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UN Watch Blasts Council President for Violating Duty to Address Information on Albanese's Gross Misconduct

KEY DEVELOPMENTS: UN Watch is leading the global campaign to stop the U.N. Human Rights Council's planned reappointment today of notorious antisemite and Hamas terrorism supporter Francesca Albanese.

Following are key developments:

• At the end of a meeting of the UNHRC leadership on Tuesday, Council President Jürg Lauber of Switzerland indicated that he planned to ignore his legal obligation under 8/PRST/2 to convey to the plenary numerous objections detailing Albanese's gross misconduct—as submitted by the U.S. Congress, UN Watch, and others—which the Council would then need to consider for appropriate action. Instead, without any legal basis, the President only pretended to take action by saying he would pass on the information to a toothless, irrelevant and completely compromised body called "the Coordination Committee" — which is made up of Albanese's cronies among the rapporteurs. In doing so, the President and UNHRC members—including France, Germany and the Netherlands—are shirking their duty to hold Albanese to account.

• In a coordinated action, this same Coordination Committee suddenly announced that they had investigated an old complaint, filed by UN Watch in June 2024, and they concluded that Francesca Albanese's tweets may seem antisemitic, but that they were “reassured” by her “detailed explanations.” 

• This Coordination Committee last year included Albanese's close ally Tlaleng Mofokeng of South Africa, the foul-mouthed special rapporteur on health, who recently called UN Watch's Hillel Neuer an “evil scum white man” after he called for her to be disciplined for tweeting “F**k off” to Israel's prime minster.

• In response to all of this, UN Watch has submitted an emergency Notice of Illegality to Secretary-General António Guterres, urging him to intervene on the serious procedural violations taking place in the reappointment of Albanese, and warning of the consequences. If her appointment goes through illegally, U.S. courts may decide to strip Albanese of UN immunity, leaving her open to law suits and possible sanctions ahead of her next U.S. visit.

Thanks to your support, UN Watch was able to rally powerful statements rejecting Albanese's renewal, as reported worldwide.

• In its letter to Secretary-General Guterres, the United States government declared that Albanese is “unfit for her role” and condemned her “virulent antisemitism, which demonizes Israel and supports Hamas,” stating that she “has clearly violated the UN’s code of conduct.”

• This week, Hungary formally opposed Albanese's reappointment, noting that “…the extension of Special Rapporteur Albanese’s tenure would send a regrettable message to victims, human rights defenders and those committed to credible multilateralism.”

• In addition, the governments of the Netherlands, Argentina, and Israel have also issued statements to oppose Albanese's renewal, and numerous French, German, and British parliamentarians have petitioned their nations to do the same.

• We thank our 100,000 supporters worldwide who signed the UN Watch petition to #FireFrancesca. This was formally submitted to the UN.