A/HRC/42/46
situation resulting from the construction of the wall in the Occupied Palestinian
Territory, including in and around East Jerusalem. They are also under an obligation
not to render aid or assistance in maintaining the situation created by such
construction.74
52.
The Special Rapporteur deems that a number of analogies may be drawn from those
two advisory opinions, which may be of relevance to the specific case of unlawful
economic sanctions.
53.
The International Law Commission could be called upon to include in its
programme of work the issue of the obligation not to recognize unlawful situations, with a
view to further clarifying certain aspects of that rule, in particular its plausible status as
customary law in situations where economic coercion infringes the principle of selfdetermination, the prohibition of racial discrimination or core rules of international
humanitarian law.75
54.
The General Assembly should be called upon to affirm solemnly, through a
resolution that, as a consequence of the obligation of non-recognition, States are expected
to take appropriate measures, including in their domestic laws, to deny giving any effect to
or recognizing or enforcing in any manner, in their respective jurisdictions, extraterritorial
secondary sanctions. This would reinforce the recent call made by the Human Rights
Council for all Member States neither to recognize these measures nor to apply them, and
to take effective administrative or legislative measures, as appropriate, to counteract the
extraterritorial application or effects of unilateral coercive measures (resolution 34/13, para.
3).
55.
This is precisely what the European Union did in 1996 when it adopted Council
Regulation (EC) No. 2271/96 in reaction to the imposition by the United States of
restrictive measures concerning Cuba, Libya and the Islamic Republic of Iran, measures
that have negatively affected the interests of natural and legal persons in the European
Union engaging in business, legitimate under European law, with those countries. The
Regulation has since been updated to cover the more recent United States sanctions on the
Islamic Republic of Iran and, again, to cover the withdrawal of the United States from the
Iranian nuclear agreement. The Regulation basically provides protection against and
counteracts the effects of the extraterritorial application of the sanctions measures covered,
“where such application affects the interests of persons … engaging in international trade
and/or the movement of capital and related commercial activities between the Community
and third countries”. 76 European Union persons and entities shall not comply, “whether
directly or through a subsidiary or other intermediary person, actively or by deliberate
omission, with any requirement or prohibition, including requests of foreign courts, based
on or resulting, directly or indirectly, from the [sanctions covered] or from actions based
thereon or resulting therefrom”. 77 The regulation also provides that ”[n]o judgment of a
court or tribunal and no decision of an administrative authority located outside the
Community giving effect, directly or indirectly, to the [sanctions covered] or to actions
based thereon or resulting therefrom, shall be recognized or be enforceable in any
manner”.78
74
75
76
77
78
16
Legal Consequences of the Construction of a Wall in the Occupied Palestinian Territory, Advisory
Opinion, I.C.J. Reports 2004, p. 136, at p. 200, para. 159.
On the contents of the obligation in general, see, e.g., Stefan Talmon, “The duty not to ‘recognize as
lawful’ a situation created by the illegal use of force or other serious breaches of a jus cogens
obligation: an obligation without real substance?”, in Christian Tomuschat and Jean-Marc Thouvenin,
eds., The Fundamental Rules of the International Legal Order (Leiden/Boston, Martinus Nijhoff,
2006), pp. 99–126. See also Djamchid Momtaz, “L’obligation de ne pas prêter aide ou assistance au
maintien d’une situation créée par la violation d’une norme impérative du droit international général”,
Anuario Colombiano de Derecho Internacional, vol. 10 (2017), pp. 205–219.
Council Regulation (EC) No. 2271/96 of 22 November 1996 protecting against the effects of the
extraterritorial application of legislation adopted by a third country, and actions based thereon or
resulting therefrom, art. 1.
Ibid., art. 5.
Ibid., art. 4.
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