Francesca Albanese is an international lawyer, specialised in human rights and the Middle East. Since May 2022, she has served as the United Nations Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in the Palestinian territory occupied since 1967. Her academic works cover various aspects of the Question of Palestine, the legal situation in Israel/Palestine and Palestinian forced displacement, including the mandate and work of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA). Since 2018, Albanese has taught and lectured at various universities in Europe and the Middle East. She is also responsible for the research and legal assistance program on migration and asylum seekers in the Arab world for the think tank Arab Renaissance for Democracy and Development (ARDD), and is a co-founder of the Global Network on the Question of Palestine (GNQP), a coalition of prominent regional and international experts and scholars engaged in the issue of Israel/Palestine.