TWN Info Service on Finance and Development (Sep25/02)
23 September 2025
Third World Network

UN: Unilateral sanctions undermining human rights & SDGs, warns report
Published in SUNS #10294 dated 22 September 2025

Penang, 19 Sep (Kanaga Raja) — Unilateral sanctions directly affect the economies of the targeted States, producing a direct and indirect negative impact on the enjoyment of all economic, labour and social rights, as well as slowing progress toward the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

This is one of the main conclusions highlighted by Prof. Alena F. Douhan, the UN Special Rapporteur on the negative impact of unilateral coercive measures on the enjoyment of human rights, in a report presented to the current 60th regular session of the UN Human Rights Council.

“We are observing a growing use of unilateral sanctions and means of enforcement by States, as well as over- compliance by private actors, despite multiple reports on their negative humanitarian impact,” she said.

“Sanctions have cumulative effects and have wider implications, including for third States and sanctioning States themselves,” she added.

Speaking at a media briefing at the United Nations Office at Geneva on 17 September, Prof. Douhan said that, “Today, we all are all the more observing the growing use of unilateral sanctions and overcompliance in different forms.”

She said the means of enforcement are diversified and all of that results in the growing overcompliance from the side of different – both public and private – actors, which all together have a comprehensive humanitarian effect.

Unilateral sanctions today are informed not only by secondary sanctions, which she said had been reflected in her reports presented to the Human Rights Council two years ago and to the UN General Assembly a year ago.

Today, the UN expert said, “we are all the more observing the expanding use of criminal, civil, administrative and customs penalties for so-called circumvention of sanctions regimes or alleged circumvention of sanctions regimes, [or] of being somehow associated with some convention of sanctions regimes.”

“So-called targeted sanctions, which have been initially produced as the means to which we aim to minimise humanitarian suffering, do not look like that any longer,” she pointed out.

First of all, “when we come to application of targeted sanctions against high state officials of huge companies, at the very end, quite often it affects the whole company and country as such.”

Unilateral sanctions, so-called targeted ones, have been imposed since slightly more than one year against judges and officers of the International Criminal Court, Prof. Douhan noted.

In her report, the Special Rapporteur noted that multiple sanctions regimes, alongside secondary sanctions and extensive overcompliance, produce cumulative effects and wider implications for the economy of and economic rights in targeted countries, third States and even sanctioning States themselves, indiscriminately affecting the human rights of individuals and peoples, including freedom from poverty, the right to health, the right to an adequate standard of living, the right to water and sanitation, the right to food and other economic, social and cultural rights.

The report said unilateral sanctions also undermine the ability of targeted States to ensure relevant human rights within their territory due to economic hardships and other tangible impediments, even though it is their primary responsibility to take all possible measures to ensure the protection, promotion and fulfilment of human rights within the maximum resources available.

“Unilateral sanctions are usually aimed at targeting the economy of the sanctioned States. They take different forms and include measures taken against States, sectors of a State’s economy or a specific region of a country.”

Trade embargoes and restrictions and financial, economic and sectoral sanctions directly target the economies of sanctioned States, said the report.

Such measures affect the businesses of nationals and residents of sanctioned States and the activities of all those operating in such States.

According to Prof. Douhan, they also affect central and commercial banks’ ability to transfer money to and from sanctioning States and the ability of the sanctioned States to meet the basic needs of their citizens due to reduced revenue and ability to transfer, procure, ensure and deliver.

The Special Rapporteur said targeted sanctions are directed at designated individuals or companies, noting that European Union financial sanctions include several thousand individuals and companies; far more are listed by the United States of America.

The grounds for the listing of companies and individuals have expanded significantly beyond the authorization of the Security Council, she noted.

The UN expert said that such measures produce negative effects not only on the individuals and entities that are directly targeted, but also an indiscriminate number of people, particularly with the imposition of sanctions on banks and other financial institutions leading to the closure of accounts and the freezing of deposits, impeding bank transfers and remittances.

In her report, the Special Rapporteur noted the discrepancy in the terminology used in relation to the adoption of restrictive measures.

In particular, sanctions regulations refer to the freezing of economic resources, the freezing or immobilizing of funds, the blocking of property and interests in property and financial sanctions.

She said that in such cases, any property and interests in property of a sanctioned person “must be blocked (i.e., “frozen”)  – not seized – and may not be transferred, withdrawn or otherwise dealt in.”

