A/HRC/36/44
unilateral coercive measures, States are urged to comply during that transition period
with universally accepted rules of behaviour, called for by international law and
international human rights law, aiming at the mitigation of the adverse human rights
impacts of unilateral sanctions. These basic principles and rules of behaviour are set
out in detail in the elements for a draft declaration on unilateral coercive measures
and the rule of law contained in appendix II of the annex to the present report. The
rules of behaviour advocated include, inter alia, the obligation to conduct a
transparent human rights assessment of coercive measures, to monitor on a regular
basis the effects of implementation of the measures, to ensure effective exemptions for
satisfying basic human rights and essential humanitarian needs, and to guarantee due
process and the availability to victims of judicial review for obtaining remedies and
redress.
51.
The other proposal put forward by the Special Rapporteur, i.e. the
establishment of a United Nations register of unilateral sanctions likely to have a
human rights impact, is a simple, practical, viable and fair means to ensure
transparency in the implementation of sanctions during the transition period. This
transparency will be helpful to the Security Council, civil society organizations and
the business sector. The Special Rapporteur believes that such a mechanism could be
agreed and established and begin operations in the very near future.
52.
The Special Rapporteur must strongly emphasize the paradoxical fact that the
same countries which apply unilateral sanctions with extraterritorial reach and effects
are the same ones which generally oppose the recognition of the extraterritorial
character of State obligations assumed under the Covenants, in particular the
International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights. He concurs with the
view of the Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights that, as a matter of
law and logic, the imposition of sanctions on a third country entails at least partial
responsibility of the targeting State for the situation within the targeted country,
which in turn implies the legal responsibility also of the targeting State to protect,
extraterritorially, the human rights of the affected population, especially their
fundamental economic, social and cultural rights. The Special Rapporteur therefore
calls for a solemn reiteration, in the form of a declaration on unilateral coercive
measures and the rule of law, of the basic principle that unilateral coercive measures
involving extraterritorial application of domestic measures are unlawful under
international law. He trusts that such condemnation of extraterritorial measures as
unlawful reflects the understanding of most countries of the world, irrespective of
their legal systems.
53.
The Special Rapporteur also calls for an explicit recognition of the basic
principle of the extraterritorial character of the human rights obligations of States in
cases of imposition of sanctions on third countries; such action entails the legal
accountability of targeting States for measures affecting negatively the enjoyment of
human rights of the affected populations.
54.
Finally, the Special Rapporteur wishes to reiterate that the establishment of an
ad hoc compensation commission under the United Nations for victims of unilateral
coercive measures is a viable option to ensure accountability and the availability of
remedies and redress while gaps still remain in domestic and international
mechanisms for the judicial review of unilateral sanctions.
14
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