Zeynep ConkarThe US has long relied on unlawful unilateral sanctions as a foreign policy weapon – targeting governments, institutions, companies, and individuals it deems adversarial.
On Wednesday, Washington once again crossed a red line by turning its coercive power against the United Nations itself, sanctioning the UN Special Rapporteur Francesca Albanese.
The US Secretary of State Marco Rubio made the announcement, accusing Albanese of “illegitimate and shameful efforts” to prompt International Criminal Court (ICC) action against American and Israeli officials, companies, and executives.
But Albanese, a widely respected international lawyer, was doing exactly what her mandate requires: documenting violations in the occupied Palestinian territories and reporting them to the UN system.
The US sanctions came just days after she released a report titled From the Economy of Occupation to the Economy of Genocide, which detailed how dozens of corporations, including Amazon, Microsoft, Alphabet, and Palantir, are enabling and also profiting from Israel’s illegal occupation of Palestinian territories and genocide in Gaza by supplying surveillance systems, digital infrastructure, and weapons technology.
“The US government’s imposition of sanctions on Albanese, and Rubio’s malicious and libellous smears against her, are just the latest in the Trump administration’s lawless rampage,” Craig Mokhiber, a prominent Human Rights Lawyer and a former UN official, tells TRT World.
Mokhiber resigned from the UN in November 2024 in protest against the organisation’s failure to stop what he described as a “textbook case of genocide” in Gaza.
“In addition to the attacks on Albanese, we’ve seen the administration participate in genocide in Palestine, commit the crime of aggression in Iran, unlawfully sanction the ICC prosecutor and judges, violate the rights of countless migrants, and abduct and detain students merely for speaking out against genocide,” Mokhiber says.
Illegal under the UN Charter
Experts point out that these sanctions are not only politically retaliatory, they are also entirely unlawful under international law, as the US has no legal basis for imposing unilateral sanctions on a UN mandate holder.
In fact, doing so violates the UN Charter itself.
“These experts are mandated by the Human Rights Council and the UN General Assembly to investigate human rights violations and report their findings through the UN system,” says Munir Nuseibah, a human rights lawyer and law professor at the occupied East Jerusalem-based Al-Quds University.
“The sanctions imposed on Albanese, and previously on the ICC demonstrate that the US is actively opposing international law and the institutions of international justice,” Nuseibah tells TRT World.
According to Mokhiber, the sanctions are also in violation of the Genocide Convention, which obligates states to prevent genocide and facilitate accountability for it.
Albanese’s report documents how private companies are profiting from Israel’s genocidal campaign against Palestinians.
Punishing her for bringing those facts forward, Mokhiber argues, amounts to obstructing international obligations aimed at preventing and prosecuting genocide.
Additionally, under Article 41 of the UN Charter, only the Security Council is authorised to impose sanctions that are binding on member states.
When a single country enforces coercive measures outside this framework, it bypasses international legal mechanisms and undermines the principles of sovereignty and non-intervention.
As for mechanisms of accountability, there are limitations in enforcing international law on powerful states like the US.
“However, this doesn’t mean the special rapporteur will be silenced, nor will the court. The US cannot unilaterally reshape the international system,” says Nuseibah.
Nuseibah expects the UN Human Rights Council and potentially the General Assembly to take up the matter.
“While this may not prevent Washington from continuing such policies, it is essential to at least acknowledge the violation so that it does not become acceptable for any country to attack the human rights system simply because they disagree with its findings or mandates,” he explains.
Targeting accountability mechanisms
The US reaction was not surprising as Albanese’s latest report is one of the clearest and most direct efforts so far to show how private companies are enabling Israel’s military occupation and apartheid regime.
It outlined extensive economic and technological ties between corporate actors and the Israeli government, many of which are US-based.
What makes the report especially significant is its connection between these companies and the wider machinery of destruction in Gaza, where over 57,800 Palestinians have been killed since October 2023, according to Nuseibah.
“I believe Albanese’s report is especially significant because it goes beyond Israeli violations to also highlight the role of third parties, companies and NGOs that are supporting Israel’s genocidal campaign and apartheid regime.”
“The timing of the sanctions is telling, though not surprising,” Nuseibah adds.
Under international law, complicity in war crimes, crimes against humanity, and genocide are separate, prosecutable offences. Albanese’s findings hint that US actors could be exposed to legal consequences.
In this context, the sanctions appear designed to silence and isolate her and other UN experts and legal bodies from moving too close to the truth.
The move also mirrors past US sanctions against the International Criminal Court and its officials, revealing a persistent pattern of unilateral coercion meant to go after international institutions seen as a threat.
In recent years, revelations have uncovered years of Israeli surveillance and espionage targeting ICC officials.
One notable example came in 2020, when the Trump administration sanctioned senior members of the Court, including then-chief prosecutor Fatou Bensouda. The decision followed the ICC’s announcement that it would investigate war crimes committed by US forces in Afghanistan and by Israeli forces in the occupied Palestinian territories.
Bensouda reportedly received direct threats from Mossad leadership, warning her not to pursue cases that could endanger her or her family’s safety. US authorities followed up by freezing her assets and barring her from entering the country.
In 2024, the same tactics resurfaced. As the ICC prepared arrest warrants for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Defence Minister Yoav Gallant, a group of Republican senators threatened prosecutor Karim Khan with sanctions. Their warning extended not only to him, but also to ICC officials and their families.
These examples point to a pattern when legal accountability appears imminent for the US, Washington does not hesitate to pressure or punish the institutions seeking to uphold international law.
“It’s fair to say that the standing of the US on the global stage has never been lower than it is at this moment,” Mokhiber says.
“The administration’s open disdain for human rights and the rule of law should be of grave concern to the entire international community,” he adds.
