HRC54: Unilateral Coercive Measures- A Risk to the SDGs and the Right to Development
The 54th Session of the Human Rights Council
11 September-13 October 2023
Biennial panel discussion on unilateral coercive measures and human rights (HRC res. 27/21 and 52/13)
14 September 2023
By: Symone McCollin-Norris / GICJ
Executive Summary of the Panel Discussion
In accordance with the Human Rights Council resolution 52/13, the Council held a biennial panel discussion on unilateral coercive measures and human rights on the 14th of September 2023. The theme of the panel discussion was focused on the impact of unilateral coercive measures and overcompliance on the right to development and the achievement of the Sustainable Development Goals. In addition to discussing this theme, the panel discussion aimed to increase awareness about the adverse effects of unilateral coercive measures on the right to development and the fully effectuated enjoyment of human rights, especially for vulnerable groups. The discussion was also aimed at following up on and updating recommendations of the previous Council-mandated panels and workshops held in 2021, 2019, 2017, 2015, 2014 and 2013, as well as the research-based report of the Human Rights Council Advisory Committee (A/HRC/28/74).
During the panel discussion, speakers jointly recognised deep concern for targeted countries and their right to development in the wake of unilateral coercive measures and economic sanctions. Challenges related to the delivery of medication, health care equipment, food and other humanitarian assistance in times of need were highlighted. At the confluence of these challenges, the nexus between unilateral coercive measures and the impediment of implementation progress on the Sustainable Development Goals was drawn out. Given these impacts, the panel strongly considered and advocated for the unique and disproportionate impacts faced by vulnerable groups such as women, children, older persons, persons with disabilities, migrants and others in vulnerable situations within targeted countries. A collective call for clear, effective, universally respected systems was made and the international community was urged to take a more proactive stance in combating over compliance with sanctions and other forms of unilateral coercive measures.
Background
On the 26th of September 2014, the Human Rights Council adopted resolution 27/21 on human rights and unilateral coercive measures, establishing the mandate. Here, the Human Rights Council stressed that unilateral coercive measures and practices are contrary to international law. This resolution, in addition to its most recent renewal the HRC resolution 45/5 in October 2020, expressed concern related to the adverse impact these measures may have especially in undermining the right to development as well as impeding progress on human rights, international relations, trade, investment and cooperation. It was identified that economic sanctions and other coercive measures lead to severe economic hardship, hinder access to essential goods and services, and impede the delivery of humanitarian aid. In this context, the Council has expressed concern regarding the far-reaching implications unilateral coercive measures have on the right to life, the right to physical and mental health, access to medical care, food, education, work, housing, and the right to a clean and sustainable environment. Furthermore, the Council also recognised that vulnerable groups (such as women, children, the elderly, those living with pre-existing health conditions and other vulnerable groups) are disproportionately affected by the impacts of unilateral coercive measures and may face increased suffering. These resolutions also reaffirmed that unilateral coercive measures thwart the implementation of the Declaration on the Right to Development and the 2030 Agenda on Sustainable Development.
Chaired by the President of the Human Rights Council, H.E. Ms. Nazhat Shameem Khan, the 2021 edition of the biennial panel on unilateral coercive measures discussed jurisdiction and extraterritoriality challenges connected to unilateral coercive measures as well as the issue of overcompliance from public and private entities related to the interpretation of the expansion of extraterritorial jurisdiction.
The 2023 edition of the biennial panel expanded upon earlier discussions held during the 52nd session of the Human Rights Council in March 2023 and focused on the strides and challenges caused by unilateral coercive measures and over compliance with sanctions on the rights to development and the achievement of the Sustainable Development Goals.
In accordance with its resolution 27/21, the Council requested OHCHR to organise a biennial panel discussion on unilateral coercive measures and human rights focusing on the impact of unilateral coercive measures and overcompliance on the right to development and the achievement of the Sustainable Development Goals during its fifty-fourth session. The Special Rapporteur was requested by the Council to act as rapporteur of the panel discussion and to prepare a report for its fifty-fifth session.
Panel Discussion
A biennial panel discussion on unilateral coercive measures was held during the 54th Regular Session of the Human Rights Council on the 12th of September 2023. The discussion was opened by the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, Mr. Volker Türk.
In his opening statement, Mr. Volker Türk stressed the complexity of the topic of unilateral coercive measures (UCMs) and reiterated that UCMs imposed outside of the framework of the UN Charter do, in fact, impede the enjoyment of human rights and the right to development. He remarked that the impact of economic disruptions caused by sectoral sanctions often correlates to inflated prices of basic food items, decreased capacity to maintain clean water, sanitation, or electricity, and can disrupt the supply of medical equipment and educational products, effectively pushing people with low income and other vulnerable groups further into poverty. Mr. Türk noted that in this way, sectoral sanctions also impact progress towards the SDG while pushing up unemployment and inflation. Recalling the Declaration on the Right to Development, Mr. Türk stressed that giving effect to the right to development and the fair distribution of development benefits free from any form of discrimination is essential to realising the Sustainable Development Goals. Given this, the High Commissioner urged that any implementation of sanctions be fully compliant with international law, regularly reviewed and assessed for their practical human rights impact, subject to appropriate human rights safeguards, and limited in time. The High Commissioner advocated for clear, accurate, and disaggregated data and assessments on human rights impacts. Member States were also encouraged to provide detailed information related to delayed or blocked essential humanitarian goods and to continue to assess and share evidence of the impacts of these measures including on particular groups severely affected.
