The United Nations Human Rights Workplace seems to have disseminated deliberately misleading data in an try to cowl up journey funding that pro-Hamas organizations supplied to a UN official.
UN particular rapporteur for Palestinian rights Francesca Albanese took a politically-charged journey to Australia and New Zealand in November 2023. The journey included a fundraiser for a Palestinian foyer group, participation in media occasions, in addition to conferences with pro-Palestinian politicians and civil society members, and pushing New Zealand’s sovereign wealth fund to divest from Israel.
Albanese has been accused of antisemitism by the American, French and German governments, amongst different entities.
Now, the Australian Associates of Palestine Affiliation, which praised Hamas terror mastermind Yahya Sinwar as “extremely shifting,” claimed publicly that it had “sponsored” Albanese’s go to, and Free Palestine Melbourne, the Australian Palestinian Advocacy Community, and Palestinian Christians in Australia acknowledged that they “supported” the journey. All 4 are lobbying teams.
i24NEWS requested numerous UN officers and entities for months whether or not pro-Hamas teams really did fund the journey. Albanese repeatedly insisted the journey, estimated by the UN Watch NGO to value round $22,000, was paid for by the UN, calling claims on the contrary “egregiously false.”
Lastly, in July of final yr, the UN Human Rights Workplace, acknowledging it was totally conscious of documentation that pro-Hamas teams had stated they sponsored or organized the journey, advised i24NEWS that, “With respect to the Australia journey by the Particular Rapporteur, her journey was funded by the UN.”
They ignored requests to offer any documentation exhibiting that to be the case.
Since then, a six-person panel of Albanese’s friends, who’ve lengthy attacked her accusers, was assigned the duty of investigating a number of accusations towards Albanese. In a letter written final month to UN Human Rights Council President Jurg Lauber by that panel, generally known as the UN Coordination Committee of Particular Procedures, they lastly acknowledged Albanese had taken “partial exterior funding for inner journeys inside Australia and New Zealand.”
i24NEWS requested the media places of work for UN Human Rights and Particular Procedures for readability on what appeared to be opposite claims.
Like former US president Invoice Clinton’s cagey testimony within the Lewinsky affair, when he famously remarked, “It relies upon upon what the that means of the phrase ‘is’ is,” for the UN Human Rights Workplace and Albanese, it apparently relies upon upon what the that means of the phrase “to” is.
The Particular Procedures workplace advised i24NEWS: “With regard to the Particular Rapporteur’s go to to Australia, her journey was funded by the United Nations common funds. The Coordination Committee of Particular Procedures assessed the allegations regarding partial exterior funding for inner journey (the bolding of the phrases is theirs) inside Australia and New Zealand and concluded that there was no breach of the Code of Conduct. The Committee famous that it’s common apply for convention organizers to cowl the participation prices of mandate holders, and such preparations don’t represent a violation of the established requirements.”
With that, the UN lastly conceded Albanese had in truth obtained exterior funding in spite of everything.
In follow-up conversations, it grew to become clear: the UN was drawing a distinction between funding for journey TO a rustic, and funding for journey WITHIN a rustic – a weird distinction they did not make for a yr and a half, nearly definitely to keep away from discussing the subject of Hamas-supporting teams paying for a UN official’s anti-Israel enterprise journey.
Even with all this, the UN Human Rights Workplace continues to disregard requests to make clear which group or teams funded this journey, and the way a lot they contributed. Accused by i24NEWS of mendacity, the Particular Procedures Media Workplace stated it was a “regrettable and unfair mischaracterization,” although it nonetheless made no try to reconcile why the UN made no earlier point out of exterior funding, or why the funding for Albanese’s journey “to” Australia must be counted otherwise from “exterior funding for inner journey.”
Requested throughout a press briefing whether or not UN Secretary-Common Antonio Guterres would condemn UN spokespeople for deliberately misinforming the media and whether or not Guterres would assist lastly releasing the funding data surrounding the journey, Stephane Dujarric, Guterres’ spokesperson, stated, “We assist transparency within the actions of any official affiliated with United Nations.”
