France has called for the resignation of UN Special Rapporteur Francesca Albanese after remarks she made at the Al Jazeera Forum in Qatar, according to Le Monde and reported by The Jerusalem Post.
France’s Foreign Minister Jean-Noël Barrot told lawmakers that the remarks crossed a red line because they targeted Israel “as a people and as a nation,” language he said was unacceptable.
Barrot also linked the episode to a broader pattern he described as “scandalous,” including references to a “Jewish lobby,” comparisons to the Third Reich, and rhetoric that he said amounts to justifying the October 7 massacre.
More than 20 French parliament members reportedly signed a letter demanding Albanese be stripped of “all UN mandates with immediate effect.”
Those are the facts. Here is the conclusion: the United Nations must remove Francesca Albanese from her mandate, immediately, and without excuses.
A UN special rapporteur is not a cable news guest or a campus activist. Special Procedures mandate-holders are presented by the UN as independent experts expected to uphold integrity, impartiality, honesty, and good faith. Their authority comes from the UN title, the UN platform, and the assumption that their work is anchored in professional standards.
That professional framework is explicit. The Human Rights Council’s Code of Conduct for Special Procedures mandate-holders sets expectations for ethical behavior and professional conduct. It is built for one purpose: credibility.
When a mandate-holder uses language that frames Israel as a civilizational “enemy,” credibility collapses. The Jerusalem Post report describes Albanese referring to Israel as humanity’s “common enemy” while addressing the Al Jazeera Forum. That language functions as collective demonization, and the UN system has learned, repeatedly and painfully, what follows when institutions normalize collective demonization of Jews.
UN must use its mechanism to oust Albanese
The UN also has a mechanism for handling exactly this kind of failure. The Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights describes an internal advisory procedure that provides a formal avenue for lodging complaints about mandate-holders’ practices and working methods. This is a moment to use it. France has already put the issue on the table. Other democracies should join, publicly.
Some will try to reframe this as a debate over criticism of Israeli policy. France addressed that directly. Barrot drew the line between criticism of a government and attacks aimed at Israel as a nation and a people. That line exists for a reason. Human rights work depends on precision. It also depends on avoiding the oldest shortcut in political rhetoric: treating Jews, or the Jewish state, as a stand-in for the world’s problems.
Removal is also about basic governance. If the UN keeps a mandate-holder who repeatedly triggers condemnations for antisemitic tropes and delegitimizing rhetoric, the UN signals that Jews and Israelis are an exception to its stated values. That outcome poisons the system for everyone, including Palestinians who deserve serious, credible scrutiny of facts and law, delivered by someone who can actually command trust across divides.
France did the UN a favor. It showed that a government can stop whispering about UN bias and start demanding accountability.
Now the UN has to decide what it wants its titles to mean.
Some defenders will argue that harsh condemnation of Israeli policy falls within free expression. That debate belongs in universities, parliaments, and newspapers. The UN is different. A special rapporteur is supposed to investigate, report, and persuade through standards and facts, not through slogans that flatten a nation into an enemy category.
A clear decision by the Human Rights Council to remove Albanese would send three messages that matter. It would tell Jews that the UN will enforce standards when they are targeted. It would tell Israelis that the UN’s human rights machinery can still correct itself. It would tell the world that a UN mandate is earned through professionalism, and it can be lost through misconduct.
France has demanded her resignation. The UN should go further. Dismiss Francesca Albanese from her UN mandate. Replace her. Restore basic standards.