In her opening remarks, Ms. Alena Douhan, the Special Rapporteur on the negative impact of unilateral coercive measures on the enjoyment of human rights, echoed the High Commissioner’s call for human rights impact assessments, especially within the agendas of global fora such as the High-Level Political Forum and the SDG Summit. The Special Rapporteur posited that impact assessments of UCMs including the challenges they pose to the Sustainable Development Goals should be conducted by all relevant UN entities and international organisations within the scope of their mandates.
She also emphasised that overcompliance with UCMs leads to a complete disengagement with targeted countries, inevitably excluding whole populations from development. She stressed that this intensification of inequality effectively results in developmental discrimination on the grounds of nationality, place of residence or birth, disrupting progress on SDG 10. The Special Rapporteur highlighted how the isolation of targeted countries and their populations has been shown to increase poverty rates, strain national protection systems, and prevent decent work and economic growth thus impeding progress on SDG 1 on No Poverty, SDG 8 on Decent Work and Economic Growth, SDG 12 on Responsible Consumption and Production and SDG 17 on Partnership for the Goals. The Special Rapporteur also advocated for those in vulnerable situations (especially women, children, older persons, persons with disabilities and migrants) who are disproportionately affected by UCM implications and made the connection to hindered progress on Sustainable Development Goal 3 on good health, Goal 5 on gender equality, and Goal 8 on decent work and economic growth.
Mr. Mihir Kanade, Member of the Expert Mechanism on the Right to Development reiterated that UCMs violate international law. In his statement, Mr Kanade recalled several international legal frameworks, namely the UN Charter, the 1970 UN Declaration on Friendly Relations and Cooperation Amongst States and the 1986 Right to Development. Mr. Kanade stressed that these legal frameworks make clear that people are entitled to the right to participate in, contribute to, and enjoy economic, cultural, social and political development. He also mentioned that UCMs impede the right to self-determination as they obliterate the possibility of populations in the targeted country to self-determine their development priorities, participate in their own development, and actively, freely and meaningfully enjoy the benefits thereof. Echoing the sentiment of the Special Rapporteur, Mr. Kanade urged sanctioning States to refrain from adopting unilateral coercive measures and to consider their obligations to implement human rights due diligence systems and practices.
Ms. Elena Gentili, Country Director in Cuba for Oxfam shared the Cuban perspective and experiences related to the human impact of imposed UCMs. She highlighted that women, girls and people of diverse genders identities and sexualities were most impacted by UCM-related impacts in Cuba. Advocating for the elimination of deepened gender disparity, Ms. Gentili shared some key figures related to the disproportionate impacts Cuban women experience in the face of sanctions, especially in areas related to Sustainable Development Goals 1 on no poverty, Goal 2 on zero hunger, Goal 3 on good health and well-being, Goal 5 on gender equality, and Goal 10 on reduced inequalities within and between countries. She raised that 78% of women in Cuba were born under the pressure of US sanctions and account for 71% of healthcare professionals. She also shared that women and their livelihoods were the hardest hit due to sanction-induced financial losses experienced in Cuba’s tourism industry as women made up most of the tourism workforce. Ms. Gentili also highlighted that US sanctions have made it harder for Cubans to recover from the pandemic due to disrupted, lengthy and costly humanitarian aid. Ms. Gentili urged the international community to advocate for the removal of Cuba from the list of State sponsors of terrorism and implored Member States, civil society organisations, and international aid agencies to be more proactive in imposing US sanctions against Cuba and its 11 million people.
Professor Jeffrey D. Sachs, Director of the Centre for Sustainable Development at Columbia University emphasised that sanctions are intentionally designed to harm, destabilise national economies, and even force a change of regime within those economies. In this way, Mr. Sachs stressed that the fundamental aim of sanctions is to disrupt economic and social life, inevitably inviting catastrophic consequences for poor and vulnerable people. Bringing light to the asymmetrical hegemonic structures within the global political landscape, Mr. Sachs also highlighted that to impose sanctions is only within the capacity of a few countries and these few countries thus have the capacity to shape international trade. Mr. Sachs specifically pointed to the danger of the USA and its steep asymmetrical power as there exists very little domestic political or legal oversight within State and federal institutions to slow, deter or prevent the country from imposing sanctions. Mr. Sachs remarked that these factors have enabled an increasingly dangerous and hard-to-beat obstacle within the international arena.
