A Nobel Moment: Recognizing Francesca Albanese’s Moral Courage

In a world dominated by Western hegemony and silence in the face of injustice, UN Special Rapporteur Francesca Albanese stands apart. Through her immense courage under fire, Albanese has supplanted herself as the preeminent voice of the dispossessed and a crusader of Palestinian human rights. Captivating the international community, her persistence and audacity to challenge the Western-ruling elite has placed her firmly in their crosshairs. While international law has largely been ineffectual at stopping the Gaza Genocide, Albanese has long made the legal claim to hold those in power responsible.

“When the history of the genocide in Gaza is written, one of the most courageous and outspoken champions for justice and the adherence to international law will be Francesca Albanese, the United Nations Special Rapporteur,” writes Journalist Chris Hedges. In “Anatomy of a Genocide” and “Genocide as Colonial Erasure,” Albanese centers the conflict from its colonial inception to its current genocidal manifestation, using precise terminology that other reports avoid. She embodies the core values of the Nobel Peace Prize, staking her claim as the 2025 recipient.

Over time, the credibility of the Nobel Prize has been severely tarnished, with some earning the prestigious recognition for political convenience rather than genuine merit. A notable case is war criminal Henry Kissinger for his role as National Security Advisor and Secretary of State during the Richard Nixon and Gerald Ford Administration. Kissinger’s blood-soaked legacy of terror can be found throughout Southeast Asia, Africa, and the “Death Squads” of Latin America.

“Kissinger bears significant responsibility for attacks in Cambodia that killed as many as 150,000 civilians,” according to Ben Kiernan, former director of the Genocide Studies Program at Yale University and one of the foremost authorities on the U.S. air campaign in Cambodia. That’s up to six times the number of noncombatants thought to have died in U.S. airstrikes in Afghanistan, Iraq, Libya, Pakistan, Somalia, Syria, and Yemen during the first 20 years of the war on terror. Grandin estimated that, overall, Kissinger — who also helped to prolong the Vietnam War and facilitate genocides in Cambodia, East Timor, and Bangladesh; accelerated civil wars in southern Africa; and supported coups and death squads throughout Latin America — has the blood of at least 3 million people on his hands,” reported by The Intercept. Kissinger is one of the truly heinous political figures in American history.

Another notable figure with a checkered past is President Barack Obama. Aptly nicknamed the “The Drone King,” for his countless drone attacks on majority civilian populations, Obama’s presidency reigned in wars in the Middle East, devastating the lives of millions. Inheriting the Afghanistan and Iraq war from the previous administration, President Obama inflicted his own brand of terror in Libya and Syria. Cloaked in a veneer of invincibility, Obama punished Libya with penetrating NATO-led strikes, precipitating the fall of Muammar Gaddafi, and plunging Libya into a failed state where open-air slave markets thrive. The playbook for every western-lead intervention in the Middle East, Obama seeked regime change under the cover of humanitarianism.

“West African migrants are being bought and sold openly in modern-day slave markets in Libya, survivors have told a UN agency helping them return home. Trafficked people passing through Libya have previously reported violence, extortion and slave labour. But the new testimony from the International Organization for Migration suggests that the trade in human beings has become so normalised that people are being traded in public.“The latest reports of ‘slave markets’ for migrants can be added to a long list of outrages [in Libya],” said Mohammed Abdiker, IOM’s head of operation and emergencies. “The situation is dire. The more IOM engages inside Libya, the more we learn that it is a vale of tears for all too many migrants,” reported by the Guardian.

Trails of blood inflicted by Obama’s presidency on the Global South can also be traced back to the 10-year dirty war in Syria. In the CIA’s failed operation “Timber sycamore,” they armed “Moderate Rebels,” with the aim of overthrowing Assad’s Regime, instead turning the conflict into a proxy war, with several armed factions vying for dominance in the region. Although this attempt at overthrowing Assad’s regime failed, their strategic goal was finally accomplished this year, installing a former Al-Qaeda leader in Syria as President.

Unfolding before our eyes is the systematic annihilation of the Palestinian people, or what Franz Fanone calls, “The Wretched of the Earth.” The Zionist regime guilty of wholesale slaughter, will soon replicate this horror in the West Bank, part of the greater Israel project. Through overt acts of moral courage, Albanese has stood against these malignant forces of darkness, documenting crimes against humanity in Gaza and the West Bank.

Recently, as of June 16-July 11, 2025, Albanese released a report detailing corporate complicity in the genocide, titled “From Economy of Occupation to Economy of Genocide.” In summary, it lays out damning evidence, detailing myriad corporations as “machinery sustaining Israel’s settler-colonial project of displacement and replacement of the Palestinians in the occupied territory.” Their responses spanned the gamut of conventional Zionist talking points since October 7. Case in point, Google Co-Founder Sergey Brin reduced the report to being “antisemetic.” These types of attacks on Albanese’s credibility are indicative of not only what she’s endured during the duration of her career, but also the broader Palestinian solidarity movement. The elites will relentlessly try to undermine her, regardless Albanese will endure and present the legal framework for the Gaza Genocide.

Not a stranger to death threats or character assassinations, the Trump Administration unleashed politically motivated sanctions on Albanese for her commitment to Palestinian human rights and unwillingness to acquiesce to the demands of the U.S. and the Zionist regime. Another potential roadblock towards a world grounded in human dignity, Albanese will proceed with courage and grace despite it all.

Faith in humanity can be restored by presenting this honor to Special Rapporteur Francesca Albanese, while simultaneously rehabilitating the credibility of the Nobel Prize. The unfortunate truth is rarely do we see agents of truth and justice colliding with expressions of hate and white supremacy win. Winning this award would further validate her claim as a champion of human rights and her valiant fight to halt the Gaza Genocide. As someone who took an unpaid position as Special Rapporteur, representing the Palestinian territories, it wouldn’t surprise me if this highly coveted award played an insignificant role in her journey for truth and justice.

The post A Nobel Moment: Recognizing Francesca Albanese’s Moral Courage appeared first on CounterPunch.org.