UNITED NATIONS A General Assembly Distr. GENERAL A/HRC/12/30 3 July 2009 Original: ENGLISH HUMAN RIGHTS COUNCIL Twelfth session Agenda item 3 ANNUAL REPORT OF THE UNITED NATIONS HIGH COMMISSIONER FOR HUMAN RIGHTS AND REPORTS OF THE OFFICE OF THE HIGH COMMISSIONER AND THE SECRETARY-GENERAL Human rights and unilateral coercive measures Report of the Secretary-General Introduction 1. The present report is submitted in accordance with Human Rights Council resolution 9/4, in which the Council requested the Secretary-General to seek the views and information of Member States on the implications and negative effects of unilateral coercive measures on their populations and to report thereon to the Council. 2. On 8 June 2009, the Secretary-General sent a note verbale to Member States seeking their views and information. As of 24 June 2009, the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights had received responses, summarized below, from the Governments of Belarus, Costa Rica, Iraq, Spain and Ukraine. The full text of the submissions is available from the Secretariat. Responses from Governments BELARUS [Original: English] [11 June 2009] 3. The Government stated that Belarus took a position to reject unilateral coercive measures of an economic or political nature. It recognized that such measures contradicted the founding principles and norms of international law, and were unacceptable in the context of civilized international relations. GE.09-14465 (E) 080709