<\/p>\n
28 October 2025<\/p>\n
To learn more about Special Procedures of the UN Human Rights Council and the Question of Palestine, click here to visit the dedicated webpage.<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n <\/p>\n CAPE TOWN – Israel\u2019s genocide in Gaza is part of an international system of complicity, a UN expert warned today.<\/p>\n \u201cInternational law is clear: States must neither aid nor assist in the internationally wrongful acts of others, and must prevent and punish international crimes,\u201d Francesca Albanese, Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in the Palestinian territories occupied since 1967 told the General Assembly. \u201cThis requires immediately suspending all military, economic, and diplomatic ties with Israel until its crimes cease, and pursuing justice for the survivors by holding perpetrators and accomplices accountable.\u201d<\/p>\n Albanese addressed the General Assembly from Cape Town, South Africa \u2014 after US sanctions prevented her from presenting her report in New York.<\/p>\n The Special Rapporteur\u2019s new report, \u201cGaza Genocide: A Collective Crime<\/a>,\u201d reveals how influential Third States \u2014 with the acquiescence of many others \u2014 have provided diplomatic, military, economic and ideological support to Israel, entrenching, rather than dismantling Israel\u2019s settler colonial apartheid, now turned genocidal.<\/p>\n \u201cNo State can credibly claim to uphold international law while arming, supporting, or shielding a genocidal regime,\u201d Albanese said.<\/p>\n The report shows how Third States are breaching their duty to prevent genocide, apartheid, and territorial conquest by supplying Israel with aid, arms, and political cover despite clear evidence of genocidal intent. Citing rulings from the International Court of Justice and the International Criminal Court, Albanese said that the world has been on notice since at least 2004 \u2014 yet impunity has only deepened.<\/p>\n \u201cStates knew. States had the means to act,\u201d the Special Rapporteur said. \u201cInternational law does not allow the luxury of feigned ignorance, delay or rhetorical acrobatics.\u201d<\/p>\n Instead, the report claims, States have obscured, ignored, and even profited from Israel\u2019s violations of international law, through military, economic, diplomatic and even \u201chumanitarian\u201d channels.<\/p>\n Albanese\u2019s report showed how military cooperation\u2014through arms trade and intelligence sharing\u2014has fuelled Israel\u2019s war machine including during the genocide. While the US and Germany alone have provided over 90 per cent of Israel\u2019s arms imports, at least 26 States have supplied or facilitated arms and components, and many others bought weapons tested on Palestinians.<\/p>\n \u201cTrade and investment have sustained\u2014and profited from\u2014Israel\u2019s economy,\u201d the Special Rapporteur said. Between 2022 and 2024, exports of electronics, pharmaceuticals, energy, minerals, and dual-use items, totalling $474 billion, helped Israel finance its military operations. About one-third of this trade is with the EU, while North America and several Arab States continue deepening economic ties. Only a handful of States have marginally reduced trade during the genocide, as indirect commercial flows persist largely undisturbed.<\/p>\n \u201cOne of the most sadistic aspects I have witnessed,\u201d the Special Rapporteur said\u201d, \u201cis the weaponisation of aid.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cWhat began with the blockade and attacks on UNRWA has become the full subjugation of aid to Israeli and US diktats, stripping the UN of its protective role,\u201d she said. \u201cThese measures, aided or endorsed by some States, deliberately worsened Gaza\u2019s living conditions.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cThe problem is also deeply ideological,\u201d Albanese said. \u201cWestern leaders have echoed Israel\u2019s propaganda \u2014 repeating the \u2018self-defence\u2019 mantra, reviving colonial tropes that cast Palestinians as less than human. By framing Gaza\u2019s destruction as a battle of civilisation against barbarism, they have helped Israel erase the distinction between civilians and combatants, and with it, Palestinian rights and humanity.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cI am also surprised by how little too many in the Global Majority \u2014 including across the African continent, once liberated from colonial oppression \u2014 have done to confront this genocide,\u201d the Special Rapporteur said. While most Western governments have denied the genocide and shielded Israel through vetoes and diluted resolutions, only 14 States have joined South Africa\u2019s landmark case before the ICJ, and the Hague Group \u2014 the main diplomatic forum seeking to end the genocide \u2014 counts merely 13 members.<\/p>\n \u201cThis is not only about Palestine,\u201d Albanese said. \u201cIt is about the survival of the United Nations according to its core values and norms. From the ruins of oppression, a new multilateralism must emerge: not a fa\u00e7ade, but a living architecture of rights and dignity for the many, not the few.\u201d<\/p>\n Francesca Albanese: Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in the Palestinian territories occupied since 1967<\/p>\n Related content:<\/em><\/p>\n Report: “Gaza Genocide: a collective crime” by the Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in the Palestinian territories occupied since 1967 (A\/80\/492) Advance unedited version – Question of Palestine<\/a><\/p>\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" 28 October 2025 To learn more about Special Procedures of the UN Human Rights Council and the Question of Palestine, click here to visit the dedicated webpage. CAPE TOWN – Israel\u2019s genocide in Gaza is part of an international system of complicity, a UN expert warned today. \u201cInternational law is clear: States must […]<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":299,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"template":"","meta":{"footnotes":""},"country":[],"document-category":[1329],"document-source":[6854],"committee-meeting":[],"document-subject":[1769,1773,6950,2005,6790,1741],"entity":[1729],"document-language":[6542],"class_list":["post-312584","document","type-document","status-publish","hentry","document-category-press-release","document-source-special-rapporteur-on-the-situation-of-human-rights-in-the-palestinian-territories-occupied-since-1967","document-subject-armed-conflict","document-subject-arms-control-and-regional-security-issues","document-subject-colonialism","document-subject-gaza-strip","document-subject-genocide","document-subject-human-rights-and-international-humanitarian-law","entity-united-nations-system","document-language-english"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.un.org\/unispal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/document\/312584","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.un.org\/unispal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/document"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.un.org\/unispal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/document"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.un.org\/unispal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/299"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/www.un.org\/unispal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/document\/312584\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":312607,"href":"https:\/\/www.un.org\/unispal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/document\/312584\/revisions\/312607"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.un.org\/unispal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=312584"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"country","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.un.org\/unispal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/country?post=312584"},{"taxonomy":"document-category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.un.org\/unispal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/document-category?post=312584"},{"taxonomy":"document-source","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.un.org\/unispal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/document-source?post=312584"},{"taxonomy":"committee-meeting","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.un.org\/unispal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/committee-meeting?post=312584"},{"taxonomy":"document-subject","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.un.org\/unispal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/document-subject?post=312584"},{"taxonomy":"entity","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.un.org\/unispal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/entity?post=312584"},{"taxonomy":"document-language","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.un.org\/unispal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/document-language?post=312584"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}