Summary UN Human Rights Council Special Rapporteur Francesca Albanese was sanctioned in July 2025 after she publicly criticised Washington's policy on Gaza
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – A federal judge on Wednesday temporarily blocked US sanctions against Francesca Albanese, a UN expert on the Palestinian territories, finding that the Trump administration likely violated her free-speech rights by imposing the measures after she criticised US ally Israel’s war in Gaza.
Albanese was sanctioned in July 2025 after she publicly criticised Washington's policy on Gaza.
In announcing the sanctions, US Secretary of State Marco Rubio slammed the UN expert's criticism of the United States and said she recommended to the International Criminal Court that arrest warrants be issued against Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
The sanctions barred her from entering the US and banking there. Albanese, an Italian lawyer who is UN special rapporteur on the Israel-occupied Palestinian territories, recommended the International Criminal Court pursue war-crimes prosecutions against Israeli and American nationals.
Albanese's husband and daughter, who is a US citizen, sued the Trump administration in February, alleging that the US sanctions are "effectively debanking her and making it nearly impossible to meet the needs of her daily life.”
US District Judge Richard Leon in Washington found that Albanese’s residency outside the US does not undercut her protections under the First Amendment of the US Constitution and that the Trump administration sought to regulate her speech because of the "idea or message expressed.”
Albanese has described sanctions as part of a broader US strategy to weaken international accountability mechanisms.
SANCTIONS
Secretary of State Marco Rubio announced on July 9, 2025 that the “United States will be imposing sanctions on the UN special rapporteur on the occupied Palestinian territories,” accusing her of anti-Semitism and support for terrorism.
“Today I am imposing sanctions on UN Human Rights Council Special Rapporteur Francesca Albanese for her illegitimate and shameful efforts to prompt [International Criminal Court] action against US and Israeli officials, companies, and executives,” Rubio wrote in a statement posted to social media platform X.
In response, the UN Human Rights Council urged the United States to promptly reverse the sanctions against Albanese.
Albanese has served in her role at the United Nations since May 2022. She has advocated for the UN Human Rights Council to impose an arms embargo and end trade and financial ties with Israel. Albanese accused Israel of overseeing a “genocidal campaign” in the Gaza Strip while at war with the Hamas terrorist group.
The ICC has alleged that Israel is guilty of war crimes, and the International Court of Justice has made allegations of genocide over the nation’s military efforts against Hamas in the Gaza Strip. Israel has denied the accusations and maintains that its actions are self-defense after Hamas’s deadly Oct. 7, 2023, terrorist attack on southern Israel.
