The Coordination Committee of the Human Rights Council’s Special Procedures issued a rare and pointed denunciation on 17 February 2026, condemning what it called orchestrated, disinformation-based attacks by several State ministers against Francesca Albanese, the UN Special Rapporteur on the Palestinian territories occupied since 1967. The rebuke illuminated a worrying trend, namely the politicisation of independent experts tasked with documenting human-rights violations (UN Coordination Committee, 17 February 2026).

The Committee framed the attacks as not merely personal but corrosive to accountability. It noted previous unlawful sanctions against Albanese and urged States to redirect efforts from targeting monitors towards bringing alleged perpetrators to justice, including before the International Criminal Court. The statement also reiterated the Rapporteur’s mandate to investigate international humanitarian law violations in the occupied Palestinian territories and warned that intimidation of experts undermines impartial fact-finding and the protection of victims.

The episode is a reminder that international mechanisms survive only insofar as States respect institutional independence, and that delegitimising scrutiny is often the prelude to impunity for grave abuses.

Source, UN Coordination Committee, statement, 17 February 2026.