A/HRC/45/7 8. On 17 April, the Special Rapporteur endorsed a joint statement by a number of special procedure mandate holders calling upon Governments to avoid the use of excessive force in implementing COVID-19 security measures. 9. Also on 17 April, the Special Rapporteur responded to the letter of welcome from the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights by sharing her plans and offering her expertise and technical or practical assistance in support of the High Commissioner’s efforts to further prevent the adverse consequences of unilateral coercive measures for multilateralism, international law, the international rule of law, the Charter of the United Nations and human rights. 10. On 21 April, the Special Rapporteur, together with a group of other special rapporteurs and independent experts, transmitted an urgent appeal to the Government of the United States of America concerning the alleged ongoing severe impact of its unilateral economic coercive measures on Cuba and the citizens of Cuba in the context of the unprecedented global health crisis caused by the COVID-19 pandemic. 11. The Special Rapporteur held online meetings with the Permanent Representatives of the Syrian Arabic Republic, on 22 April, and the Islamic Republic of Iran, on 24 April and 22 May. 12. On 22 April, the Special Rapporteur participated in an online meeting of the United Nations special procedures and participated in the preparation of a COVID-19 survey. 13. On 30 April, the Government of the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela confirmed its previous invitation to the Special Rapporteur to undertake an official visit to the country. The visit was planned to take place from 3 to 14 August 2020 but has been postponed until such time as travel restrictions have been lifted. 14. On 30 April, the Special Rapporteur issued a joint public statement 4 calling upon the United States to lift its economic and financial embargo on Cuba, as it was obstructing the humanitarian response to help the country’s health-care system fight the COVID-19 pandemic. She urged the Government of the United States to withdraw measures aimed at establishing trade barriers and to ban tariffs, quotas and non-tariff measures, including those that prevent the purchase of medicines, medical equipment, food and other essential goods. 15. On 1 May, the Special Rapporteur issued a human rights guidance note on COVID19,5 in which she called, inter alia, to lift or at least suspend any sanctions impeding trade in or delivery of essential humanitarian goods and commodities such as medicines, antiviral medication, medical equipment, its component parts and relevant software, and food. She added that the whole scope of unilateral sanctions should be reviewed and minimized in order to enable sanctioned States to ensure the effective protection of their population from COVID-19, to repair their economy and to guarantee the well-being of their people in the aftermath of the pandemic. 16. On 4 May, the Special Rapporteur sent a questionnaire to all Permanent Missions to the United Nations Office and other international organizations in Geneva and, on 6 May, she made a call for submissions for her study on the impact of unilateral sanctions on human rights during the state of emergency in the context of COVID-19 pandemic.6 The study will feed into the Special Rapporteur’s first thematic report to the General Assembly in October 2020. 17. On 22 May, the Special Rapporteur sent a letter to the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees inviting him to collaborate in exploring the links between the negative impact on the enjoyment of human rights caused by unilateral coercive measures on the one hand and the flight of refugees and their subsequent experience on the other hand. 4 5 6 See www.ohchr.org/EN/NewsEvents/Pages/DisplayNews.aspx?NewsID=25848&LangID=E. See www.ohchr.org/Documents/Issues/UCM/UCMCOVID19GuidanceNote.pdf. See www.ohchr.org/Documents/Issues/UCM/Call_for_submission_UCM_COVID_19_emergency _study.pdf. 3