'Illegitimate and shameful': Marco Rubio announces fresh sanctions on UN human rights official Francesca Albanese; says this 'will protect our sovereignty'

Secretary of State Marco Rubio on Wednesday announced new sanctions against a senior UN Human Rights Council official who criticized Israel’s military actions in Gaza. Rubio accused the official of leading a “campaign of political and economic warfare” against both the United States and Israel, as reported by Politico.

Francesca Albanese, UN Human Rights Council Special Rapporteur, had called for the International Criminal Court (ICC) “to investigate and prosecute corporate executives and/or corporate entities,”. Albanese alleged that war crimes had been committed by Israel during its war with Hamas.

“The United States will continue to take whatever actions we deem necessary to respond to lawfare and protect our sovereignty and that of our allies,” Rubio had responded in a statement. He said Albanese’s efforts to push for criminal prosecutions by the ICC and other bodies are “illegitimate and shameful.”

Earlier this month, the US had called for the United Nations to remove Albanese on the grounds of “virulent antisemitism and support for terrorism".

“An unacceptable campaign of political and economic warfare against the American and worldwide economy.” wrote Dorothy Shea, the active US representative to the UN, in the letter.

In the report titled “From Economy of Occupation to Economy of Genocide,” Albanese named 48 corporate companies, ranging from arms manufacturers to financial firms, accused of profiting through their cooperation with the Israeli government.

“Israel’s settler-colonial occupation has transformed into an insidious, bureaucratic and militarized regime of destruction — a calculated economy of genocide,” she wrote.

Albanese, an Italian scholar, was appointed in 2022 and has urged for arms embargo and sanctions against Israel since its full-scale invasion of Gaza in October 2023. She had publicly remarked that “the victims of the October 7 massacre were not murdered because of their Jewishness, but in response to Israeli oppression,” following which she was banned from Israel in February 2024.

She had previously stated that Israel’s offensive in Gaza is “part of a long-term international, systematic state-organized forced displacement and replacement of Palestinians.”