Borrell urges EU to back Francesca Albanese after US unlawfully targets UN rapporteur
Josep Borrell, the former European Union foreign policy chief, has asked the EU to back the United Nations Special Rapporteur Francesca Albanese after the US unlawfully targeted the UN mandate holder with sanctions.
On Wednesday, as part of Washington’s efforts to silence voices critical of the continuous US-Israeli genocidal war against Palestinians in the Gaza Strip, the United States State Department sanctioned Albanese, UN Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in the Palestinian territories.
It blamed Albanese for prompting the International Criminal Court (ICC) to issue arrest warrants against Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his former war minister Yoav Gallant over genocide, war crimes, and crimes against humanity against the Palestinians in Gaza.
In a post on X on Wednesday, Borrell wrote that for the first time since the decades-old inception of the United Nations, the US State Department has imposed sanctions on a UN mandate holder.
Borrell asserted that Washington’s unprecedented move against Albanese is in flagrant violation of the UN Charter.
He added that the EU is bound by its history and treaties to defend international law and must now ensure the protection of all UN mandate holders.
The US @StateDept has imposed sanctions on @FranceskAlbs a UN mandate holder for the first time since the creation of the UN and in flagrant violation of its Charter. The EU is bound by its history and treaties to defend Int. Law and must ensure protection of UN mandate holders.
— Josep Borrell Fontelles (@JosepBorrellF) July 12, 2025
Last week, Borrell had condemned Netanyahu over his outrageous proposal to nominate US President Donald Trump for the Nobel Peace Prize.
In another post on X, Borrell wrote, “An alleged war criminal wanted by the international justice proposes for the Nobel Peace Prize his largest supplier of weapons.”
The former EU foreign policy chief condemned Washington for its flagrant complicity in the Israeli war crimes in Gaza over the past two years.
Having Trump to back him, Borrell said, Netanyahu is committing “the greatest ethnic cleansing in the region since the end of World War II.”
In the meantime, Albanese responded to the DOS sanctions against her, saying the American tactics aiming to intimidate her are “not a sign of strength.”
“The powerful punishing those who speak for the powerless, it is not a sign of strength, but of guilt,” the human rights lawyer said on Thursday in a post on X.
The special rapporteur said Washington’s tactics reminded her of “Mafia intimidation techniques.”
She also said on Thursday in an interview with AP that she believed the sanctions were “calculated to weaken my mission.”
However, the Italian human rights expert said that despite being the target of bullying by the US State Department, she will carry out her UN mandate and “continue to do what I have to do.”
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