Tuesday 20th June 2023, Maxwell Theatre, Hamilton Building (near the Pearse Street entrance), Trinity College Dublin, 6.30pm

Francesca Albanese is the successor to Michael Lynk, whose report last year concluded that Israel was practising apartheid in the Occupied Territories. Ms Albanese’s first report in her UN role was published last autumn, and her second, focussing on Israel’s carceral regime, is due this month.

Francesca Albanese was appointed the ‘Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in the Palestinian territories occupied since 1967’ by the UN Human Rights Council at its 49th session in March 2022 and has taken up her function as of 1 May 2022. She is a lawyer by training, specialising in human rights. Albanese is an Affiliate Scholar at the Institute for the Study of International Migration at Georgetown University, as well as a Senior Advisor on Migration and Forced Displacement for a think-tank, Arab Renaissance for Democracy and Development (ARDD). She has widely published on the legal situation in Israel and the State of Palestine. Her book Palestinian Refugees in International Law, co-authored with Lex Takkenberg, is considered a milestone in refugee academic literature. She regularly teaches and lectures on international law and forced displacement at universities in Europe and the Arab region. Albanese has also worked as a human rights expert for the United Nations, including the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights and the UN Relief and Work Agency for Palestine Refugees.