Francesca Albanese, United Nations Special Rapporteur on Palestine, will deliver a public lecture on Wednesday 19th March 2025 at 6.15pm in the John Hume Lecture Hall 1. Ms Albanese lecture titled, ‘Genocide in Palestine: A Tragedy Foretold — What's Next and What is Ireland's Role?’
This event is now fully booked and no further registration can be accepted.
Since being appointed as United Nations Special Rapporteur in 2022, Francesca Albanese has addressed the human rights situation in Palestine in her reports to the UN General Assembly and Human Rights Council, focusing in particular on the right of the Palestinian people to self-determination (2022); the situation of Palestinian detainees and prisoners involving “systematic arbitrary deprivation of liberty” (2023); the “anatomy of a genocide” in Gaza (2024); and “genocide as colonial erasure” (2024). The Special Rapporteur has also provided ongoing analysis and documentation of the situation in Gaza and the West Bank in regular collective statements with other UN Special Rapporteurs and in her public interventions. She has articulated in detail the roles and responsibilities of all UN member states, particularly in the context of the International Court of Justice provisional measures orders in the South Africa v. Israel genocide case and the ICJ Advisory Opinion on Israel’s illegal occupation. In this lecture she will speak about her work in this area, the unfolding situation in Palestine, and the legal and ethical duties for the international community in general, and for Ireland.
Francesca Albanese is the United Nations Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in the Palestinian territories. She is an Affiliate Scholar at the Institute for the Study of International Migration at Georgetown University, and a Senior Advisor on Migration and Forced Displacement for the Arab Renaissance for Democracy and Development (ARDD), where she co-founded the Global Network on the Question of Palestine (GNQP). Her latest book, Palestinian Refugees in International Law (Oxford University Press, 2020), offers a comprehensive legal analysis of the situation of Palestinian refugees from its origins to modern-day reality. She regularly teaches and lectures on International Law and Forced Displacement in European and Arab universities, and speaks frequently at conferences and public events on the legal situation of Palestine. She worked for a decade as a human rights expert for the United Nations, including the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights and the Relief and Work Agency for Palestine Refugees. In these capacities, she advised the UN, governments, and civil society across the Middle East, North Africa, and the Asia Pacific, on the enforcement of human rights norms, especially for vulnerable groups including refugees and migrants.
Hosted by Maynooth University School of Law and Criminology, with the Research Centre in International Justice, Academics for Palestine, Trócaire and Sadaka, the Ireland Palestine Alliance. The 2025 International Justice Lecture Maynooth LLM Masters programme in International Justice, School of Law and Criminology, Maynooth University.