Court ruling temporarily halts punitive measures against the UN expert on Palestine, dealing an early legal setback to the new Trump administration’s efforts to target international critics.
A US federal judge has blocked sanctions imposed by the Trump administration on Francesca Albanese, the United Nations Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in the Palestinian territories occupied since 1967.
The preliminary injunction, issued late on Thursday, temporarily prevents the enforcement of financial and travel restrictions against Albanese, whom the Trump administration had accused of bias and spreading “antisemitic” rhetoric in her reports on Israel’s actions in Gaza and the West Bank.
US Judge Halts Trump Sanctions on UN Expert Francesca Albanese:
Judge’s ruling came after Albanese and rights groups challenged the sanctions, arguing they represented an unlawful attempt to intimidate and silence a UN independent expert carrying out her official duties. The judge found that the plaintiffs demonstrated a strong likelihood of success on the merits of their case and that the sanctions could cause irreparable harm.
Francesca Albanese, an Italian international lawyer, has been a vocal critic of Israeli policies, describing them in recent years as amounting to apartheid and raising concerns over possible war crimes and genocide in Gaza following the October 2023 Hamas attacks and Israel’s military response.
The Trump administration had announced sanctions against her earlier this month, freezing any US-based assets and barring her entry into the country-measures that rights organisations condemned as an attack on the independence of the UN human rights system.
US Court Blocks Trump Sanctions on UN Rapporteur in Landmark Ruling:
The decision marks one of the first significant legal challenges to the new administration’s aggressive stance toward international institutions and critics of its Middle East policy. The White House has not yet commented on whether it plans to appeal the ruling.
UN Secretary-General António Guterres and several human rights organisations welcomed the court’s intervention, warning that allowing such sanctions would set a dangerous precedent that could undermine the work of all UN special rapporteurs.
Albanese herself described the sanctions as “an attempt to punish truth-telling” and expressed gratitude to those who supported the legal challenge.
The case is expected to continue through the US courts, with potential far-reaching consequences for the relationship between the United States and the United Nations human rights mechanisms.