When the UN special rapporteur published her report Anatomy of a Genocide in March 2024, she was lionised by some and demonised by the Trump government. She describes what happened next
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n retrospect, arranging to interview Francesca Albanese in a cafe was not the best plan. Before we could start, the waitress wanted a photo with the Italian human rights lawyer. So did the cashier. Then the cook came out of the kitchen in his whites for a group photo. Some of the customers wanted their turn. Albanese was gracious with all comers and chatty in three languages, so the process took some time.
Albanese, 49, has been getting similar rock star welcomes everywhere she goes lately, which is not the norm for unpaid UN legal experts. In other times, her job title – UN special rapporteur on the situation of human rights in the Palestinian territories occupied since 1967 – would sound like a recipe for obscurity. She is one of more than 40 special rapporteurs, human rights experts appointed to do pro bono investigations and reports on areas of concern.
These are no ordinary times, however. The untreated wound of Israel-Palestine has shown its capacity every generation to give the rest of the world a fever. The Hamas attack on 7 October 2023, which killed about 1,200 people, provoked a ferocious Israeli response that has killed more than 75,000 Palestinians in Gaza, displaced more than 90% of its population and reduced the overwhelming bulk of the territory to ruins.
