Unilateral sanctions kill, sicken and starve people in the nations that are targeted and make humanitarian work increasingly difficult and risky, UN Special Rapporteur on the negative impact of unilateral coercive measures on the enjoyment of human rights, Alena Douhan, said in a report on Dec. 10. Douhan, who is from Belarus, wrote: “I have called for curtailing the use of sanctions that undermine the ability of targeted countries to fight the pandemic. Unfortunately, the level of international solidarity and cooperation today is not sufficient as these calls did not have much result. A number of countries did not lift or minimise but rather expanded the application of unilateral sanctions using new forms, types, means and mechanisms, and affecting new types of targets.... Unilateral sanctions, imposed against about 20 percent of UN Member States, exacerbate the calamities it is causing and thus discriminate against populations in targeted countries.” https://reliefweb.int/report/world/covid-19-human-rights-guidance-note-covid-19-pandemic-humanitarian-concerns-and
Douhan warned that it “is not possible to achieve any ‘common good’ purposes … by violating the human rights of those whom unilateral sanctions seek to protect,” and appealed to nations to “consider urgent steps … to prioritize saving lives in the course of Covid-19 over political, economic and other interests.”
