Ramallah – SABA
Palestinian prisoner advocacy organizations strongly condemned on Sunday the U.S. sanctions imposed on Francesca Albanese, the UN Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in the occupied Palestinian territories. They described the move as illegal and in direct violation of international law and fundamental human rights principles.
In a joint statement, the organizations said the sanctions send a clear message of intimidation to the global human rights system and represent a dangerous attempt to undermine its role in protecting human rights and holding violators accountable.
They praised Albanese for her courageous legal work and her professional, ethical stance in exposing the crimes committed by the Israeli occupation, as well as highlighting the complicity of international powers supporting these crimes.
The statement emphasized that these sanctions demonstrate U.S. alignment with Israel’s aggression against Gaza and reinforce Washington’s role as a direct adversary to humanitarian justice.
The institutions called on the international community and its legal and human rights bodies to take urgent and serious action to reverse the sanctions and to protect the integrity and credibility of the international human rights system.
The Biden administration (erroneously referenced in the original as Trump) had announced the sanctions on Wednesday, marking a new effort to punish critics of Israeli actions. Albanese, a human rights lawyer, has accused Israel of committing genocide in Gaza — a stance backed by legal scholars and genocide experts who support calls for an end to Israeli aggression and accountability for its perpetrators.