Francesca Albanese is a human rights lawyer (LL.M, SOAS) who spent 12 years working in the field of human rights, including with the UN Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights and more recently with the UN Agency for Relief and Work of Palestine Refugees in the Near East. Her legal expertise includes research, policy advice and capacity building on various human rights issues -mainly in Asia and the Mena region. This includes the protection of refugees and irregular migrants, the international human rights system, transitional justice and the establishment of national human rights institutions and mechanisms for the prevention of torture.

Francesca is currently leading the research for the revisited edition of Lex Takkenberg’s seminal work on “The Status of Palestinian Refugees in International Law”, first published by Oxford University Press in 1998 (new edition expected by 2018). The research covers the genesis and evolution of the Palestinian refugee Question, including the legal status and treatment that Palestinian refugees enjoy in host and destination countries (i.e., in the Middle East and North Africa, Europe, America, Asia and Africa), the normative, institutional and protection frameworks applicable/applied to them and possible just and durable solutions to their claims.

Francesca is an Associate Researcher at the Institute for the Study of International Migration, (ISIM) Georgetown University and Affiliated Scholar to the Refugee Program of the Issam Fares Institute, American University of Beirut.