Spain awards UN legal expert Francesca Albanese one of its highest civilian honours

The Spanish government awarded the UN legal expert Francesca Albanese one of its highest civilian honours in recognition of what it termed her “extensive work in documenting and denouncing violations of international law in Gaza”.

Albanese, an Italian human rights lawyer who serves as 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 military operations in Gaza, which she has described as genocide.

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.

Albanese has faced the prospect of arrest in Germany over her use of language and has been sanctioned by the US government for urging the international criminal court (ICC) to investigate American and Israeli companies and individuals over their alleged complicity in gross human rights violations.

In a ceremony in Madrid on Thursday, Pedro Sánchez, Spain’s prime minister, awarded Albanese the Order of Civil Merit. Sánchez is one of the most vociferous European critics of Israel’s conduct in Gaza.

“Public responsibility also brings with it a moral obligation not to look the other way,” he said. “It is an honour to bestow the Order of Civil Merit on a voice that upholds the conscience of the world.”

Sánchez has also written to the EU to ask it to block the US sanctions against Albanese, arguing they “represent a very worrying precedent that compromises the independent workings of institutions that are essential to international justice”.

A day earlier, Albanese had visited the Reina Sofía museum in Madrid to see Picasso’s Guernica. Standing in front of the Spanish artist’s fierce condemnation of the Nazi bombing of the Basque town in 1937, she said the destruction it reflected was “reminiscent of what we have seen” in Gaza.

She also said the ceasefire in the Gaza Strip was meaningless, adding: “Those in power are pushing for the world to take its eye off Gaza and for it to be forgotten about. And that’s what most of the world has done.”