Georgetown University separated with an affiliated scholar currently serving as a United Nations special rapporteur, citing U.S. sanctions placed against the individual.
Francesca Albanese, the United Nations (UN) special rapporteur on the situation of human rights in the Palestinian territories occupied since 1967, was removed from Georgetown’s website and later confirmed to no longer be an affiliated scholar with the university’s Institute for the Study of International Migration. The severing of ties follows the U.S. sanctions placed on Albanese by the Trump administration, claiming that she purports antisemitic rhetoric as an international figure.
In a Dec. 28 post on X, Albanese said that the end of her affiliation with Georgetown was ultimately a result of the sanctions placed on her by the federal government.
“Georgetown’s decision to end my 10-year old affiliation is yet another fallout of the sanctions the US imposed on me last July for exposing Israel’s genocide and the complicity of US businesses,” Albanese wrote in the post. “Any other explanation is the usual laughable propaganda of the pro-genocide minions.”
Nader Hashemi, the director of Georgetown’s Alwaleed Center for Muslim-Christian Understanding (ACMCU), said it is not uncommon for universities to affiliate with a multitude of scholars such as Albanese.
“I believe it was a long-standing affiliation based on her expertise in international law and questions of refugees and migration. So it was an obvious relationship for them to have with someone who has specialization in that area,” Hashemi told The Hoya. “But it’s not like she was a frequent visitor here. Academic centers in Georgetown and many other universities have these types of affiliations, where they’re often loose affiliations.”
On July 9, 2025, U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio announced that sanctions would be imposed on Albanese, citing her engagement with attempts to prosecute citizens of the United States and Israel in the International Criminal Court (ICC) as illegitimate attempts to arrest and investigate nationals from both countries.
“Albanese has spewed unabashed antisemitism, expressed support for terrorism and open contempt for the United States, Israel and the West,” the press statement reads. “That bias has been apparent across the span of her career, including recommending that the ICC, without a legitimate basis, issue arrest warrants targeting Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and former Defense Minister Yoav Gallant.”
Although Georgetown began an initiative in 2025 to remove inactive affiliate listings on its website, archived webpages indicate that Albanese’s online profile was active at the time of Aug. 3.
Hashemi said external pressure on Georgetown to end its affiliation with Albanese only began once she was appointed special rapporteur on the situation of human rights in the Palestinian territories.
“No one really cared anywhere that Francesca had a relationship with Georgetown University until she was appointed the special rapporteur for human rights in Palestine and the Israeli-occupied territories,” Hashemi said. “When that was announced, she had an official UN mandate to investigate human rights, and then the pro-Netanyahu crowd discovered that part of her biography listed Georgetown University. Then there was an intense, and I would argue, extreme, ideologically motivated lobbying campaign to get Georgetown to break that relationship.”
A university spokesperson said federal law prohibits institutions from maintaining affiliations with sanctioned individuals.
“Ms. Albanese has no official affiliation with Georgetown and was never a member of our faculty or staff,” the spokesperson wrote to The Hoya. “Institutions are prohibited by federal law from affiliating with individuals subject to U.S. sanctions.”
Elizabeth Ferris, the former director of Georgetown’s Institute for the Study of International Migration, said the university would often be lobbied to remove its affiliation with Albanese, especially when she was physically present on campus, such as at an event Oct. 28, 2024.
“I got a lot of emails really questioning her affiliation with us, but you know, it was an academic institution. We believe in academic freedom,” Ferris told The Hoya. “She’s free to speak her mind, and you know she certainly did. So last year we organized together with the Center for Contemporary Arab Studies a talk for her here at Georgetown.”
Elliott Colla, a professor of Arabic and Islamic studies, said the lack of transparency from the university on this decision contradicts its defense of faculty from the federal government.
“If the university wants to handle this in a non-transparent way, that is a decision that they’ve made so far, that leads people to wonder, for instance, to what extent are the rights of faculty or faculty affiliates going to be defended?” Colla told The Hoya. “Is there going to be a process if we get new kinds of laws coming down and other people are targeted, will they be removed? Will there be a process for dealing with these kinds of problems, or will we just have to trust them to do the right thing?”
Hashemi said the results of the next presidential election will likely decide whether Albanese remains sanctioned.
“I’m hoping, if it’s the opposition party in this country, that they will do the right thing and remove the sanctions against her, because they’re just so egregious,” Hashemi said. “It’s embarrassing that a country like the United States, that claims to stand up for a rules-based order, is sanctioning someone who’s trying to uphold international law.”
Ferris said Albanese will continue to be a prominent international figure despite the sanctions.
“I think this decision is set; it probably won’t be overturned during the Trump administration,” Ferris said. “But Francesca continues to be very active and outspoken. She has a lot of support in Europe, and certainly in most of the Global South, for her outspoken advocacy on behalf of Palestinians. So she’ll continue her work, I’m sure.”
