ICSPR Condemns the French Demand to Dismiss Special Rapporteur Francesca Albanese and Affirms Its Full Support for Her

Date: 12 February 2025

Press Statement
ICSPR Condemns the French Demand to Dismiss Special Rapporteur Francesca Albanese and Affirms Its Full Support for Her

The International Commission to Support the Rights of the Palestinian People (ICSPR) condemns, in the strongest terms, the demand made by the French government to dismiss the United Nations Special Rapporteur, Ms. Francesca Albanese. ICSPR considers this request a blatant assault on the independence of the United Nations and an attempt to subject UN experts to political pressure. This French move aligns with incitement campaigns by Israel and some Western countries, as well as the unilateral sanctions imposed on her by the United States. Such actions constitute a serious threat to the independence of the work of special rapporteurs, a matter that the United Nations has officially denounced as a “dangerous and unacceptable precedent.”

ICSPR reiterates its strong condemnation of the involvement of several European countries, including France, in the genocide in Gaza since 7 October 2023, through the continued political, military, and economic support for Israel, and the financing of projects linked to the Israeli military, in the absence of any sanctions or effective measures to stop the massacres. This complicity has helped the occupation destroy 90% of the buildings in the Strip and has led to the killing of more than 72,000 people, while solidarity demonstrations have been suppressed and defenders of Palestinian rights have been subjected to defamation and legal persecution. This European complicity exposes double standards and reveals the falsity of their claims of defending human rights.

ICSPR also condemns the continued misuse by some states of the term “antisemitism” in a clear attempt to silence voices defending the rights of the Palestinian people, particularly those exposing and documenting the crimes of genocide committed by Israel against Palestinian civilians. ICSPR asks the French government: where has it been in the face of some of the most horrific crimes in human history committed by Israel and still ongoing? Where are its positions and measures in confronting the ongoing genocide and the official, political, religious, media, and societal Israeli incitement against Palestinians? And where are the measures and sanctions that should have been taken to stop the genocide and the incitement to it?

ICSPR values the courage of Special Rapporteur Francesca Albanese and her steadfast adherence to international law, affirming its full solidarity with her. She has documented Israeli violations in the occupied Palestinian territory, warned of the risks of ethnic cleansing and genocide, and faced all pressure and incitement without compromise, maintaining the independence of her mandate and the integrity of her UN reporting, including her call to implement the advisory opinion of the International Court of Justice to end the occupation and protect Palestinian civilians.

ICSPR denounces and deplores the continued French support for Israel in its various forms, including arms exports and facilitating the repeated passage of the aircraft of the war criminal Netanyahu through French airspace, despite the arrest warrant issued against him by the International Criminal Court and France’s status as a state party to the Rome Statute, as well as the absence of any French judicial accountability for officials and companies involved in genocide crimes.

In this context, ICSPR calls for the following:

• Protecting the independence of the Special Rapporteur and preventing any political interference, sanctions, or threats against her.

• France’s full compliance with its international obligations under the Genocide Convention, the Geneva Conventions, and the Rome Statute, and halting any political or military support that contributes to the continuation of crimes.

• Opening a serious and transparent French judicial investigation into any facilities or support provided to Israel during the commission of genocide and crimes against humanity, including the crime of allowing the aircraft of the war criminal Netanyahu to pass through French airspace, and holding any French officials or companies accountable for any potential involvement in supporting genocide, colonial settlement, racial discrimination, forced displacement, torture of prisoners in Israeli jails, and the blockade.

• Supporting the international justice system and fully cooperating with its mechanisms to hold perpetrators of war crimes and genocide accountable, without exception.