Francesca Albanese

Francesca Albanese, who took up the role in May 2022, yesterday spoke at an online meeting organised by the Irish Centre of Human Rights at the University of Galway.

In her opening remarks, she argued that “the ICC needs Palestine more than Palestine needs the ICC because there is a legitimacy question at stake [for the court]”.

Pointing out that “justice delayed is justice denied”, she added that there is “no reason to keep on delaying investigation of the crimes that are committed by all the parties in the occupied Palestinian territories”.

In response to a question from Irish Legal News about the reason for the delay, Ms Albanese said it was unclear whether there was a shortage of funds for a faster and effective investigation.

Ireland, like a number of other states, this year made voluntary contributions to the ICC prosecutor to help fund investigations into alleged Russian war crimes in Ukraine. Ms Albanese said it was up to the ICC prosecutor to “advocate for funds” if they were needed for investigations in Palestine.

“Whatever it is, the current reality is despicable,” she said. There is “no reason” why the ICC has not investigated allegations of collective punishment and illegal settlement-building, as well as Palestinian rocket attacks on Israel, and states and media organisations should question this, she suggested.

Ms Albanese added: “Ireland could be a good state to start this discussion given its own past and given its sensitivity to questions of oppression and human rights and justice in Israel and occupied Palestine.”