Why the UN Human Rights Council Keeps Failing on Israel

UN’s Human Rights Council set to mock itself – The United Nations Human Rights Council is expected to reappoint its special rapporteur on the Palestinian territories, Francesca Albanese, to a second three-year term on Friday, mocking its own mandate to fairly and seriously investigate human rights problems around the world.

In doing so, the Council will likely ignore its own procedures, established in 2008, under which the HRC president must alert the council to “any information” to suggest “persistent non-compliance” by a special rapporteur with the position’s code of conduct.

Among other things, the code calls for the UNHRC’s “special procedures mandate holders” (of which Albanese is one) to “uphold the highest standards of efficiency, competence and integrity, meaning, in particular, though not exclusively, probity, impartiality, equity, honesty and good faith.”

During her three years in the post, Albanese has defended the genocidal terrorists of Hamas; blamed Israel for Hamas’ barbaric slaughter and hostage-taking on October 7, 2023; voiced anti-Semitic tropes; accused Israel of committing genocide; compared Israel’s government to that of Nazi Germany; compared Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to Adolf Hitler; called for the UN to kick Israel out; and suggested that America’s government is controlled by the Israel lobby.

In one sense, of course, Albanese is a perfect UNHRC appointee, because her twisted and biased views fully reflect the activities of a UN body that has long bathed in ugly anti-Zionism and antisemitism.

Ironically, the UN established the Council in 2016 to replace its Human Rights Commission, which had lost all credibility due to its anti-Israeli bias. Before long, the UNHRC had become the commission’s mirror image.

The Human Rights Council has made Israel its only permanent agenda item, meaning that it discusses the Jewish state at every one of its three meetings each year. In addition, the UNHRC has overwhelmingly targeted Israel for investigations and condemnation, while giving a free pass to some of the world’s worst human rights violators.

The Council reeks of hypocrisy, both on human rights in general, and on the question of Israel in particular.

For starters, the UN’s General Assembly appoints the Human Rights Council’s 47 member states, supposedly after considering a candidate’s “contribution to the promotion and protection of human rights.” That no doubt explains why current members include such paragons of virtue as China, Cuba, Kuwait, Kyrgyzstan, Qatar, Sudan, and Thailand.

As for the special rapporteur, its mandate calls for the position-holder to investigate only “Israel’s violations of the principles and bases of international law.” That is, as UN Watch puts it, “Whatever Hamas, Islamic Jihad and the Palestinian Authority may do, against their own people or Israelis, is excluded.”

Albanese, who, in the years before her appointment, accused Israel of apartheid, genocide, ethnic cleansing, and war crimes, and compared the Palestinian plight to the Holocaust, took to her UNHRC role with the enthusiasm of a zealot.

Here are a few of many highlights:

• In November of 2022, she spoke at an official Hamas conference, along with top officials from Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad, stating by video, “You have a right to resist this occupation.”
• In response to the Hamas slaughter of October 7, 2023, she said, “Today’s violence must be put in context” and blamed it on “almost six decades of hostile military rule over an entire civilian population.” She believes this even though Israel departed Gaza, where Hamas rules, back in 2005.
• After, in October of 2023, it became clear that a rocket from Palestinian Islamic Jihad had hit a hospital parking lot in Gaza—and that early reports that Israel had bombed the hospital were wrong—she joined other “UN experts” to express “outrage” over the “atrocity” caused by a supposed Israeli air strike.
• After, in June of 2024, Israel rescued four hostages from Gaza, she suggested they had been “released,” said that “Israel has used hostages to legitimize killing, injuring, maiming, starving and traumatizing Palestinians in Gaza,” and called Israeli operations “genocidal intent turned into action.”
• Two months later, she called Gaza “the largest and most shameful concentration camp of the 21st century” and said, “Israel is genociding the Palestinians one neighborhood at the time, one hospital at the time, one school at the time, one refugee camp at the time, one ‘safe zone’ at the time.”

Despite pressure from UN watchdogs, pro-Israel groups, and lawmakers in Congress and Western parliaments, the UNHRC seems almost certain to reappoint Albanese before the weekend. That will only reinforce its well-deserved reputation as a hotbed of anti-Israeli, anti-Jewish hatred.