“Do Not Be Silenced”: Interview with Francesca Albanese

Note from LeftEast editors: The horrors of violence and the struggle for justice in Palestine are intertwined with the struggles unfolding in streets, classrooms, and university campuses across the world. As students in Serbia take to the streets to demand an end to authoritarianism and systemic violence, their voices echo those of students, scholars, and activists confronting repression for speaking out against genocide in Gaza. The pressure to accept the unacceptable grows stronger everywhere, particularly in the Global North and the West. In this interview, conducted by Hana Ćurak and initially published in Novosti, UN Special Rapporteur Francesca Albanese reflects on the silencing tactics she faced in Germany, the collapse of international legal mechanisms, and the urgent need to defend freedom of speech, academic autonomy, and the right and need to protest – everywhere.

In February 2025, two events at which Francesca Albanese, the UN Special Rapporteur on human rights in the Palestinian territories, was scheduled to speak were canceled in Berlin and Munich due to political and media pressure, including defamatory campaigns. Freie Universität in Berlin justified the cancellation by citing an “unpredictable security risk,” even though there had never been any incidents at events in which Albanese had previously participated. The decision followed direct political pressure from the Israeli ambassador, the German-Israeli Society, Berlin Mayor Kai Wegner (CDU), and Senator Ina Czyborra (SPD), who accused her of antisemitism.

Since the beginning of her mandate in 2022, Albanese has called for the consistent application of international law. In her March 2024 report, she concluded that Israel had committed the crime of genocide. In her October 2024 report, she warned of the intensification of the colonial erasure of Palestinians, calling for international action, sanctions, and legal accountability to stop Israel’s colonial project.

We spoke with Albanese following her visit to Germany and before the release of her third report. At the time of this interview, crimes in Gaza, the West Bank, and other Palestinian territories under Israeli attacks continue unabated.

Hana Ćurak: Last month [February 2025], Germany further tarnished its diplomatic reputation by canceling two university events where you were scheduled to speak, followed by a heavy police presence at the alternative venues. Some reports even indicate that authorities entertained the idea of arresting you. This incident adds yet another disheartening chapter to the country’s increasingly damaged diplomatic standing. What were your impressions of the political climate in Berlin and Munich, where you had been invited to speak?

UNSR Francesca Albanese: I knew that the environment in Germany was tense because I followed the news. So I’ve seen that there have been, even independently from me, attacks on protesters of all ages and genders and that the situation was critical. However, I was really surprised when, just a few days before coming to Germany, I learned that the event in Munich had been canceled. At that point, it seemed like the event in Berlin was still going to go as scheduled. So I started thinking: is academia also caving under pressure so easily, in a sense that has not happened before? Of course, pressure is being applied against people like me so that we don’t speak out because the pro-Israel lobby is not interested in letting our message, full of compassion and wisdom and respect for human rights, pass through. This message might convince other people that what Israel is doing is wrong, and that would probably halt the ongoing ethnic cleansing of Palestine. 

Now, there are always people who will not change their mind, because they are racist. So they really don’t care about Palestinians. They don’t even care about the Israelis. These people, they do feel that there is a superior race, as much as they would have believed it 100 or 80 years ago. Today, this superior race is confronting the threat of savages, the Muslims, the Arabs. This is the sentiment I found upon arriving in Germany. 

When I saw that the Free University had also caved under the pressure to cancel the lecture, I realized that the situation was much worse than I had thought. Still, I haven’t seen the worst! 

Two things particularly caught my attention. The last time I came to Germany was in May 2024, two months after having issued my first genocide report. It is not that there was no pressure against me back then. There was. Back then, I was pretty much alone in the United Nations with my conclusions, after the South African legal team’s submission to the ICC. Even in such a situation, I met many think tanks and NGOs in Berlin back then. There were about 40 people who met with me, and over a dozen NGOs. This time, there were none. There were only three NGOs. 

What I have been doing has not changed during this time. What has changed is the climate in Germany, which has become more repressive, and people are more afraid to speak out. This is what struck me.

