Madrid (QNN)- Spain’s Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez awarded on Thursday the Order of Civil Merit to the UN Special Rapporteur on Palestine Francesca Albanese for her “extensive work in documenting and denouncing violations of international law in Gaza”.
Albanese, an Italian human rights lawyer who serves as the UN special rapporteur on the situation of human rights in the Palestinian territories occupied since 1967, has been vocal in her criticisms of Israel’s assault in Gaza, which she has described as genocide ong with several human rights organizations.
She has also called out the international community over its failure to prevent and punish acts of torture, genocide and other serious human rights violations.
“Public responsibility also entails the moral obligation not to look the other way,” Sanchez wrote in a statement.
“It is an honour to award the Order of Civil Merit to a voice that upholds the conscience of the world: Francesca Albanese, United Nations Special Rapporteur in the Occupied Palestinian Territory.”
The move comes a day after Sanchez formally requested the European Commission to activate the EU’s Blocking Statute to shield the International Criminal Court (ICC) and the United Nations from US sanctions.
"The EU cannot stand idly by in the face of this persecution," he said on Wednesday, calling on Brussels to protect the independence of both institutions and their "actions to end the genocide in Gaza.”
"Sanctioning those who defend international justice puts the entire human rights system at risk."
Albanese is the first and only UN special rapporteur to be the target of US sanctions for her work, after the Donald Trump administration imposed financial and visa sanctions on her last year for her work documenting human rights abuses in occupied Palestine, which includes engagement with the ICC and international justice institutions.
The ICC, based in The Hague, is the only permanent international court that prosecutes individuals for war crimes, crimes against humanity and genocide.
Its officials, including nine judges, have been subjected to unprecedented measures by the US since Prosecutor Karim Khan sought arrest warrants for Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and then Defence Minister Yoav Gallant for war crimes committed in Gaza since October 2023.
Since February last year, the Trump administration has imposed sanctions on 11 ICC officials and Albanese in connection with the arrest warrants as well as the court's ongoing Afghanistan investigation.
Albanese was sanctionef in July over her work investigating genocide in Gaza and her engagement with the ICC as part of her mandate.
The sanctions effectively barred her from travelling to the US and froze her assets there.
She previously said that the sanctions have also cut her off from the global financial system, including by blocking her ability to carry out regular daily transactions.
In February, her family sued the Trump administration over the sanctions.
Her latest report called on the ICC to pursue arrest warrants for three Israeli ministers she accuses of being responsible for “systematic torture” amounting to genocide.
Spain's Sanchez is one of the EU's most outspoken critics of international law breaches by Israel and the US, including in the war on Gaza and Iran. He was the first EU leader to label Israel's war as a genocide.
