Geneva: The United Nations' Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in the occupied Palestinian territory has warned that the recent UN Security Council resolution on Gaza violates the UN Charter and the Palestinian right to self-determination.
According to Kuwait News Agency, Francesca Albanese, in a statement issued on Wednesday in Geneva, said that the Council's resolution on Gaza "betrays the people it claims to protect," entrenches the Israeli occupation's ongoing unlawful policies and practices, and contributes to legitimizing continued mass violence. She stated that the mandate to "secure borders, protect civilians, and decommission weapons" focuses almost exclusively on disarming Palestinian armed groups while taking no steps to end the root causes of violence, such as the ongoing unlawful siege, occupation, apartheid, and ethnic cleansing practiced by the Israeli Occupation.
Albanese stressed that Resolution 2803 replaces clear legal obligations toward Palestinians with a "capital-driven security model" that entrenches power asymmetries and consolidates external control over Gaza's governance, borders, security, and reconstruction. She noted that the resolution calls for establishing a "military force" under a so-called "Peace Board" chaired by the President of the United States, describing it as "a blatant attempt to impose US and Israeli interests through the threat of force against a largely defenseless population."
She added that the resolution "essentially will leave Palestine in the hands of a puppet administration, assigning the United States, which shares complicity in the genocide, as the new manager of the open-air prison that Israel has already established." Albanese expressed concern that the Security Council proceeded with the resolution despite the atrocities of the past two years and the International Court of Justice's clear jurisprudence.
She emphasized that the Council chose not to ground its response to the war in Gaza in international human rights law, including the right to self-determination, the law governing the use of force, international humanitarian law, and the UN Charter. The Special Rapporteur stressed that if the occupied Palestinian territory, including Gaza, requires an international presence, its mandate must be to supervise the immediate and unconditional withdrawal of the Israeli occupation from all occupied Palestinian territory.
Albanese warned that "as long as the occupation remains physically present in any part of the occupied Palestinian territory, including the Gaza Strip, it constitutes an internationally wrongful act, and all States, including the United States, are obligated neither to recognize it nor assist it." She recalled the ICJ's clear findings that self-determination is an inalienable right of the Palestinian people and that the United Nations and all States have a duty to assist in its realization.
The Special Rapporteur emphasized that Palestinians "do not need a monitoring force placed over the ruins of their devastated homeland; they need a genuine international presence that ends the unlawful occupation, halts the genocide, restores their capacity for self-governance, ensures humanitarian access, and guarantees the right of return." Albanese also warned that the plan has already been used by some States as a "political pressure valve" to suspend discussions on sanctions and other concrete measures necessary to halt serious violations.
She urged States, particularly those that voted in favor of the resolution, to interpret and implement it in a manner consistent with binding international law. The UN official stressed that sidelining international law renders the UN complicit in wrongdoing, undermines its Charter, and can only lead to further human carnage. The UNSC adopted a resolution on Monday with 13 votes in favor and two abstentions from Russia and China.