Francesca Albanese, the UN special rapporteur on Palestine, has now waded into Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, calling for an end to arms deliveries to Kiev while blaming a supposed U.S.-led NATO “calculation” that benefits from “a weak Europe.”
Speaking at the Festival di Open in Parma, Italy, on September 19, Albanese acknowledged that Russia invaded Ukraine, but immediately suggested there were “reasons” behind the war. She then admitted she had no solution and was “not an expert.”
Her intervention is not merely reckless and far outside her UN mandate. It exposes a striking hypocrisy in how Albanese decides when the boundaries of that mandate matter.
On January 12, 2026, when challenged to speak out against the Iranian regime’s slaughter of protesters, Francesca Albanese defended her silence by insisting that Iran fell outside her mandate.
Yet when discussing Iran offered an opportunity to condemn Israel or the United States, she repeatedly ignored that supposed limitation:
April 14, 2024: Albanese commented on “Iran’s military response” to Israel following the strike on Iran’s diplomatic compound in Damascus.
I truly hope Iran's military response to Israel's bombing of the Iranian embassy in Syria doesn't escalate into a full blown war. At the same time I urge everyone to remain committed to stop Israel’s genocide in Gaza and its brutal violence in the West Bank. This is the only path…
— Francesca Albanese, UN Special Rapporteur oPt (@FranceskAlbs) April 14, 2024
June 13, 2025: She accused Israel of attacking Iran “unprovoked,” explicitly pronouncing on the conflict.
On the day Israel, unprovoked, has attacked Iran, killing 80 people, the president of a major European power, finally admits that in the Middle East, Israel, and only Israel, has the right to defend itself. https://t.co/Gl9rp9tpTr
— Francesca Albanese, UN Special Rapporteur oPt (@FranceskAlbs) June 13, 2025
June 20, 2025: She declared that Israel’s actions in Iran constituted “psychological & political terror.”
It is "Humanitarian camouflage".
In my Anatomy of Genocide report, I anticipated that Israel would use that script in other contexts, if not duly stopped.
And Israel must be stopped: it represents a serious threat to peace and security under the UN Charter. https://t.co/kvU7os0TvH— Francesca Albanese, UN Special Rapporteur oPt (@FranceskAlbs) June 21, 2025
June 20, 2025: She joined other mandate-holders in “firmly condemn[ing] the Israeli attack on Iran” and demanding an immediate end to hostilities.
We, UN human rights experts, firmly condemn the Israeli attack on Iran and call for an immediate end to the hostilities.
Yet another flagrant violation of the UN Charter amidst the genocide in Gaza, which because of states' inertia, seems unstoppable. https://t.co/alD3lQ9zOe
— Francesca Albanese, UN Special Rapporteur oPt (@FranceskAlbs) June 21, 2025
March 3, 2026: She again spoke about Iran, declaring that the United States and Israel had no right to bomb it.
Iran’s regime is illiberal and brutal, and the Iranian people deserve the freedom they have long fought for. This gives no right to the US or Israel -whose own policies in Palestine are also illiberal and brutal- to bomb Iran, nor to EU leaders to cloak escalation in hypocrisy. https://t.co/GM1SrxhCPa
— Francesca Albanese, UN Special Rapporteur oPt (@FranceskAlbs) March 3, 2026
And now again this week, in order to condemn NATO and military aid to Ukraine, she suddenly recognizes no mandate limitations. She invokes the boundaries of her mandate only to avoid condemning a brutal dictatorship, then disregards those same boundaries to condemn the democracies helping Ukraine resist another. This is not principled respect for her mandate. It is the selective misuse of a UN office to advance her personal political agenda.
