A letter to the UN SR on the right to health amidst the Corona Virus pandemic

The Trump administration claims that its sanctions do not hinder medicine and humanitarian trade. But since the sanctions prevent international financial transactions and shipping, any trade, including that of medicines and medical equipment, is almost impossible. Several companies that supply the medical equipment required to fight coronavirus have stopped shipping to Iran because their banks refuse to handle the transactions.

Considering the fact that the lives of millions of Iranians are at stake, the ODVV and FUNDALATIN, based in Iran and Venezuela respectively, wrote a letter to the Special Rapporteur on health calling for taking action on the current corona outbreak. The full text of the letter is as bellow.

Dear Excellency,
Mr. Dainius Pūras, the UN Special Rapporteur on the right of everyone to the enjoyment of the highest attainable standard of physical and mental health
No exceptions with COVID-19: “Everyone has the right to life-saving interventions”
As NGOs based in Iran and Venezuela, we strongly believe in the fact that economic warfare kills in silence. Comprehensive Unilateral Coercive Measures (UCM)s, that amount to de facto blockades or economic wars, have detrimental effects on fundamental human rights specially the right to life and the right to health in all target countries. They adversely target all economic, social and cultural rights of the target populations especially the right to life and health of the most vulnerable groups including the children, the patients, the disabled and the migrants.
Now, the new Corona Virus is spreading, while the people in economically sanctioned countries face the multiple challenge of the virus, worsened by limitation of access to medicine, medical items and equipment due to comprehensive unilateral sanctions.
In an emergency when World Health Organization declares the outbreak of the virus and the world is called upon to unite efforts to control the disease, people targeted by inhuman, illegal UCMs are deprived of access to humanitarian items, because of the ban on all banking transactions, facing the danger of losing their lives more than ever.
At the moment, the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, various UN member states, groups of NGOs and the Press are raising voices* on lifting the unilateral United States sanctions against UCM target countries including Iran and Venezuela. Organization for Defending Victims of Violence (ODVV), based in Iran, and FUNDALATIN, based in Venezuela call upon your Excellency to join the current voices and call for lifting the comprehensive unilateral sanctions imposed on Iran, Venezuela and Cuba as well as other countries under illegal UCMs.

 Kind regards,
Mahmoudreza Golshanpazhooh, PhD,
ODVV Director
Organization for Defending Victims of Violence (ODVV)

 
Maria Eugenia Russian
FUNDALATIN President
Fundación latinoamericana para los derechos humanos y el desarrollo social (FUNDALATIN)

* U.N. Calls for Rolling Back Sanctions to Battle Pandemic, Secretary-General Guterres says it’s time for “solidarity not exclusion.”
Bachelet calls for easing of sanctions to enable medical systems to fight COVID-19 and limit global contagion,

25 American NGOs call on Trump administration to loosen crippling sanctions on Iran
American Friends Service Committee
American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee (ADC)
CODEPINK
Council for a Livable World
Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR)
Defending Rights & Dissent
Demand Progress Education Fund
Foreign Policy for America
Friends Committee on National Legislation
Greenpeace USA
Institute for Policy Studies, New Internationalism Project
J Street
Just Foreign Policy
MoveOn
Muslim Public Affairs Council (MPAC)
National Iranian American Council Action (NIAC Action)
Peace Corps Iran Association
Physicians for Social Responsibility
Ploughshares Fund
Presbyterian Church (USA)
Progress America
Project South
Project Blueprint
Truman Center for National Security
Win Without War
Women’s Action for New Directions (WAND

This Coronavirus Crisis Is the Time to Ease Sanctions on Iran
The diplomatic missions of Iran, Russia, China, Syria, North Korea, Cuba, Nicaragua and Venezuela sent a letter to UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, asking him to call for lifting unilateral sanctions that are hindering the fight against COVID-19