A/HRC/45/7
To protect the rights of those affected, the Special Rapporteur plans to pay special attention
to the consideration of individual complaints.
62.
The freedom of States to conduct international relations is limited by international
law. The Charter of the United Nations grants the Security Council extraordinary powers to
decide on the application of, inter alia, non-military measures for the maintenance of
international peace and security. Recognizing that the United Nations is the guarantor of the
world order, the Special Rapporteur stresses the need to establish a transparent and
comprehensive system of control, delisting, restoration of rights, reparation and
compensation under the auspices of the United Nations.
63.
The Special Rapporteur will also focus particular attention to the specific impact of
cybertechnologies on the grounds, types, scope and means of unilateral sanctions in the
existing legal framework.
V. Establishment of networking cooperation
A.
Networking cooperation within the United Nations
64.
The notion of sanctions has been broadly used and discussed by different organs of
the United Nations and other international organizations. Some have focused on specific
aspects of the application of sanctions, others on the relationship between the available
mechanisms and the consequences of counter-terrorism and still others on economic
sanctions, cooperation among States, protection of human rights as a whole or the
protection of the rights of women, children, the elderly and other vulnerable categories of
the population.
65.
Each of those organs and organizations establishes a specific legal regime to
regulate its particular sphere of responsibility and to establish corresponding purposes,
principles and a legal regime. As a result, States are often seeking to achieve the purposes
of one regime at the expense of another, in so far as the application of unilateral sanctions
touches on a broad scope of issues, including security, cybersecurity, the rule of law, trade
and development, human rights and humanitarian and refugee law. The Special Rapporteur
affirms, then, the need for a better understanding of the relationships and intersections
between these bodies, their legal regimes and the mandate. This should be done not for pure
abstract or academic purposes but because it is the only way to help States and international
organizations to better understand their rights and obligations under international law in the
sphere of unilateral action and to protect, correspondingly, the rights of affected people,
especially taking into account the most vulnerable, who are the ones suffering the most.
66.
The Special Rapporteur underscores the importance of interacting with the United
Nations sanctions architecture, which includes a number of subsidiary organs of the
Organization.
67.
The Special Rapporteur intends to engage with the sanctions committees established
by the Security Council. Member States do not implement United Nations sanctions
uniformly because of variations in their capabilities, domestic legal requirements and
interests. United Nations sanctions may also become the basis for supplemental unilateral
measures or be cited as justification for purely unilateral measures. Sometimes the process
by which a Member State applies the decisions of a sanctions committee is challenged
within its domestic legal system on the grounds that it violates human rights that the State is
obliged to protect.
68.
The Special Rapporteur believes that cooperation with the Security Council
Committee established pursuant to resolution 1373 (2001) concerning counter-terrorism,
through its Executive Directorate, in conjunction with the Special Rapporteur on the
promotion and protection of human rights and fundamental freedoms while countering
terrorism could focus on strengthening the Committee’s efforts to ensure the protection of
sanctioned individuals’ human rights. Reports by the Special Rapporteur on the promotion
and protection of human rights and fundamental freedoms while countering terrorism
12
Select target paragraph3
Connect to a paragraph
Connect to an entity
Disable highlights
Add to table of contents