Title to the blocked property remains with the blocked person, but the exercise of powers and privileges normally associated with ownership is prohibited, she added.

According to the report, since February 2022, property of more than 1,500 Russian individuals or organizations has reportedly been blocked in this way.

The UN expert said that Russian gold and foreign exchange reserves amounting to $300 billion have been frozen, and the profits of some of those assets have reportedly been used without the agreement of the Government of the Russian Federation.

The assets of Russian nationals blocked by the Group of Seven countries amount to $30 billion, she noted.

According to the Special Rapporteur, “uncertain and ambiguous terminology, alongside the use of severe means of enforcement, including criminalization, exacerbates overcompliance and directly affects the right to property and other economic rights.”

The Special Rapporteur noted with concern that newly adopted legislation in several countries legitimizing the confiscation of frozen State property violates international law, in particular, norms on State immunities, and the principle of the sovereign equality of States.

She said legislation providing a framework for the forfeiting of both sovereign and private property manifestly doesn’t correspond with the right to property set forth in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (art. 17) and regional instruments such as the Protocol to the Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms (European Convention on Human Rights, art.1).

The Special Rapporteur said multiple reports indicate that private property is frequently seized for the alleged circumvention of primary unilateral sanctions.

For example, the report said seven milk tankers and 17 fire engines were confiscated in the Port of Klaipeda, Lithuania, in 2023 for the alleged circumvention of unilateral sanctions while they were being transferred from Belarus through Lithuania to Cuba and Zimbabwe.

The Special Rapporteur regretted that overcompliance by banks and other financial actors includes charging higher rates or imposing unreasonable delays, freezing assets that are not targeted by sanctions and denying individuals the possibility to open or maintain bank accounts or to conduct transactions on the grounds that they are nationals or residents of or originate from a country under sanctions. This can apply even to those who are nationals of the sanctioning State.

She said that such measures indiscriminately affect the lives of the general population, with a disproportionate impact on groups and persons in vulnerable situations, which constitutes discrimination based on, inter alia, nationality and place of birth, and results in a violation of the right to property as well as other human rights (rights to health, food, education, an adequate standard of living and development).

The Special Rapporteur noted with concern that unilateral sanctions also have an indirect effect on certain sectors of the economy of third States, affecting their macroeconomic indicators (such as gross domestic product growth, inflation, currency stability, foreign direct investment and international commerce).

“This in turn affects their labour market, income levels and the broader socioeconomic situation, which leads to the rising cost of essential goods, decreased employment opportunities and limited access to financial resources for development projects.”

NEGATIVE IMPACTS

According to the report, unilateral sanctions have tremendous effect on the enjoyment of all aspects of the right to work.

Unemployment increased from 8.6 per cent of the total labour force in 2011 to 13.2 per cent in 2023 in the Syrian Arab Republic, from 9 per cent in 2003 to 15.4 per cent in 2023 in Iraq and from 8 per cent in 2001 to 14 per cent in 2023 in Afghanistan.

The Special Rapporteur expressed concern that, as a result of, inter alia, unilateral sanctions and the consequent hyperinflation, salaries in the public sector significantly dropped in many countries under sanctions.

For example, the average public-sector salary in the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela is estimated at $2-$10 per month, with the cost of the average food basket being many times higher (about $200).

The report said all of the above results in the deteriorating level of social security and labour conditions, the loss of professionals and economic migration.

The report also said unilateral sanctions often result not only in higher unemployment rates, but also in wage reductions, the deterioration of working conditions and a shift towards informal employment, affecting labour rights and standards.

For instance, in the Syrian Arab Republic, sanctions have shattered the State’s capability to respond to the needs of the population, particularly the most vulnerable, and 90 per cent of the population lives below the poverty line, as witnessed by the Special Rapporteur during her visit to the country.

Since 2019, prices increased by more than 800 per cent and hundreds of thousands of jobs were lost due to the destruction of industries, the loss of external trade and the COVID-19 pandemic.

The UN expert pointed out that this results in the manifest violation of the right to decent work, enshrined in the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (arts. 6-8) and relevant International Labour Organization (ILO) conventions, depriving people of essential opportunities to access decent and productive work in conditions that provide them freedom, equality, security and human dignity.

Furthermore, the Special Rapporteur aligned with the position of the Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights that the right of everyone to the enjoyment of just and favourable conditions of work is an important component of other labour rights enshrined in the Covenant, including the right to fair remuneration providing for a decent living for workers and their families.

