A/HRC/45/7 its ability to achieve its objectives. She feels that exchanging information could be of mutual benefit. B. Networking cooperation with specialized agencies of the United Nations and other international organizations 76. The Special Rapporteur is interested in establishing dialogues with relevant United Nations specialized agencies and other international organizations that deal with international trade, as trade is frequently the subject of sanctions that can have a negative impact on the enjoyment of human rights. 77. The Special Rapporteur will engage with the World Trade Organization (WTO) to assess developments regarding article XXI of the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade, which authorizes contracting parties to impose sanctions that would otherwise violate the terms of the Agreement if there is a national security reason or some other “emergency in international relations”. Until recently, the sanctioning State was generally considered to be the sole judge of what constituted a justifiable action in line with article XXI, thereby leaving this article open to potential abuse. In 2019, however, a dispute settlement panel determined that WTO had jurisdiction to decide on related matters. 78. The Special Rapporteur intends to exchange information with the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development, UNDP, the regional economic commissions and other relevant United Nations organs to improve the tracking of trade-related sanctions and their impact on human rights and to improve the general knowledge about the impact of sanctions and related policies on human rights. 79. The Special Rapporteur will initiate dialogues with the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank with respect to the human rights impact of sanctions in the financial sphere. These sanctions can affect human rights by affecting trade and development, including when used to combat financial crimes. The Special Rapporteur will also seek opportunities to cooperate with the Financial Action Task Force, which issues guidance and maintains a blacklist of States that are not doing enough to control the use of funds in financing terrorism and money-laundering. The Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development is also a candidate for cooperation given that it carries out studies and analyses on sanctions but does not generally consider their human rights impact. 80. Given that unilateral sanctions affect the fundamental human rights of those who are directly or indirectly targeted by them, the Special Rapporteur deems it important to develop cooperation with the United Nations organs concerned with the right to adequate food and nutrition in collaboration with the Special Rapporteur on the right to food. In particular, the Special Rapporteur would like to cooperate the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations and the World Food Programme, as they have identified sanctions as contributing to food insecurity and as having a negative impact on the right to adequate food and nutrition. The Committee on World Food Security formulates policy recommendations regarding food security and nutrition, and the Special Rapporteur considers that the role of sanctions with respect to these issues offers opportunities to cooperate. The mandate of the United Nations System Standing Commission on Nutrition is to maximize policy coherence among United Nations agencies and explore new and emerging nutrition-related issues, and the Special Rapporteur believes that gathering its input regarding sanctions and their human rights impact could be useful. 81. The Special Rapporteur also considers it a priority to establish a dialogue with the World Health Organization regarding sanctions that can impede the ability of targeted States to obtain foreign medicines and medical equipment that may be necessary to ensure the right to health in situations that can range from local disease outbreaks to pandemics, as well as during non-crisis periods. 82. As mentioned above, the Special Rapporteur is cognizant that refugee flows and migrations can be intensified by sanctions against the countries that the migrants or refugees are fleeing, as has occurred recently when millions of Venezuelans fled to Colombia and the hundreds of thousands of Afghans returned to Afghanistan from the 14

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