The second thing that I noticed was that the police had no problem with threatening to arrest me, a person appointed by the UN to protect international law. From May 2024 to this moment, what I have been saying has not changed, nor has my mandate. I have been saying nothing different. What has changed, however, is the environment in Germany, which seems to be less and less tolerating of free speech. 

Hana Ćurak: For those of us living in Berlin and across Germany, this is unfortunately not a distant crisis— as you have reiterated, it is a pressing moral and political issue that demands action. Germany, as a key ally of Israel and a major arms supplier, has a significant role to play in addressing the ongoing genocide. What can the German public do to challenge this lack of freedom at home, and request justice for Palestinians? 

UNSR Francesca Albanese: The difference between my experiences in Germany in May last year and now should trigger reflection. You are living in an increasingly repressive system. If you think that your freedoms will survive, you are a fool, and you haven’t learned anything from history. The only way to protect what you have today is to understand that everything is on the line, and you need to defend it. Do not be silenced. Speak out. It doesn’t matter that you’re scared. Everyone is scared. If you think that I was not scared in Germany, you’re wrong. I was afraid, but I did not get paralyzed by my fear. I understand that we don’t all need to be courageous, but we need to be principled and stand together with those who suffer attacks and those defending the human rights system that is being taken away from us. This is not only about Palestine. This is about German and European fundamental freedoms, freedom of expression, and the right to protest. This is what I’ve been saying for the past sixteen months.

Hana Ćurak: This is a critical point, and it ties directly into the broader issue of accountability for state leaders and officials who may be complicit in enabling or supporting violations of international law, including war crimes and crimes against humanity. Since you left Germany, significant political shifts have occurred, including the rise of the right-wing CDU and its leader Friedrich Merz, who openly invited Benjamin Netanyahu to Germany, assuring him immunity from arrest despite the serious allegations of war crimes and genocide against him. This, coupled with statements like Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock’s suggestion that Israel could target civilians in Gaza because “civilian sites can lose their protected status,” raises urgent questions about the role of German and other Western leaders in enabling Israel’s actions.

Recently, there have been calls for the International Criminal Court (ICC) to investigate high-ranking US officials, including President Joe Biden, Secretary of State Antony Blinken, and Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin, for their roles in aiding and abetting Israeli war crimes in Gaza. This brings to mind the ICJ’s 2007 ruling in Bosnia and Herzegovina v. Serbia, where the court found Serbia not directly responsible for the Srebrenica genocide but responsible for failing to prevent it. 

Given this context, what legal mechanisms and procedures are available at the ICC to hold state leaders like Baerbock, Biden, or others accountable for their complicity in war crimes or crimes against humanity? How can the ICC address the challenges of prosecuting high-ranking officials, especially from powerful states, and what role can civil society and international pressure play in ensuring accountability?

UNSR Francesca Albanese: I am aware that in Germany, like in other parts of the West, statements have been made that not only denote disrespect for the international system but, if followed up upon, would lead to dismantling the international system. Statements like the ones made by one of the incoming political leaders of Germany saying that Netanyahu will be received and will not be arrested are examples of that. This goes beyond the prerogative of the executive, of those who yield political power. It’s stepping into the realm of the judiciary and law enforcement agents responsible for acting upon the arrest warrant issued by the ICC. You see—when I say the system is collapsing, it’s not just the multilateral order that is collapsing. It is also what has been developed in the past 80 years to ensure that we live in a rule of law system that protects all of us. If a government can decide in Germany, as it has happened in Italy, who deserves to be arrested by the ICC and who does not, the system already has a fallacy in itself. In Italy, this happened, and the government, the Prime Minister, and other ministers are currently being investigated.

So, what should happen in Germany is an investigation into these completely outrageous political statements.

Hana Ćurak: Given the current situation in Palestine and the mounting evidence of war crimes, crimes against humanity, and potential genocide, could the ICJ 2007 ruling serve as a legal framework for ICC cases involving Israeli officials or their individual international enablers? Specifically, could we see a similar legal argument being applied to hold states accountable for failing to prevent, or enabling, Israeli actions in Gaza and the West Bank? 

