Francesca Albanese submitted report A/79/384, titled Anatomy of a Genocide, to the UN General Assembly in September 2024. This was her second report on Gaza as Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in the Palestinian Territories occupied since 1967. The first report, A/HRC/55/73, submitted to the Human Rights Council in March 2024, concluded that there were reasonable grounds to believe that the threshold indicating Israel's commission of genocide was being met. A/79/384 extended the analysis to the legal responsibilities of third states. UN Special Rapporteur Francesca Albanese, A/79/384, September 2024, undocs.org.

A/79/384 applied Article III of the Genocide Convention, the Arms Trade Treaty adopted by the UN General Assembly in 2013, and the Geneva Conventions to assess the legal position of states continuing to supply arms to Israel after January 26 2024. That was the date the ICJ issued provisional measures in South Africa v. Israel, ordering Israel to take all measures within its power to prevent acts falling within the scope of the Genocide Convention. The ICJ provisional measures order is binding on Israel as a state party. A/79/384 examined whether third-state arms supplies after that order engaged their own legal obligations. UN Special Rapporteur Francesca Albanese, A/79/384, September 2024, undocs.org · ICJ, South Africa v. Israel, January 26 2024, icj-cij.org.

Article III(e) of the Genocide Convention prohibits complicity in genocide. The Genocide Convention was adopted by the UN General Assembly on December 9 1948 and entered into force on January 12 1951. Article III lists as punishable not only genocide but also conspiracy to commit genocide, direct and public incitement to commit genocide, attempt to commit genocide, and complicity in genocide. All states party to the Convention, including the United States, Germany and the United Kingdom, are bound by Article III. Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide, December 9 1948, ohchr.org.

The Arms Trade Treaty, adopted by the UN General Assembly on April 2 2013 and in force from December 24 2014, prohibits states from authorising arms transfers if they have knowledge that the arms would be used in the commission of genocide, crimes against humanity, or grave breaches of the Geneva Conventions. Article 7 of the Arms Trade Treaty requires exporting states to assess whether the arms could be used to commit or facilitate such acts. Germany and the United Kingdom are states parties to the Arms Trade Treaty. The United States signed the Treaty but has not ratified it. Arms Trade Treaty, April 2 2013, UN Treaty Collection, treaties.un.org · A/79/384, September 2024, undocs.org.

The United States continued arms transfers to Israel after the ICJ provisional measures order of January 26 2024. The Biden administration invoked emergency authority on multiple occasions to bypass Congressional notification requirements for arms packages. In May 2024 the administration paused one shipment of 1,800 two-thousand-pound bombs due to concerns about their use in densely populated areas. All other documented transfers continued. US Department of State, state.gov · US Mission to the United Nations, usun.usmission.gov.

Germany announced a suspension of new arms export approvals to Israel in January 2025 after the ICJ issued additional provisional measures. Prior to that suspension, Germany had approved and transferred arms to Israel throughout 2024 following the January 26 ICJ order. The United Kingdom suspended a subset of arms export licences to Israel in September 2024, citing a risk assessment of breaches of international humanitarian law. Both the German and UK suspension decisions were announced after A/79/384 was submitted to the UN General Assembly. German Federal Foreign Office, auswaertiges-amt.de · UK Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office, gov.uk.

The United States Mission to the United Nations issued a statement rejecting A/79/384 and calling for Albanese's removal as Special Rapporteur. The statement described the report as biased and one-sided. It did not identify a specific error in Albanese's application of the Genocide Convention, the Arms Trade Treaty or the Geneva Conventions. The report remains on the UN record. US Mission to the United Nations, usun.usmission.gov.

Germany's Federal Foreign Ministry issued a statement rejecting the characterisation in A/79/384 and stating that Germany supported Israel's right to self-defence within the framework of international law. The statement did not engage with the specific legal analysis of Article 7 of the Arms Trade Treaty applied to Germany's arms transfers after January 26 2024. The United Kingdom's FCDO issued a statement rejecting the report's conclusions. Neither government submitted a formal written rebuttal to the Human Rights Council or the UN Secretary-General contesting Albanese's application of the legal frameworks she cited. German Federal Foreign Office, auswaertiges-amt.de · UK FCDO, gov.uk.

Francesca Albanese was appointed UN Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in the Palestinian Territories occupied since 1967 by the UN Human Rights Council in 2022. The mandate was established by the Human Rights Council following its Resolution 5/1 framework. Special Rapporteurs are independent human rights experts who are not UN staff and serve in their personal capacity. They are not paid for their work. They report to the Human Rights Council and, where invited, to the UN General Assembly. The mandate requires reporting on the human rights situation in the Palestinian Territories and on any violations of international humanitarian law and international human rights law. UN Human Rights Council, ohchr.org.

Albanese's mandate requires her to document what the evidence shows and report it to the relevant UN bodies. That is what A/HRC/55/73 and A/79/384 did. Both reports identify primary sources and apply named legal frameworks. Both reports remain on the UN record. Both have been rejected by governments named in them. Neither rejection has removed the reports from the record or produced a formal finding that the legal analysis was in error. The question the reports raise is the question the record now holds. UN Special Rapporteur Francesca Albanese, A/HRC/55/73, March 2024, ohchr.org · A/79/384, September 2024, undocs.org.