{"id":313220,"date":"2025-11-19T10:46:02","date_gmt":"2025-11-19T15:46:02","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.un.org\/unispal\/?post_type=document&p=313220"},"modified":"2025-12-05T15:53:25","modified_gmt":"2025-12-05T20:53:25","slug":"un-expert-press-release-19nov25","status":"publish","type":"document","link":"https:\/\/www.un.org\/unispal\/document\/un-expert-press-release-19nov25\/","title":{"rendered":"UN Security Council resolution a violation of Palestinian right of self-determination and UN Charter, UN expert warns"},"content":{"rendered":"

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19 November 2025<\/p>\n

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GENEVA<\/strong>\u00a0\u2013 A UN expert today expressed serious concern with the Security Council\u2019s adoption<\/a> of Resolution 2803<\/a>, warning that it runs counter to the Palestinian right to self-determination, consolidates Israel\u2019s unlawful presence in the occupied Palestinian territory, including ongoing unlawful policies and practices, and therefore risks legitimating ongoing mass violence.<\/p>\n

\u201cI welcome the UN Security Council\u2019s renewed attention on Gaza and the urgent need for a permanent ceasefire,\u201d said Francesca Albanese, Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in the Palestinian territories occupied since 1967.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut I am deeply perplexed. Despite the horrors of the last two years and the ICJ\u2019s clear jurisprudence, the Council has chosen not to ground its response in the very body of law it is obliged to uphold: international human rights law, including the right of self-determination, the law governing the use of force, international humanitarian law, and the UN Charter.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cArticle 24(2) of the UN Charter makes clear that in discharging its duties, the Council \u2018shall act in accordance with the Purposes and Principles of the United Nations.\u2019<\/p>\n

\u201cRather than charting a pathway toward ending the occupation and ensuring Palestinian protection, the resolution risks entrenching external control over Gaza\u2019s governance, borders, security, and reconstruction. The resolution betrays the people it claims to protect.\u201d<\/p>\n

The resolution was adopted on Monday (17) with 13 votes in favour and two abstentions from Russia and China.<\/p>\n

Albanese stressed that Resolution 2803 replaces clear legal obligations towards Palestinians with a \u201csecurity-first, capital-driven model of foreign control\u201d that entrenches existing power asymmetries. \u201cThe mandate to \u2018secure borders,\u2019 \u2018protect civilians,\u2019 and \u2018decommission weapons,\u2019 focuses almost exclusively on disarming Palestinian armed groups while doing nothing to end the root cause of the violence: Israel\u2019s ongoing unlawful siege, occupation, racial segregation and apartheid, and ethnic cleansing,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

\u201cA military force answering to a so-called \u2018Board of Peace\u2019 chaired by the President of the United States, an active party to this conflict that has continually provided military, economic and diplomatic support to the illegal occupying Power, is not legal,\u201d the expert said. \u201cIt is a brazen attempt to impose, by threat of continued force against a virtually defenceless population, US and Israeli interests, plain and simple.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cEssentially, it will leave Palestine in the hands of a puppet administration, assigning the United States, which shares complicity in the genocide, as the new manager of the open-air prison that Israel has already established.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cIf the OPT, including Gaza, requires an international presence, it should be mandated to supervise Israel\u2019s immediate and unconditional withdrawal from the occupied Palestinian territories, in line with the ICJ\u2019s 2024 advisory opinion and General Assembly resolution,\u201d the Special Rapporteur said. \u201cSuch a presence should protect civilians, guarantee the cessation of hostilities, prevent further displacement, ensure accountability for grave breaches, and support the Palestinian people in exercising their right to freely determine their political future.\u201d<\/p>\n

Albanese warned that as long as Israel remains physically present in any portion of the OPT, including the Gaza Strip, it is an internationally wrongful act that all States, including the United States, are bound not to recognise, aid or assist.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThe ICJ was clear: self-determination is an inalienable right of the Palestinian people and the UN and all States have an obligation to assist in its realisation. This can only begin with the immediate and unconditional withdrawal of Israel\u2019s unlawful presence in the occupied Palestinian territory. Replacing an abusive trustee with another is not self-determination, it is unlawful\u201d.<\/p>\n

The Special Rapporteur said that Palestinians do not need a surveillance force over the ruins of their destroyed homeland. \u201cThey need a protective international presence that ends Israel\u2019s unlawful occupation, stops the genocide and restores their capacity for self-governance. Protection means lifting the blockade, ensuring unhindered humanitarian access, supporting Palestinian-led governance, guaranteeing the right of return and enforcing international law in full,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

Albanese also warned that the plan has already been used by some States as a \u201cpolitical pressure valve\u201d to suspend discussions on sanctions and other concrete measures necessary to halt serious violations. \u201cStates cannot ignore serious breaches of peremptory norms because a political plan offers temporary diplomatic convenience.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI therefore urge all states, especially those that voted in favour of the resolution, to interpret and implement it in a manner consistent with binding international law,\u201d she said. \u201cTo sideline international law renders the UN complicit, undermines the UN Charter and can only lead to \u201cintensifying human carnage\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is an existential moment,\u201d Albanese said. \u201cThe international community must not allow Gaza\u2019s future – or the future of the Palestinian people to be decided without their agency and consent. Only an approach rooted in justice, legality, and self-determination can lead to genuine peace.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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Francesca Albanese<\/strong>\u00a0is the\u00a0Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in the Palestinian territories occupied since 1967<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n

To learn more about Special Procedures of the UN Human Rights Council and the Question of Palestine, click here to visit the dedicated webpage.<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

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