Controversial UN rapporteur faces backlash over anti-Israel report concentrating on corporations

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A United Nations report concentrating on Israel and corporations that function throughout the nation entitled "Economic system of Occupation to Economic system of Genocide" is sparking backlash and concern.

The report was authored and introduced by U.N. Particular Rapporteur on the Occupied Palestinian Territories Francesca Albanese, a controversial determine who has been condemned by a number of nations for making allegedly antisemitic remarks. In her latest report , she requires sanctions in opposition to "entities and people concerned in actions that will endanger the Palestinians."

UN Particular Rapporteur for the Occupied Palestinian Territories, Francesca Albanese offers a press convention on the UN Metropolis in Copenhagen, Denmark February 5, 2025. (Ritzau Scanpix/Ida Marie Odgaard through REUTERS )

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NGO Monitor Authorized Advisor Anne Herzberg mentioned that whereas it’s not shocking that Albanese would challenge a scathing report on Israel, as she has completed so many occasions up to now, this newest report was distinctive.

"I feel that the distinction now could be that this report explicitly endorses adopting BDS — boycott, divestment, and sanctions in opposition to Israel — in a really overt manner," Herzberg advised Fox Information Digital. She added that although Albanese is an unbiased investigator, the report may very well be interpreted because the U.N. supporting the BDS motion against Israel .

In response to a Fox Information Digital request for remark, the Workplace of the U.N. Excessive Commissioner for Human Rights mentioned "particular procedures consultants," like Albanese "work on a voluntary foundation," don't obtain a wage and usually are not U.N. workers.

"Whereas the U.N. Human Rights workplace acts because the secretariat for particular procedures, the consultants serve of their particular person capability and are unbiased from any authorities or group, together with OHCHR and the U.N.," OHCHR’s media crew advised Fox Information Digital. "Any views or opinions introduced are solely these of the creator and don't essentially characterize these of the U.N. or OHCHR."

Human Rights Council on the United Nations in Geneva, Switzerland, on Feb. 26, 2025. (REUTERS/Denis Balibouse)

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Herzog advised Fox Information Digital that not solely did Albanese overstep the boundaries of her position, however so did the U.N. Human Rights Council (HRC), because it doesn't have the authority to challenge sanctions, one thing the report recommends.

"The U.N. Human Rights Council, which is the place she introduced her report, and that is beneath whose auspices she is working, doesn't have the facility beneath the U.N. constitution to challenge sanctions," Herzog mentioned. "And so not solely has she overstepped her mandate as a rapporteur, the U.N. Human Rights Council by endorsing this, not endorsing the report, however by permitting this report back to be printed."

Herzog mentioned she noticed "threatening and harassing" letters that Albanese despatched to corporations and NGOs "mainly threatening them with being included on her boycott listing and claiming that they had been complicit in worldwide crimes like genocide, apartheid, blocking self-determination or Palestinians."

Particular Rapporteur on the state of affairs of human rights within the occupied Palestinian territory, Francesca Albanese, speaks throughout a press convention on the European headquarters of the UN in Geneva, Switzerland, on Dec. 11, 2024. (REUTERS/Pierre Albouy)

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The United Nations Guiding Ideas on Enterprise and Human Rights is a voluntary code that corporations can signal on to as a pledge to be conscious of how their operations run and their prospects are handled. Herzog argued that Albanese "weaponizes this voluntary constructive, pluralistic framework" and that she does so improperly, making it a "binding punitive framework."

"Not solely is she distorting worldwide regulation, she’s distorting this UNGP framework, and I think that if such a exercise of hers positive aspects buy or different folks begin following in her footsteps, she’s going to be chargeable for mainly destroying the entire space of enterprise and human rights."

Albanese introduced her report back to the UNHRC on Thursday, simply two days after the U.S. referred to as for her elimination over her "years-long pattern of antisemitism and anti-Israel bias."

Within the report, Albanese claims that companies have aided Israel in "its ongoing genocidal marketing campaign in Gaza." She repeated this declare at UNHRC on Thursday, charging Israel with being "chargeable for one of many cruelest genocides in fashionable historical past." She additionally accused Israel of utilizing the warfare in Gaza as a testing floor for brand spanking new weapons "to exterminate a folks with out restraint."

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Israeli Ambassador to the U.N. in Geneva Daniel Meron, who was not current on the UNHRC assembly, advised Fox Information Digital that by means of her report Albanese is "willingly spearheading the worldwide efforts to advertise terrorism propaganda."

"This report, identical to all others by this rapporteur, is riddled with inflammatory rhetoric and is legally baseless," Meron advised Fox Information Digital. "Her obsession with demonizing Israel is evident within the narrative she pushes."