When the World Sleeps by Francesca Albanese

When the World Sleeps by Francesca Albanese

Francesca Albanese, the first woman to serve as United Nations Special Rapporteur on the occupied Palestinian territories, conveys the soul of a people through ten unforgettable stories of resilience and humanity. 

The spirit of a place lies in the people who inhabit it, in the stories that intertwine through its streets. And this is especially true of a land like Palestine, the witness to defining historic transitions to one of the most painful chapters in contemporary history. With a voice both authoritative and deeply human, Francesca Albanese (who lived in Palestine for many years while following the legal battles of numerous Palestinian families) takes on the role of narrator and elegantly composes a gallery of stories, characters and places, starting with the stories of the people she met. 

When the World Sleeps is a deeply personal and politically urgent account of bearing witness to the Palestinian struggle. Beyond the headlines and statistics, Albanese illuminates the people themselves, offering a powerful new lens on the global failures that have led us to here — and the fragile possibilities that still exist for a shared future for Israelis and Palestinians alike.

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.