Un midi avec Francesca Albanese

To mark the publication of Quand le monde dort (When the World Sleeps), published by Mémoire d'encrier in 2025, Francesca Albanese, UN Special Rapporteur on human rights in the occupied Palestinian territories, will be taking over Les Halles de Schaerbeek, in collaboration with Les Midis Poésie, for an exceptional poetry event.

Francesca Albanese will lend her voice to an hour of reading, reflection and discussion on justice, memory and resistance. The event will be moderated by Frank Barat and will conclude with a book signing.

The Brin d'acier bookshop will accompany this event with a selection of books related to the themes addressed.

All proceeds will be donated to the European Legal Support Centre (ELSC), an organisation dedicated to the defence of human rights and international law.

Since July 2025, the Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in the Palestinian territories occupied since 1967 has been highlighting the responsibilities related to the genocide currently underway in Gaza. More broadly than simply highlighting direct responsibilities, Ms Albanese's reports also highlight the complicity and global context that explain this genocide.

In July 2025, it published a report on legal entities profiting from Israel's illegal occupation, apartheid and genocide. According to the report, it will be impossible to end this situation without establishing the responsibilities of private sector entities, including those of their leaders. International law recognises different degrees of responsibility, and for each of them, it is important to conduct investigations and apply the principle of accountability — particularly in this case, where the self-determination and very existence of a people are at stake. Such measures are necessary to end the genocide and dismantle the global system that made it possible.

In October 2025, it published a second report demonstrating that the ongoing genocide in Gaza constitutes a collective crime, supported by the complicity of influential third States that have allowed Israel to commit systemic and persistent violations of international law.