Francesca Albanese Height, Age, Husband, Biography

Some Lesser Known Facts About Francesca Albanese

• Francesca Albanese grew up in Ariano Irpino, Campania, a small town in Southern Italy.

• Since her college days, she has been very vocal about various social issues.

• After completing her degree in law, she moved to London for higher studies.

• In the early 2000s, she completed her Master of Laws (LL.M.) in Human Rights at The School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS), University of London, where she sparked her focus on refugee rights and forced displacement.

• From 2003 to 2013, Albanese worked as a human rights expert for the United Nations (UN), including the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights and the UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees.

• During this period, she advised the United Nations governments and civil society in the Middle East, North Africa, and the Asia Pacific regions on human rights and their application and norms, particularly for vulnerable groups like refugees and migrants.

• She has been an Affiliate Scholar at the Institute for the Study of International Migration at Georgetown University, Washington, DC.

• Francesca Albanese also served as a senior advisor on Migration. She focused on displacement at the non-profit organisation Arab Renaissance for Democracy and Development (ARDD), Amman, Jordan, where she co-founded the Global Network on the Question of Palestine in 2015.

• In 2020, she co-authored the book Palestinian Refugees in International Law with Lex Takkenberg, published by Oxford University Press. Scholars and policymakers have widely utilised this work.
  

  Francesca Albanese’s book cover

• In 2022, Albanese was appointed as the UN Special Rapporteur for the occupied Palestinian territories. She was the second woman to hold this position after Giorgio Giacomelli.

• Although her appointment at that time also generated some controversy due to comments she had made during the 2014 Gaza War, where she criticised the US and Europe. In her comment, she said the United States was “subjugated by the Jewish lobby” and Europe by a “sense of guilt about the Holocaust”, and that both “condemn the oppressed – the Palestinians” in the conflict.

• The Israeli Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the American Human Rights Council called Francesca Albanese’s comments antisemitic (hostility to, prejudice towards, or discrimination against Jews). However, in her defence, Albanese said that she had never been antisemitic and she criticised Israel due to its occupation of Palestinian territories.

• A campaign was launched by Israel and its supporters, where they accused her of anti-Semitism and called for her resignation.

• In her support, sixty-five scholars of Anti-Semitism had issued a letter and criticised the smear campaign against Francesca Albanese. They said,

“It is evident that the campaign against Albanese is not about combating today’s antisemitism. It is essentially about efforts to silence her and to undermine her mandate as a senior UN official reporting about Israel’s violations of human rights and international law.”

• On 18 October 2022, Albanese presented her first report in which she mentioned that UN member states should develop a plan to end the Israeli settler-colonial occupation and apartheid regime.

• In January 2023, a statement was issued in defence of Albanese by several human rights organisations, academic institutions, and other civil society organisations. In the statement, it was mentioned that,

 “We commend UNSR Francesca Albanese’s tireless efforts toward the protection of human rights in the OPT [Occupied Palestinian Territories] and in raising awareness of the alarming daily violations of Palestinian rights. We call on third States to strongly condemn this politically-motivated attack on the Special Rapporteur’s mandate and to compel Israel to comply with its obligations under the Charter of the United Nations.”

• In February 2023, 18 members of the United States Congress called for Francesca Albanese to be removed from her position. They said that she had shown a consistent bias against Israel.

• Amid continuing efforts to have Albanese removed from her post, on 26 April 2023, Amnesty International, Italy, published a letter of support for her signed by dozens of Italian rights groups, MPs, jurists and academics.

• On 27 April 2023, three former holders of the position, John Dugard, Richard Falk, and Michael Lynk, publicly requested that the UN should defend Albanese, stating that she has been the target of attacks that were false and personal.

• In July 2023, during the 30th Meeting of the 53rd Regular Session of the UN Human Rights Council, Albanese presented a report accusing Israel of turning the West Bank into an “open-air prison”

• In October 2023, when the Gaza war started, Albanese called for an immediate ceasefire, stating that “Palestinians are in grave danger of a mass ethnic cleansing.” On Twitter, Albanese replied that the victims were killed because of Israel’s actions, not because they were Jewish.

• On March 26, 2024, during the 55th session of the United Nations Human Rights Council in Geneva, she presented her report titled “Anatomy of a Genocide.” In this report, she stated that Israel is committing genocide in Gaza by killing people, harming them badly, and making life impossible for them to survive.

• Albanese was among the numerous UN experts who spoke out against the sale of arms to Israel in June 2024 for use in the Gaza conflict.

• In July 2024, Hillel Neuer, the director of UN Watch, a Geneva-based non-governmental organisation (NGO), accused Francesca Albanese of having her trip to Australia funded by pro-Palestinian groups, including the Australian Friends of Palestine Association, Free Palestine Melbourne, and the Australian Palestinian Advocacy Network, and requested an investigation into this matter.

• In October 2024, the World Jewish Congress accused Albanese of repeatedly engaging in Holocaust inversion by comparing Israel to Nazi Germany, stating that her remarks were “not only deeply offensive, but also a gross distortion of history.”

• The U.S. Ambassador to the UN, Linda Thomas-Greenfield, stated that Albanese is unfit for her position and that the UN should not accept antisemitism from someone responsible for protecting human rights.

• On February 11, 2025, the Dutch House of Representatives cancelled an invitation for Albanese to visit on February 13, 2025, due to her statements regarding the Gaza War of 2024.

• In March 2025, Betar, a Jewish far-right organisation, threatened Albanese with a pager attack during her visit to London. The group posted a statement on Twitter that stated, “Join us to give Francesca a [pager emoji] in London on Tuesday.”

• Francesca Albanese was also accused of misleading the public regarding her legal qualifications. In response to this accusation, in May 2025, in an interview, Albanese stated that she had studied jurisprudence but had chosen not to take the bar exam, as she was more interested in human rights and did not want to practice law in Italy.

• In June 2025, the United Nations published a report by Francesca Albanese, highlighting that the ongoing genocide in Gaza is benefiting several big business corporations. The report included 48 corporations, including Microsoft, Alphabet Inc., and Amazon, stating that they are aiding Israel in displacing Palestinians in violation of international law.

• In response to that report on 20 June 2025, the Donald Trump administration sent a letter to UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, calling for Francesca Albanese’s removal as rapporteur on Palestinian rights. They alleged that she supported terrorism and antisemitism.

• In July 2025, the United States Department of the Treasury, under the Trump administration, imposed sanctions on Albanese through Executive Order 14203 and named her as a “specially designated national.”
  

  The U.S. Secretary of State, Marco Rubio’s tweeted against Francesca Albanese after she was sanctioned by the U.S.

• Francesca Albanese regularly teaches and gives lectures on International Law and Forced Displacement in various European and Arab universities, and speaks frequently at conferences and public events on the legal situation of Palestine.

• Albanese has been married since 2012 and has two children.