How might this precedent shape the pursuit of justice in cases where direct responsibility is harder to prove, but complicity or failure to act is evident?

UNSR Francesca Albanese: Yes, we could, but the problem is that Israel has not just failed to prevent genocide. Israel has committed genocide. The question is, can the ICJ in the future consider cases of other states which have failed to prevent genocide and who have, in fact, enabled genocide? I think it should. It’s up to member states to continue to use the International Court of Justice to advance justice and to resist these fierce attempts to dismantle the international legal order.

Hana Ćurak: In your first report, “Anatomy of a Genocide,” from March 2024, a key finding was that Israel has strategically invoked international humanitarian law as a form of “humanitarian camouflage” to legitimize the genocidal violence being carried out in Gaza. This manipulation of legal frameworks has allowed Israel to continue its actions under the guise of compliance with international law, even as the death toll and destruction mount. 

Given this analysis and the ongoing atrocities, if Western powers were truly adhering to international law, what concrete legal actions should they have taken by now to address Israel’s crimes in Gaza and the wider region? How should states that are complicit through arms sales, diplomatic support, or political cover be held accountable under international legal mechanisms? What steps could be taken to ensure that international law is not just a tool for rhetoric but a framework for meaningful accountability and justice?

UNSR Francesca Albanese: What I see today is that we are in a terrible, tragic moment where everything is breaking down. The system is breaking down. The UN Security Council is not able to effectively prevent or stop conflicts. I mean, not just in Palestine, but beyond. This is something that has increased over time. The General Assembly passed a resolution that remains a dead letter. The ICC is issuing arrest warrants that are not acted upon. The ICJ passes decisions and measures that are binding but remain ignored. So the system is not working. Now, those responsible for making it work are member states, primarily those of the Global North. They are currently led by governments who are not acting in defense of the system to protect multilateral order, nor are even acting to protect the fundamental freedoms of their own citizens; like Germany, the UK, or Italy, and other cases, exemplify.

So we can see that there is a rise of the right which goes hand in hand with the collapse of the system. This is a moment to realize that human rights are all we have in order to resist this attempt to finally erode what has made us protected for the past 75 years. The multilateral order is there to protect all of us. While I recognize that the international human rights system has not always succeeded in preventing atrocities—such as the genocides in former Yugoslavia and Rwanda—we cannot dismiss the system as useless simply because it has failed in the past. To do so would be to abandon the very tools we need to fight for justice and accountability. Instead, we must use human rights as a framework for empowerment, to understand our rights, and to demand their protection. This is about reclaiming the system and pushing it to fulfill its purpose. The urgency of this moment cannot be overstated: it is truly now or never. We must act decisively to ensure that human rights are not just lofty ideals but tangible protections for all.

Hana Ćurak: My final question ties into the broader challenges we face, particularly in light of the political developments in the U.S. and what you recently described as the “psychological overwhelming” perpetuated by the Trump administration, where baffling rhetorics distract and disorient in order to control the public. In such a climate, where authoritarian tendencies and repression are on the rise, what practical steps can individuals take to protect themselves while safeguarding their right to freedom of expression, assembly, and organizing? How can we resist the erosion of these rights while addressing systemic violations, especially in contexts where governments or institutions actively undermine accountability and justice? What strategies or tools do you see empowering individuals and communities to navigate these threats and continue advocating for human rights and justice?

UNSR Francesca Albanese: This definitely goes hand in hand. If students come under attack, the faculties should stay there to protect them. If faculty comes under attack, they should be there to protect the faculty. The students should come together, and they should consider a strike. They should consider strategic litigation. They should consider civil disobedience. They should try to hold the media accountable, stage protests in the media, call for boycotts of the media who have been complicit and enabled violence against the protesters, for example. There should really be a revolution from below. Also, those in power who understand their responsibility should really understand the momentous phase we are living and going through and try to do the right thing. Courts have to be activated. Businesses and other actors who have been profiting from the illegal situation need to be held accountable. But this can only happen if there is a global conscience, a global awareness around it.