THE CHAINS ON ONE ARE THE CHAINS ON ALL

On 28 October 2025, Francesca Albanese, the UN Special Rapporteur on human rights in Palestine, addressed the Third Committee of the United Nations General Assembly from South Africa after being barred from entering the United States.

Her remote appearance followed months of political repression from Washington and Tel Aviv, which imposed sanctions on her—revoking her U.S. visa, freezing assets, and smearing her as “anti-Israel.” The move drew condemnation from Amnesty International and other rights groups, who warned that the United States had crossed a dangerous line by punishing a UN expert for fulfilling her mandate.

In her address, Albanese situated Gaza’s destruction within a broader colonial order—arguing that global powers have sustained Israel’s system of apartheid through weapons, trade, and diplomatic protection. She invoked South Africa not as symbolism but as living testimony that freedom is indivisible; the oppression of one people perpetuates the subjugation of all.

Her report accuses states, particularly the U.S. and its allies, of enabling what she calls the “metastasizing” of Israeli settler colonialism into genocide. Yet beyond condemnation, her message carried a deeper challenge: to rebuild multilateralism on foundations of equality and accountability, not hierarchy and impunity.

Albanese’s case has become a test of whether the United Nations can still speak truth to empire—or whether, under Western pressure, even the language of human rights is being colonized once again.