UN rights chief also calls for a halt to attacks against people appointed by the UN and the ICC; the UN Human Rights Council special rapporteur says she will continue to do what she has to do.
The UN warned on Thursday that Washington was setting a “dangerous precedent” by imposing sanctions on a UN expert for criticising U.S. policy on Gaza and called for the cancellation of the action.
UN rights chief Volker Turk also called for a halt to “attacks and threats” against people appointed by the UN and international institutions such as the International Criminal Court, whose judges have also been hit with U.S. sanctions.
“I urge the prompt reversal of U.S. sanctions against a special rapporteur of the UN Human Rights Council, Francesca Albanese, in response to work she has undertaken under the mandate on the situation of human rights in the occupied Palestinian territory,” Mr. Turk said in a statement.
UN chief Antonio Guterres’s spokesmaninsisted that “the imposition of sanctions on special rapporteurs is a dangerous precedent”.
The use of unilateral sanctions against any UN expert or official “is unacceptable”, spokesman Stephane Dujarric told reporters in New York.
U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio on Wednesday announced that Washington was sanctioning Ms. Albanese “for her illegitimate and shameful efforts to prompt (ICC) action against U.S. and Israeli officials, companies, and executives”.
Ms. Albanese said the sanctions were “calculated to weaken my mission”. “I will continue to do what I have to do,” she said during a visit to Slovenia.
