal Affairs Department of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA), based in Jerusalem, and the United Nations Development Programme/Morocco branch.
She also worked in the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights at the United Nations in Geneva, and her work included national human rights institutions in the Middle East and North Africa region and then the Asia-Pacific region.
Francesca Albanese has had diverse professional experiences including advising governments and civil society in the Middle East and Southeast Asia on human rights issues, protecting refugees and asylum seekers, and monitoring justice and transparency of electoral processes, such as the European Delegation in Haiti, Guinea Bissau and Pakistan.
She also worked as a technical advisor to the American non-governmental organization “Project International Concern” on protection issues during the Ebola outbreak in West Africa in 2014, and participated in many international conferences and events, usually focusing on the legal status of the State of Palestine.
Writings and books
During her academic and professional career, she published numerous research papers and publications on the legal situation in Israel and Palestine, including:
- Rethinking solutions for Palestinian refugees.
- Voices of Palestine Refugee Youth in the Near East: Social and Political Participation and Aspirations.
- The Palestinian refugee issue: root causes and breaking the stalemate.
- UNRWA and the rights of Palestinian refugees: new attacks and new challenges.
- Palestinian Refugees in Southeast Asia: New Frontiers for 70 Years of Exile.
In 1998, she wrote the book “Palestinian Refugees in International Law” (Oxford University Press), and in 2020 she published a new edition of the book, co-authored with Professor Lex Tackenberg, former Director of Operations for UNRWA, in which they presented a comprehensive legal analysis of the situation of Palestinian refugees. .
In April 2023, she won the Stefano Chiarini International Award in Italy, an award given to those who contribute to raising awareness of the humanitarian situation in Palestine.
Smear campaigns
The appointment of Albanese as a United Nations Special Rapporteur on the occupied Palestinian territories sparked controversy due to previous statements she made regarding the Holocaust and the Jewish lobby. Some parties accused her of being “anti-Semitic,” while Albanese confirmed that she was not, and that her criticism of Israel was linked to its occupation and violations in the Palestinian territories. .
She was subjected to a campaign and calls to remove her from her position, especially from Israel and the United States. In February 2023, 18 members of the US Congress belonging to the Republican and Democratic parties called on United Nations officials to remove Albanese on the grounds that she was “anti-Semitic” and “biased” against Israel.
It was supported by international organizations and figures, including Amnesty International, and former rapporteurs at the United Nations.
Because of her defense of the Palestinians’ right to their land and her opposition to the Israeli occupation, Albanese was also subjected to a defamation and targeting campaign, as she was accused of receiving money from the Palestinians.
Positions and opinions
On October 18, 2022, Albanese recommended in her first report that UN member states should develop “a plan to end Israel’s settler-colonial occupation and apartheid regime.”
She is known for interacting on the “X” platform with what is happening in Palestine, and following the latest developments. In December 2023, she considered the Israeli attack on the health system in the Gaza Strip to be “the most severe form of sadism.”
On February 12, 2024, Israel announced that it had prevented Francesca from entering the occupied territories, due to her statements related to the “Al-Aqsa Flood” operation carried out by the Palestinian resistance on October 7, 2023 on the settlements surrounding the Gaza Strip.
In March 2024, it submitted a report to the Human Rights Council in Geneva, in which it stated that Israel had committed “acts of genocide against the Palestinians in Gaza,” and that the extent of the destruction that had occurred “indicates its intention to destroy them.”
In its report titled “Anatomy of a Genocide,” it revealed that “the ceiling has been reached indicating that acts of genocide have been committed against the Palestinians in Gaza.”
She announced that she had received threats while working on the report without disclosing their nature, and stressed that this would not deter her from her work and would not prompt her to change its results.
Despite the threats and counter-campaigns that Albanese has been subjected to, she does not stop supporting every cause she deems just, through social media. On May 5, 2024, it announced on the “X” platform its solidarity with Dr. Ghassan Abu Sitta, the British-Palestinian doctor, one of the survivors of the Baptist Hospital massacre, which was targeted by the Israeli occupation during its aggression against the Gaza Strip.
Albanese wrote, “As a European, I apologize to Dr. Ghassan Abu Sitta for the ban on him entering European countries imposed by Germany, which has reached a new level in defending the genocide committed by Israel,” and called for him to be received with what he deserves as a courageous and principled person.
On October 18, 2024, she said that killing civilians without trial is part of the systematic and widespread practices committed by the Israeli occupation in the Gaza Strip. She added that Palestinians, including children, are exposed to these practices repeatedly, and that they are not isolated incidents at all.
Commenting on the siege imposed by the Israeli occupation army on the northern Gaza Strip, she indicated that Israeli forces are carrying out a new massacre there, and described what is happening in Jabalia as a “brutal killing with Western support.”
