No, UN chief Guterres did not call Francesca Albanese 'out of control'

Albanese has long been a vocal critic of Israel and its conduct of the war in Gaza, drawing criticism from Israel, the US and others over her vocal comments on the conflict.

UN Watch - a pro-Israel lobby group that says it aims to combat antisemitism - alleged online that the global body itself has called her “out of control," and that the comments came from Secretary-General Antonio Guterres.

UN Watch recently shared an extract from a Financial Times interview with Guterres, claiming the UN chief had "admitted anti-Israel bias" within the organisation and had described Albanese as “out of control.” The group also linked the remarks to a separate allegation that Guterres had previously called Albanese a “horrible woman.”

The claim though, promoted by UN Watch and widely reshared online, appears to misrepresent what Guterres actually said.

Guterres did not name Albanese, or anyone in his remarks. When asked about accusations that the UN is institutionally biased against Israel, Guterres rejected the idea that the organisation as a whole is biased, stressing that different parts of the UN system operate independently.

Regarding Special Rapporteurs, he said: “We have independent rapporteurs, and we have many that are totally out of control, from the point of view of the Secretariat.”

Crucially, Guterres did not identify any individual rapporteur, and that distinction is important. He referred only to “many” rapporteurs and did not single out Albanese by name. 

UN Watch has also cited an allegation that Guterres privately referred to Albanese as a “horrible woman.” The claim comes from former US Special Envoy on Antisemitism Deborah Lipstadt, who has said Guterres made the remark twice during a private conversation at the 2024 Munich Security Conference.

Because the alleged comments were made privately, they cannot be independently verified from the exchange itself. The allegation has also been reported primarily by Israeli media.

Albanese has responded to the controversy online, saying Guterres did not mean what had been claimed, and that "if our independence may give a headache or two to those guarding the status quo, that's just the point of our mandate."

The UN has also addressed the interpretation of Guterres’ remarks. Two days after UN Watch circulated its claim, UN spokesperson Stéphane Dujarric said that interpreting Guterres’ comments as referring specifically to rapporteurs on Israel was a “misreading” of what he said, and he defended rapporteurs' independence and right to speak.