Removing the controversial special rapporteur would not fix the world body—but it would show the institution still has a moral conscience
The current controversy surrounding U.N. Special Rapporteur Francesca Albanese is not merely about one official. It is about the United Nations itself—and whether institutions created after World War II to defend democracy still recognize their purpose.
France and Germany have already signaled that Albanese’s anti-Israel rhetoric has compromised her credibility. Yet the problem does not exist in isolation. It reflects a deeper and long-standing hostility within the international system toward the Jewish state—small, democratic and persistently singled out.
The record speaks clearly. Between 2015 and 2024, the U.N. General Assembly passed 173 resolutions condemning Israel and only 80 against the rest of the world combined. In the Human Rights Council’s first 15 years, 90 condemnations targeted Israel and only 10 Iran. Numbers alone reveal a political obsession, not a human-rights standard.
