A Look at International Documents Related to UCMs (2): Human Rights Council Resolutions

Unilateral Coercive Measures have been a focus of attention for the international community and the United Nations since 1970s. The world came to the conclusion that UCMs contradict with the UN Charter and international law because they undermine, among other things, the principles of sovereignty, territorial integrity, political independence, self-determination and non-interference that are considered as international commitment of all States.

In addition to violation of international law, UCMs were also designed to deprive people from all human rights including the right to life and the right to health as well as crippling all aspects of the right to development in countries that needed to receive support to be able to address the multiple challenges of meeting development goals.

In imposing unilateral sanctions against other countries, the United States and EU claim some universal commitments have been violated, such as violation of human rights, refugee’s rights, proliferation of weapons of mass destruction and international drugs trafficking, international terrorism and failure to observe Security Council resolutions by countries. If these violation claims are related to international peace and security, it is the authority of the Security Council to firstly give opinion on the nature of these commitments and claimed violations, and secondly recognize the authenticity of the violation, and thirdly make decisions on measures that must be taken in the event of violation of commitments.
At the moment, the Islamic Republic of Iran, Cuba, Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela, the Russian Federation, Qatar, the State of Palestine, Syrian Arab Republic and Yemen are among the countries affected by UCMs. 

In this report, we numerate the resolutions and decisions that human rights council has made on UCMs since 2007.

A_HRC_RES_6_7
A_HRC_RES_9_4
A/HRC/RES/12/22
A/HRC/RES/15/24
A/HRC/RES/19/32
A/HRC/RES/24/14
A/HRC/RES/27/21  and Corr.1 
A/HRC/RES/30/2
A/HRC/RES/34/13
A/HRC/DEC/18/120
A/HRC/DEC/4/103


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