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The United States has removed its sanctions against Francesca Albanese, the UN special rapporteur on the occupied Palestinian territories, a week after a federal judge ruled that the measures likely violated her free speech rights.

Some shit you should know before you dig in: If you’re unaware, Francesca Albanese is an Italian lawyer who has served as the UN Human Rights Council’s special rapporteur on the Israeli-occupied Palestinian territories since May 2022 and has been one of the most prominent and relentless international critics of Israel’s conduct toward Palestinians, particularly its military campaign in Gaza following the October 7, 2023, Hamas attacks (which she has repeatedly characterized as a genocide). The Trump administration imposed sanctions on her in July 2025 under an executive order targeting individuals who cooperate with or prompt International Criminal Court investigations into US or Israeli personnel, after she recommended the ICC pursue war-crimes prosecutions against Israeli and American nationals and published a 60-page report accusing dozens of major companies (including US tech giants Microsoft, Alphabet, and Amazon) of complicity in Israel’s war in Gaza. Secretary of State Marco Rubio said at the time that Albanese had “spewed unabashed antisemitism, expressed support for terrorism and open contempt for the United States, Israel and the West” (accusations Albanese firmly denies). The sanctions had effectively blacklisted her from the global financial system and barred her from entering or banking in the US, leading her husband (a senior World Bank economist) and her US-citizen daughter to sue the administration in February, arguing the penalties had “debanked” the family without due process.

What’s going on now: The Treasury Department added Albanese to its website Wednesday under the heading “International Criminal Court-related Designation Removal,” officially lifting the sanctions and handing her back access to global banking, plus the ability to travel to the US. The removal follows a preliminary injunction issued last week by US District Judge Richard Leon, who found that the Trump administration had likely violated Albanese’s First Amendment rights by targeting her over the “idea or message expressed.”

Leon notably rejected the argument that Albanese’s residency outside the United States stripped her of constitutional protections, and emphasized that her recommendations to international bodies are essentially advisory. “It is undisputed that her recommendations have no binding effect on the ICC’s actions — they are nothing more than her opinion.” In the opinion accompanying his order, Leon added that “protecting the freedom of speech is ‘always’ in the public interest.” The Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control did not provide any official explanation for the delisting, having previously said only that it would not enforce the sanctions while the court order remained in effect.

Albanese, who had previously described the sanctions as “calculated to weaken my mission,” stayed quiet on Wednesday’s news, but had cheered the injunction last week in an X post crediting her husband and daughter for “stepping up to defend me” and thanking “everyone who has helped so far.”