Islamic Human Rights Commission

15 January 2019

PRESS RELEASE – Worldwide: New report highlights cost and illegality of US sanctions

The use by the United States of sanctions as an instrument to effect regime change and coerce nations should be challenged more robustly by the international community and those countries it targets.

A new report published this week argues that the crippling effect of such sanctions puts them squarely in violation of international law and the United Nations Charter which enshrines the protection of human rights and national sovereignty.

Subverting Sanctions: How Human Rights and International Law have been Violated by Saied Reza Ameli and Ebrahim Mohseni Ahooei argues that after successfully bringing Iraq’s economy to its knees with the imposition of sanctions to punish Saddam Hussein’s invasion of Kuwait in 1990, a policy which led to the deaths of at least half a million Iraqi children, the US has turned its attention to neighbouring Iran where it has made no secret of wishing to remove the Islamic republican system of government.

Although international actors such as the EU have pushed back against the Trump sanctions, their impact on Iran and other countries such as North Korea, Yemen and Syria has been devastating for the economy, employment, environment and public health.

The authors show how the new Trump sanctions are planned to bring about the economic collapse of countries through the devaluation of the national currency and the decline of economic growth.

They also highlight how in and of themselves and with the numerous human rights violations they produce, the sanctions fly in the face of international human rights obligations.

Among the recommendations the authors call for the formation of an international union of states targeted by US sanctions and prosecuting Washington in the International Court of Justice.

For more information or comment please contact the Press Office on (+44) 20 8904 4222 or (+44) 7958522196[ENDS]

Notes to editors

The report (soft copy only) can be downloaded here https://www.ihrc.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2019/01/Subverting-Sanctions.pdf

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IHRC is an NGO in Special Consultative Status with the Economic and Social Council of the United Nations.

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