A/HRC/28/74 33. According to a non-profit organization based in the United States, smart sanctions imposed on the banking, gas and insurance sectors have wreaked havoc with the lives of many Iranian citizens, as price hikes have led to the high cost of food (increases by 1,500 per cent in the period 2010–2012). Besides strengthening the black cash economy and increasing criminalization, women’s access to higher education has decreased. Women are being pushed out of the job market. Furthermore, the sanctions have triggered a collapse in industry, skyrocketing inflation and massive unemployment. The country’s middle class has disappeared, and even access to food and medicine has been compromised. 39 34. Although the United States of America and the European Union claim that the sanctions do not apply to humanitarian items, in actual fact they have deeply affected the delivery and availability of medical supplies. The import of medicines containing antibiotics (of types not produced inside the country) has decreased by 20.7 per cent, and prices have increased by more than 300 per cent. The estimated 20,000 persons suffering from thalassemia in the country receive only a few days of their monthly medicinal needs. Survivors of chemical weapons used during the war with Iraq in the 1980s, in need of medicine and equipment, including cornea transplants and inhalers, similarly suffer from a shortage or lack of medical supplies. In general, the medicines used to treat haemophilia, cancer, thalassemia, multiple sclerosis and kidney transplant and dialysis are not produced domestically, and of those that are, most are not as effective as those imported from Europe and North America. The shortage of medicine for such chronic diseases often leads to the death of the patient. In addition, every year, 85,000 Iranians are diagnosed with some form of cancer; the facilities for providing them with chemotherapy and radiotherapy are however scant. While the financial sanctions imposed on the Islamic Republic of Iran do not, in principle, cover medicine and medical equipment, they make it almost impossible for Iranian importers to finance the import of medical equipment and medicine. In particular, depriving the country of SWIFT services has made international payments to Western companies almost impossible. As a result, Western pharmaceutical companies – often the sole producers of these medicines – have all but stopped exporting to the Islamic Republic of Iran, and every year tens of thousands of patients die as a result. The economic sanctions have therefore led to a deterioration in living conditions. Those living in poverty and in marginalized areas suffer most from the effect of the sanctions. 40 35. According to the UNICEF annual report of 2012, the mortality rate of children under 5 years of age dropped from 36 to 22.52 per 1,000 live births between 2000 and 2010. Nonetheless, 20.3 out of 1,000 children die before their first birthday, and 15.29 during the first month of life – statistics that highlight the need to improve neonatal health care. The report also revealed that the average under-5 mortality rate in lower income regions is three times that of higher income regions. 36. Owing to the imposition of both multilateral and unilateral sanctions on the Islamic Republic of Iran, it is difficult to distinguish the specific impact that unilateral sanctions have had on the enjoyment of the human rights by the civilian population. D. Gaza Strip 37. While according to international law the 1.7 million inhabitants of the Gaza Strip are under Israeli occupation, the Government of Israel treats this area as a foreign entity, submitting its inhabitants to a severe financial and economic blockade. 39 40 International Civil Society Network, “What the Women Say: Killing Them Softly: the Stark Impact of Sanctions on the Lives of Ordinary Iranians”, Brief 3, July 2012. Ibid. 11