A glance at Alena Douhan's Report to HRC 57

Prof. Alena Douhan, the UN Special Rapporteur on the negative impact of unilateral sanctions on human rights, has so far produced seven country reports and ten thematic reports, with this being her tenth report presented to the Human Rights Council at its 57th session.
In this report, Douhan focuses heavily on the concept of "overcompliance," a growing issue where countries, businesses, and individuals exceed the requirements of sanctions out of fear of legal or reputational consequences. According to Prof. Douhan, overcompliance occurs when actors restrict transactions or limit access to essential goods and services far beyond the actual scope of sanctions, simply to avoid the risk of penalties. This leads to severe human rights violations, as entire populations are deprived of basic needs like food, medicine, and access to essential infrastructure.
Douhan stresses that overcompliance has a compounding effect, particularly on humanitarian aid, as it further restricts the flow of critical supplies even in cases where sanctions explicitly provide for humanitarian exemptions. She points out that sanctions regimes, when combined with overcompliance, create an environment where humanitarian organizations struggle to function, and local economies collapse, exacerbating poverty, malnutrition, and health crises. The report also explores how unilateral sanctions and overcompliance extend beyond the targeted states, affecting global supply chains, neighboring countries, and even the sanctioning countries themselves.
In this report, Douhan also highlights the lack of systematic tools to monitor and assess the humanitarian impact of sanctions, calling for a more unified and transparent approach. She argues that the existing mechanisms are fragmented and inadequate, often failing to capture the full extent of sanctions' effects on vulnerable populations.

For the full text of the report, please visit the following link: https://documents.un.org/doc/undoc/gen/g24/133/16/pdf/g2413316.pdf