Mr. Amir Saed Vakil, Assistant Professor at the University of Tehran equally echoed that unilateral coercive measures are contrary to international law and the United Nations Charter. He identified underdevelopment as a series of complex interacting phenomena that involve inequalities of wealth, poverty, access to food, health, security, education and others. In this context, Mr. Saed Vakil posited that development was not only the central answer to the world's challenges but also a tool to internalise the global sense of equality and justice. Relatedly, he called on Member States to create favourable conditions for human rights realisations by cooperating on international-level development prioritisation including cooperating in the development of domestic and international policies related to trade, finance, aid, debt relief, investment and technology transfer.
Representatives of Syria, Zimbabwe, Iran, Azerbaijan, and Namibia all recognised UCMs as a major obstacle to ensuring the right to development and the achievement of the Sustainable Development Goals. In like statements, they agreed that the damages caused by UCMs are far-reaching and often disproportionately impact the poor, women, children, people living with disabilities, displaced persons and migrants as other vulnerable groups.
The delegate of Azerbaijan speaking on behalf of the Non-Aligned Movement (NAM) called upon all States to avoid the unilateral imposition of economic coercive measures and extraterritorial application of domestic laws that run counter to the measures of free trade. She stressed that UCMs particularly hinder the development of least developed and developing countries. Considering these effects, she stressed the importance of strengthening international cooperation and the necessity to address the negative impact of UCMs on the enjoyment of human rights.
The delegate of Venezuela, on behalf of a Group of Friends in Defense of the Charter of the United Nations, highlighted that the Group was established in response to the increasing threats to the Charter of the UN. Against this backdrop, he reaffirmed strong condemnation of the sustained and ever-increasing application of UCMS aimed at advancing interventionist and destabilisation agendas. The representative brought attention to how UCMs often aim to provide an alleged legal cover for the confiscation of sovereign resources that may be deposited within international banking systems sanction-imposing states. In this way, he strongly urged states to lift economic, financial and trade-related coercive measures that impede economic and social development, particularly but not exclusively within developing countries.
The representative of the European Union argued that the Human Rights Council session was not the appropriate Forum to address the issues of UCMs. He clarified that EU restrictive measures and sanctions are imposed on individuals and entities responsible for serious breaches of international law and human rights for the purpose of limiting their harmful conduct. The representative assured that EU restrictive measures comply with all obligations under international law as they are carefully crafted to avoid any unintended consequences on food security and humanitarian action. He equally raised that the threat to food security around the world is not due to sanctions, but rather, the continuous and targeted disruptions of global food supply by Russia.
The Armenian delegate asserted that UCMs create unbearable conditions for people of targeted countries with the sole purpose of bending them into submission, driving them out of their ancestral homes and depriving them of mastering their own present and future. Speaking against the imposition of UCMs against ethnic Armenians by Azerbaijan, she lamented the blockages in the Lachin corridor and the effectuated attempts to conduct an ethnic cleansing. The representative underlined that due to Azerbaijan’s coercive measures, ethnic Armenians have been left without food, essentials, medication, and limited gas and electricity for 9 months. She noted with grave concern that the UCMs imposed by Azerbaijan aimed to damage health to such an extent that the numbers of indigenous peoples would shortly decline.
Aligned with the sentiments of other representatives, the Russian delegate rejected the practice of imposing UCMs as a pressure on sovereign states and reiterated that politically motivated actions undermine State efforts to resolve crises. He emphasised that the extreme measures of sanctions are used solely with the approval of the Security Council. The representative underscored that UCMs should under no circumstances be used as a mechanism of collective punishment considering their negative effect on the population of the sanctioned state. He recalled that UCMs have been used as blackmail and intimidation and strongly urged states to resolve existing problems through diplomatic efforts and mutually respective dialogue.
Several CSOs expressed deep concern for the suffering caused by unilateral coercive measures on entire populations and disruptions to basic essential goods and services and disruptions to economic growth and development. They unanimously urged the Special Rapporteur to recommend to all Member States the immediate lifting of UCMs or, at the very least, the implementation of more robust and streamlined human rights assessments of their use. Others also called for compensation to be delivered to victims of economic and sectoral sanctions and called upon the international community and United Nations bodies to make tangible policy recommendations on how to overcome the impacts of UCMs.
Geneva International Centre for Justice (GICJ) is deeply concerned about the far-reaching and often intentionally overlooked implications of unilateral coercive measures including disruptions to access to food, medical care, education, water, and other essential goods and services. GICJ also implores sanction-imposing states to lift all measures that prevent the delivery of critical humanitarian aid, stifle economic growth and opportunity, hinder sustainable development progress and further worsen the living conditions of vulnerable groups. Further, GICJ joins the calls for all sanction-imposing states to include assessments of the impact of unilateral coercive measures within to ensure their full compliance with international law. The international community must be more proactive in combating the use of unilateral coercive measures to ensure the protection of the right to development and to remove barriers related to the implementation of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development.
Unilateral Coercive Measures, UCMs, Sustainable Development Goals, Sustainable Development, Right to Development, Human Rights, Justice, Human Rights, Geneva, geneva4justice, GICJ, Geneva International Centre For Justice
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