Human rights experts from the United Nations (UN) reiterated this Friday that the unilateral coercive measures imposed against countries are causing suffering and deaths amidst the COVID-19 pandemic, and thus they renewed the call for them to be urgently lifted or suspended.
“The sanctions that were imposed in the name of defending human rights are in fact killing people and depriving them of fundamental rights, including the rights to health, food and life itself,” said Alena Douhan, special rapporteur for the UN, regarding the negative impact of unilateral coercive measures on the enjoyment of human rights, along with other experts on the matter from the multilateral organization.
She specified that sanctions are bringing suffering and deaths in countries such as Cuba, Iran, Sudan, Syria, Venezuela and Yemen, and that humanitarian exemptions to these “do not work” amidst the global health crisis.
Unilateral coercive measures “need to be lifted, or at least alleviated, so that people can get basics like soap and disinfectants to stay healthy, and so hospitals can get ventilators and other equipment to keep people alive”, insisted the experts.
The Minister of People’s Power for Foreign Relations, Jorge Arreaza, shared on his Twitter account @jaarreaza the press release that includes the concern of the “UN Special Rapporteurs on Coercive Measures, Health, Food, Extrajudicial Executions and the Independent Expert on International Solidarity”.
“They denounce the sanctions are deadly, much more amidst a pandemic, and demand for these to be lifted”, said the Venezuelan Chancellor.
Special Rapporteur Douhan also warned that nothing has improved since in April of this year she asked for the lifting of all unilateral sanctions that prevent the States subjected to them from adequately fighting the COVID-19 pandemic or since the International Societies of the Red Cross and Crescent made a similar appeal.
The other experts who are subscribing to the statement from the UN-Geneva, in Switzerland are: Obiora Okafor, independent expert on human rights and international solidarity; Tlaleng Mofokeng, Special Rapporteur on the Right to Physical and Mental Health; Michael Fakhri, Special Rapporteur on the Right to Food and Agnès Callamard, Special Rapporteur on Extrajudicial, Summary or Arbitrary Executions.
Since 2014, Venezuela has been the subject of more than 300 unilateral coercive measures imposed by the United States and satellite countries, which, far from diminishing, have increased in the context of the pandemic, such as the refusal this year by the International Monetary Fund to approve the request for resources from its Emergency Fund and the arbitrary retention of gold reserves deposited in custody at the Bank of England, among other actions that undermine the strategy of containment, care and prevention of COVID-19 in the South American country.