However, she said the preliminary results of the monitoring and impact assessment demonstrate a high level of working poverty in numerous States under unilateral sanctions.

For example, for 2024, the working poverty rate was 22 per cent in Mali, 23.2 per cent in the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela, 24.7 per cent in the Syrian Arab Republic, 31.2 per cent in Haiti, 34.6 per cent in Zimbabwe, 42 per cent in the Niger, 48.2 per cent in Yemen, 65.7 per cent in the Central African Republic, and 72.8 per cent in the Democratic Republic of the Congo.

As of July 2025, the minimum monthly wage is equivalent to $1.35 in the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela, $12.4 in the Syrian Arab Republic, $24 in Eritrea and $86.5 in Afghanistan.

Harsh economic conditions provoked by the application of unilateral sanctions significantly affect States’ ability to raise wages, therefore preventing them from fulfilling their obligation to ensure fair wages under article 7 of the Covenant, said the UN expert.

According to the Special Rapporteur, unilateral sanctions reportedly result in declining State revenue and GDP, rising inflation rates, deteriorating currency stability, decreased foreign direct investment flows and donations from businesses, impediments, including disruptions, delays and high costs, to the delivery of humanitarian assistance and a decrease in available resources and governmental capacity to develop and maintain critical infrastructure to ensure economic, labour and social rights.

States affected by unilateral coercive measures are reported to take various measures to alleviate the negative impacts thereof, she noted.

The report said in the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela, a drastic reduction in foreign currency income, from $39 billion in 2014 to $743 million in 2020, compromised macroeconomic stability, generating a sustained decline in GDP during the period 2015-2020 and restricting the State’s ability to finance social investment and public infrastructure.

In the Sudan, the reduction in foreign direct investment flows of approximately 45 per cent had a negative impact on economic development.

The report said sanctions have strained the social services of the Islamic Republic of Iran, including childcare, welfare programmes and support for vulnerable families. For example, funding for orphanages and shelters for abused women was cut due to budget constraints.

Women and children in need of social support face increased hardships and shelters for victims of domestic violence reported overcrowding and insufficient resources, it added.

As a result of prolonged economic sanctions, the Government of the Islamic Republic of Iran has been compelled to adopt the doctrine of “resistance economy”, which has not only affected economic sectors but has also resulted in substantial socio-cultural repercussions, said the UN expert.

She also said multiple reports indicate that unilateral sanctions are affecting all relevant social rights, including the rights to adequate food, clean water, sanitation, freedom of movement and a healthy environment.

For instance, countries under sanctions report high levels of food insecurity: up to 60 per cent in specific regions in the Islamic Republic of Iran, up to 35 per cent in the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela and over 50 per cent in the Syrian Arab Republic.

Unilateral sanctions indirectly affect food security through their broader economic effects and the challenges that they pose to the agricultural sector in particular, said the report.

For instance, in Cuba, the economic damage for cereal production as a result of the embargo was estimated at $2,447,830 during the period 2016-2017.

The Special Rapporteur noted that 90 per cent of children in the Syrian Arab Republic depend on humanitarian assistance for survival and that about 117,000 children in the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela were at risk of acute malnutrition in 2022, with half of children under the age of 5 being at risk of acute malnutrition.

In the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea, the figure is about 140,000 children under 5 years old. Similar figures are also reported in other countries under sanctions, she added.

The UN expert underlined a global shared responsibility for violation of economic, social and cultural rights.

In this regard, she called on sanctioning States and regional organisations to review all unilateral sanctions, and lift those imposed without or beyond the authorisation of the Security Council and not meeting the conditions of retorsions or countermeasures.

She urged all States not to impede the implementation of humanitarian resolutions of the UN Security Council, including through blocking payments, insurance or delivery of humanitarian cargo.

The UN expert also urged all States to tackle overcompliance, to ensure protection of critical infrastructure and follow the Guiding Principles on Sanctions, Business and Human Rights.

The UN expert urged international organisations to avoid legitimising unilateral sanctions, and called on the UN entities, including the World Health Organization (WHO), the International Labour Organization (ILO), the UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), the UN Development Programme (UNDP) and UNESCO to monitor and report on their impact, using the Monitoring and Impact Assessment Tool.

“The ILO should pay particular attention to the right to work, decent work and social security,” she said. +