Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez on Thursday awarded Spain's Order of Civil Merit to U.N. special rapporteur Francesca Albanese in an apparent nod to her work on upholding Palestinian rights.
Forty-nine-year-old Albanese, an international human rights lawyer and prominent U.N. expert, has faced U.S. sanctions over her investigations into Israeli human rights abuses in the occupied Palestinian territories.
"Public responsibility also entails the moral obligation not to look the other way," Sanchez said in a statement announcing the award.
"It is an honor to award the Order of Civil Merit to a voice that upholds the conscience of the world: @FranceskAlbs, United Nations Special Rapporteur in the Occupied Palestinian Territory," he wrote in a post on X.
Albanese, in her response, praised the Spanish prime minister's stance on the Palestinian issue and the war in the Middle East.
"Gracias Presidente Sànchez. For your words, for your principled stance, and for trying to steer Europe away from the abyss," she wrote on X.
The Commander's Cross of the Order of Civil Merit is one of Spain's three preeminent orders of merit bestowed by the Kingdom of Spain.
The award came a day after Sanchez asked the European Commission to activate its blocking statute to prevent compliance with U.S. sanctions on the International Criminal Court (ICC) over its investigation into Israel's actions in Gaza.
Sanchez said that Spain "does not look the other way" and warned that "the EU cannot stand idly by in the face of this persecution," referring to the sanctions targeting international legal institutions and officials involved in investigations related to Gaza.
"Sanctioning those who defend international justice puts the entire human rights system at risk," Sanchez said, while also calling for international efforts "to end the genocide in Gaza," reflecting Spain's increasingly critical stance toward Israel’s war in the enclave.
