Media release: UN Watch…

UN Watch Files Proceedings to Expel Francesca Albanese

The United Nations has opened an investigation into allegations that Francesca Albanese [pictured], the controversial UN monitor tasked with investigating “Israel’s violations,” illegally accepted funding from pro-Hamas groups for an estimated $20,000 trip to Australia and New Zealand, in which she lobbied a major pension fund to divest from Israel.

The investigations division of the UN’s Office of Internal Oversight Services recently announced that it has opened a case into allegations of financial improprieties by Francesca Albanese.

Albanese claimed the UN paid for her trip to Australia, but the UN spokesman refused to confirm her claim, despite being asked repeatedly by i24News. A pro-Hamas lobby group in Australia initially boasted that it “sponsored” her trip.

A UN human rights office spokesperson yesterday claimed that Albanese is mandated to examine all human rights issues in the Palestinian territories, but in fact the the UN Special Rapporteur is tasked only with monitoring “Israel’s violations”.

A former lawyer with UNRWA who co-founded a global network to lobby against Israel, Albanese recently became the first UN human rights rapporteur in the history of the United Nations to be condemned by France and Germany for antisemitism.

Albanese was also censured in 2022 by the US Special Envoy to Combat Antisemitism, after it was revealed she had published a fundraising appeal for UNRWA claiming that “America is subjugated by the Jewish lobby.”

In 2023, a bipartisan group of 18 lawmakers condemned her refusal to denounce terrorism against Israelis.

The new UN investigation, which OIOS said would be conducted by High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Turk, was sparked by a complaint filed in June by United Nations Watch, an independent non-governmental organization based in Geneva.

In wake of the investigation, UN Watch announced that today it has filed proceedings with the United Nations to remove Albanese.

In a draft resolution submitted to the President of the Human Rights Council, executive director Hillel Neuer called on the 47-nation body to terminate Albanese’s mandate on account of her financial improprieties, as well as her repeated statements inciting antisemitism and justifying Hamas terrorism.

Neuer wrote today to US Secretary of State Antony Blinken urging Washington to support the resolution.

“The US was one of several democracies that, despite our appeals before and after her appointment, inexplicably failed to object when Albanese’s name was brought to the Council floor on April 1, 2022. So we trust that now, after having condemned her repeatedly for inciting Hamas terrorism and antisemitism, the US will do the right thing and present the resolution to finally remove her.”

“Francesca Albanese abuses her UN position to incessantly spew antisemitism and Hamas propaganda, on social media, on TV, and in her reports. Every day that she remains in office casts a shadow upon the human rights council and the United Nations as a whole,” said Neuer.

An online petition launched by UN Watch has already garnered 20,000 signatories.

Read more here.