When UN Watch released its bombshell report early last month — Nothing to Hide: How the UN and Francesca Albanese Engaged in a Cover-Up to Conceal Her Funding by Pro-Hamas Lobby Groups — many in the media yawned. Others shrugged. The United Nations Human Rights Council (UNHRC) has long been a byword for double standards and moral hypocrisy, particularly in its obsessive fixation on Israel. But the details of this scandal are not merely another case of institutional bias — they expose a deeper rot in the international system: the fusion of ideological warfare with procedural corruption, all cloaked in the language of human rights [(UN Watch, 2025a)].
Francesca Albanese served as the UN Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in the Palestinian territories from May 2022 to April 2025 — at which time her term was controversially extended despite mounting ethical concerns. From the start, her tenure was marred by controversy. Her mandate was structurally biased — it tasked her solely with investigating “Israel’s violations,” with no requirement to assess Palestinian conduct [(UNHRC Resolution 1993/2A)]. But Albanese took that bias to an unprecedented level, using her UN platform to justify Palestinian violence, smear Israel as a settler-colonial entity, and dismiss the October 7 massacre as a “response to oppression” [(Jerusalem Post, 2025); (Albanese, 2023)].
These were not isolated remarks. They reflected a deeply ideological worldview in which Israel’s very existence is framed as illegitimate. Albanese repeatedly engaged with organisations and individuals who endorse Hamas, excuse terrorism, and frame Jewish self-determination as a crime. And yet she was permitted to speak on behalf of the United Nations, presenting herself as a neutral investigator.
That pretence has now collapsed. According to UN Watch’s meticulously documented report, Albanese accepted approximately $20,000 in travel and accommodation support from virulently anti-Israel organisations — specifically the Australian Friends of Palestine Association (AFPA), Free Palestine Melbourne, and the Australia Palestine Advocacy Network (APAN) — to fund her 2023 trip to Australia and New Zealand [(UN Watch, 2025a)]. These groups promote Hamas talking points, lionise terrorists, and call for the dismantling of Israel.
Worse still, Albanese initially denied that her trip was externally funded, claiming the UN had paid for it. When confronted, she attempted to obfuscate. But the paper trail is clear — and it points to a direct violation of the UN’s own Code of Conduct for Special Procedures, which forbids mandate-holders from accepting “any honour, decoration, favour, gift or remuneration” from non-governmental sources [(UN HRC, 2007)].
What followed was not accountability, but cover-up. Rather than refer the matter to an independent ethics body, the UN allowed it to be handled by the Coordination Committee of Special Procedures — a group of insiders lacking both independence and investigative power. The committee dismissed the allegations without launching a probe. The Secretary-General’s office refused to intervene. The Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights actively shielded Albanese, reinforcing the illusion that nothing improper had occurred [(UN Watch, 2025a; 2025b)].
This is not merely a lapse in judgment. It is an institutional betrayal of public trust.
The damage is both reputational and operational. The UN’s willingness to protect Albanese, rather than hold her to account, reinforces the perception — especially among liberal democracies — that the UNHRC is not a human rights body at all, but a political weapon wielded by authoritarian regimes and ideologues who use the Israeli-Palestinian conflict as a proxy battlefield.
New Zealand should take this scandal personally. Albanese’s funded trip included high-level meetings with New Zealand MPs, media engagements, and university events. She toured this country with the veneer of UN authority, but in reality was acting as a paid emissary of partisan anti-Israel groups. The New Zealand public, politicians, and press were misled. And it is now incumbent on our institutions to respond.
This is not about silencing criticism of Israel. Reasoned criticism — like the kind levelled at any democracy — is legitimate. But when a UN official accepts money from organisations that support terrorism, uses that platform to excuse antisemitic violence, and is then protected by the very system that should hold her accountable, we are witnessing something far more dangerous: the collapse of credibility in the international rules-based order.
The Albanese Affair should be a turning point. New Zealand must reassess its blind support for the Human Rights Council. It must speak out against the politicisation of human rights. And it must recognise that the Albanese scandal is not an isolated case — it is a symptom of a deeper problem, where international institutions tasked with upholding justice have instead become complicit in ideological warfare.
Let us be clear: Albanese’s resignation is not justice. The system that enabled her remains untouched. If New Zealand is to be taken seriously as a principled voice in foreign affairs, it must demand better — from the UN, from its human rights mechanisms, and from itself.
References
- UN Watch. (2025a). Nothing to Hide: How the UN and Francesca Albanese Engaged in a Cover-Up to Conceal Her Funding by Pro-Hamas Lobby Groups. https://unwatch.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/05/Report-on-UN-Cover-up-of-Francesca-Albaneses-pro-Hamas-funding.pdf
- UN Watch. (2025b). UN Orchestrated Cover-Up of Francesca Albanese’s Financial Misconduct. https://unwatch.org/report-un-orchestrated-cover-up-of-francesca-albaneses-financial-misconduct
- United Nations Human Rights Council (UN HRC). (2007). Code of Conduct for Special Procedures Mandate-holders of the Human Rights Council. A/HRC/RES/5/2
- United Nations Human Rights Council. (1993). Resolution 1993/2A. https://digitallibrary.un.org/record/1719800
- Albanese, F. (2023). Public statements archived in UN Watch report. (See: UN Watch, 2025a)
- The Jerusalem Post. (2025, May 24). U.S. condemns UN envoy Francesca Albanese over Hamas-linked funds. https://www.jpost.com/international/article-853955
