A/HRC/36/44 Annex Outcome document of the expert working group convened in Geneva on 3 June 2017 1. An expert consultation was held at the OHCHR, Palais Wilson in Geneva on 3 June 2017 to review and evaluate the initiatives put forward by the Special Rapporteur in his reports to the Human Rights Council and the General Assembly, i.e. a United Nations Register of unilateral sanctions likely to have a human rights impact and a United Nations Declaration on unilateral coercive measures and the rule of law. 2. In addition to the Special Rapporteur, Mr. Idriss Jazairy, the following experts were in attendance: Professor Mark Bossuyt (Member of the Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination, Member of the Permanent Court of Arbitration in The Hague and a former judge at the Belgian Constitutional Court), Professor Alena Douhan (Associate Professor of international law, Belarusian State University, Minsk, Belarus), Mr. HansJakob Schindler (Coordinator of the ISIL(Da’esh)/Al-Qaida/Taliban Monitoring Team), Ms. Catherine Marchi-Uhel (Ombudsperson, Security Council ISIL (Da’esh) and Al-Qaida Sanctions Committee), Professor Aslan Abashidze (Member of the United Nations Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, Professor at the International Law Department, Moscow State Institute of International Relations and Director of Center for Innovations in Education and Legal Research at Peoples’ Friendship University of Russia), Professor Matthew Happold (Professor of Public International Law at the University of Luxembourg and a barrister at 3 Hare Court, London),Professor Antonios Tzanakopoulos (Associate Professor of Public International Law, University of Oxford) and Mr. PierreEmmanuel Dupont (Director, Public International Law Advisory Group) who moderated the workshop. Mr. Alfred de Zayas (Independent Expert on the promotion of a democratic and equitable international order) could not attend but submitted a statement. 3. The first session of the expert consultation was devoted to the draft Declaration on unilateral coercive measures and the rule of law. One participant first addressed the issue of the legal force of resolutions of the General Assembly, stressing that for a General Assembly resolution to have legal effects, it should have a normative character, it should receive the support or at least the absence of opposition from a large number of States, including the States particularly affected by the matter concerned, and the adoption of the resolution should be followed by a uniform and constant state practice in conformity with the behaviour prescribed in the resolution. Another participant addressed the issue of mechanisms of and remedies for human rights protection against unilateral coercive measures. Unilateral coercive measures have an impact a broad range of human rights, and their ‘contributory nature’ in ongoing human rights situations brought before the Human Rights Council was underlined by one participant. Possible responses to unilateral coercive measures were identified, and a distinction was made between immediate and long-term responses. Responses to measures targeting States (including Special Procedures of the Human Rights Council, United Nations fact-finding missions, 1 a United Nations compensation commission, etc.) and responses to measures directed against individuals or entities (including, but not limited to, judicial review before domestic courts of the sanctioning state, which is unfortunately subject to a range of legal and practical limitations, if available at all, in many scenarios). It was also called for a reform of the ‘targeted sanctions’ processes to ensure due process guarantees, that would include the mandatory and immediate opening of criminal or administrative process in parallel to inclusion in a sanctions list, and lifting of the sanctions (and financial compensation) if a person is recognized not-guilty. A participant referred to the under-utilized inter-State complaints procedure, which should be engaged and in some cases could facilitate negotiation and friendly settlement under treaty bodies (e.g. Art. 41 International Covenant 1 See Declaration on Fact-finding by the United Nations in the Field of the Maintenance of International Peace and Security (A/RES/46/59). 15