NEW YORK CITY: A UN human rights investigator said Western nations share responsibility for the devastation in Gaza. She accused them of enabling a “full-fledged genocide” against Palestinians, and warned that the UN itself is becoming “more and more irrelevant.”
Francesca Albanese, the UN’s special rapporteur on the situation of human rights in the Palestinian territories, presented her latest report to the General Assembly’s Third Committee on Tuesday.
She said that the UN had “failed miserably” to uphold international law and protect civilians in Gaza.
“The United Nations was set up to protect peace and stability, to prevent conflicts, and for a long time it did,” Albanese told Arab News.
“But in Gaza, it has failed miserably … it has failed to enforce international law, which for me as a lawyer is the most serious responsibility.”
The UN had allowed the “near-complete dismantlement of its humanitarian function” in Gaza, she continued, citing in particular the blow suffered by the organization’s agency for Palestinian refugees, UNRWA. Israel banned the agency from operating in Israel and Palestinian territories in January this year following allegations that a small number of its staff were involved in the Oct. 7 attacks.
“Member states have not been able to contain or isolate the two states creating a threat to peace and security in the region: Israel and the United States,” Albanese said.
“I’m sorry to say this because, of course, I would like to see the United Nations rise and straighten its back and stand solid and principled into the future. But the United Nations is becoming more and more irrelevant, I’m afraid.”
Albanese also criticized world governments for failing to challenge the US over the sanctions it imposed on her in July over her work for the UN investigating human rights abuses in Palestinian territories. The measures hindered her ability to present her latest findings in person.
Speaking to the General Assembly committee via video link from South Africa, she described the sanctions as “unlawful and spiteful” and said the international community “should already have confronted this dangerous precedent.”
She added: “These measures are an assault on the UN itself — on its independence, its integrity, its very soul,” she said.
Asked whether UN officials, including Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, had supported her during this period, Albanese declined to comment.
Her report accuses Western governments of providing military, political and economic support that has sustained Israel’s occupation and military campaign in Gaza.
“Without the direct participation, aid and assistance of other states, the prolonged unlawful Israeli occupation could not have been sustained,” she said.
Israel’s actions in Gaza since October 2023 “have escalated its violence to an unprecedented level,” she continued, and “the ongoing genocide of the Palestinians must be understood as an internationally enabled crime.”
Albanese told the committee: “Many states, primarily Western ones, have facilitated, legitimized and eventually normalized the genocidal campaign perpetrated by Israel.
“By portraying Palestinian civilians as ‘human shields,’ and the broader onslaught in Gaza as a battle of civilization against barbarism, they have reproduced Israeli distortions of international law, and colonial tropes.”
Asked by Arab News whether the crisis threatens “the survival of the UN itself,” Albanese said the situation “is apocalyptic … it’s showing the apocalyptic destruction in Gaza, but also revealing who we are, as individuals, as communities, as states, as organizations.”
Despite her criticisms, Albanese said international law “still has a different story — it allows us to distinguish between wrong and right.” She added that “today, international law is spoken by the masses: against genocide, against apartheid, against Israel’s crimes.”
She urged all governments to “immediately suspend and review all military, diplomatic and economic relations with Israel, as any such engagement could represent means to aid, assist or directly participate in unlawful acts, including war crimes, crimes against humanity and genocide.”
She warned that “no state can credibly claim adherence to international law while arming, supporting or shielding a genocidal regime.”
Among her recommendations, Albanese called on UN member states to “exert pressure for a complete and permanent ceasefire and full withdrawal of Israeli troops,” to end the siege of Gaza and reopen its airport and port, and to “suspend Israel from the United Nations under Article 6 of the UN Charter.” Article 6 states that a member state that persistently violates the principles of the Charter can be expelled by the General Assembly.
She said: “Complicity in genocide must end. The world is watching Gaza, and the whole of Palestine. States must step up to their responsibilities.”
Israel’s ambassador to the UN, Danny Danon, rejected Albanese’s findings.
“You have tried to curse Israel with lies and hatred but your poison has failed,” he told her during the committee session. “You are a witch and this report is another page in your spell book.
“You wrap your bias in the language of law, hoping it will hide what it really is: Hamas propaganda.”
Special rapporteurs are part of what is known as the special procedures of the UN Human Rights Council. They are independent experts who work on a voluntary basis, are not members of UN staff and are not paid for their work.