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Unilateral coercive measures, IHL and impartial humanitarian action: An interview with Alena Douhan

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  13 October 2021

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Abstract

Alena Douhan is the United Nations (UN) Special Rapporteur on the Negative Impact of Unilateral Coercive Measures on the Enjoyment of Human Rights. She was appointed to this position by the UN Human Rights Council in March 2020. As the mandate holder, she works with both States and UN organs and seeks to prevent, minimize and redress the adverse impacts of unilateral coercive measures on human rights. Ms Douhan is also a Professor of International Law at the Belarusian State University, Director of the Peace Research Center, and President of the Belarusian branch of the International Law Association.

Type
Interview
Information
International Review of the Red Cross , Volume 103 , Issue 916-917: Counterterrorism, sanctions and war , April 2021 , pp. 25 - 50
Copyright
Copyright © The Author(s), 2021. Published by Cambridge University Press on behalf of the ICRC

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Footnotes

This interview was conducted by Bruno Demeyere, Editor-in-Chief of the Review.

References

1 Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights (UN Human Rights), “Special Rapporteur on the Negative Impact of Unilateral Coercive Measures on the Enjoyment of Human Rights”, available at: www.ohchr.org/en/issues/ucm/pages/srcoercivemeasures.aspx (all internet references were accessed in July 2021); UN Human Rights, “Special Procedures of the Human Rights Council”, available at: https://tinyurl.com/vxa9ydsz; Human Rights Council, Manual of Operations of the Special Procedures of the Human Rights Council, August 2008, available at: www.ohchr.org/EN/HRBodies/SP/CoordinationCommittee/Pages/Manualofspecialprocedures.aspx

2 Charter of the United Nations, 1 UNTS XVI, 24 October 1945, Chap. VII.

3 HRC Res. 15/24, 6 October 2010, paras 1–3, available at: https://undocs.org/en/A/HRC/RES/15/24; HRC Res. 19/32, 18 April 2012, paras 1–3, available at: https://undocs.org/en/A/HRC/RES/19/32; HRC Res. 24/14, 8 October 2013, paras 1–3, available at: https://undocs.org/en/A/HRC/RES/24/14; HRC Res. 30/2, 12 October 2015, paras 1–2, 4, available at: https://undocs.org/en/A/HRC/RES/30/2; HRC Res. 34/13, 24 March 2017, paras 1–2, 4, available at: https://undocs.org/en/A/HRC/RES/34/13; HRC Res. 45/5, 6 October 2020, Preamble, available at: https://undocs.org/en/A/HRC/RES/45/5.

4 UNGA Res. 69/180, 18 December 2014, paras 5–6, available at: www.ohchr.org/Documents/Issues/UCM/Res/A-RES-69-180.pdf; UNGA Res. 70/151, 17 December 2015, paras 5–6, available at: www.un.org/en/ga/search/view_doc.asp?symbol=A/RES/70/151; UNGA Res. 71/193, 19 December 2016, paras 5–6, available at: www.un.org/en/ga/search/view_doc.asp?symbol=A/RES/71/193.

5 The report to the Human Rights Council is to be presented in September 2021, and the report to the General Assembly in October 2021.

6 Alena Douhan, Negative Impact of Unilateral Coercive Measures: Priorities and Road Map, UN Doc. A/HRC/45/7, 1 July 2020, available at: https://undocs.org/en/A/HRC/45/7.

7 Alena Douhan, “Statement of the Special Rapporteur on the NEGATIVE impact of the Unilateral Coercive Measures on the Enjoyment of Human Rights”, 25 November 2020, available at: www.ohchr.org/Documents/Issues/UCM/UCM-Arria-Formula-meeting.pdf; Virtual Arria-Formula Meeting on “End Unilateral Coercive Measures Now”, available at: https://media.un.org/en/asset/k1l/k1l5rfnox1 (part 1), https://media.un.org/en/asset/k1f/k1fnor8vmq (part 2).

8 Alena Douhan, “COVID-19 Human Rights Guidance Note: Negative Impact of Unilateral Sanctions during the State of Emergency”, 1 May 2020, available at: www.ohchr.org/Documents/Issues/UCM/UCMCOVID19GuidanceNote.pdf.

9 A. Douhan, above note 6, paras 103, 110.

10 ICC, “Statement of the Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court, Mrs Fatou Bensouda, on the Referral by Venezuela regarding the Situation in Its Own Territory”, 17 February 2020, available at: www.icc-cpi.int/Pages/item.aspx?name=200217-otp-statement-venezuela.

11 Protocol Additional (I) to the Geneva Conventions of 12 August 1949, and relating to the Protection of Victims of International Armed Conflicts, 1125 UNTS 3, 8 June 1977 (entered into force 7 December 1978), Arts 54, 69, 70; Protocol Additional (II) to the Geneva Conventions of 12 August 1949, and relating to the Protection of Victims of Non-International Armed Conflicts, 1125 UNTS 609, 8 June 1977 (entered into force 7 December 1978), Art. 14. See also Segall, Anna, “Economic Sanctions: Legal and Policy Constraints”, International Review of the Red Cross, Vol. 81, No. 836, 1999Google Scholar, available at: www.icrc.org/en/doc/resources/documents/article/other/57jq73.htm.

12 HRC Res. 15/24, above note 3, para. 8; HRC Res. 19/32, above note 3, para. 11; HRC Res. 34/13, above note 3, Preamble, para. 11.

13 Alena Douhan, Negative Impact of Unilateral Coercive Measures on the Enjoyment of Human Rights in the Coronavirus Disease Pandemic, UN Doc. A/75/209, 21 July 2020, available at: www.undocs.org/en/A/75/209.

14 ICC, above note 10.

15 HRC Res. 15/24, above note 3, paras 1–3; HRC Res. 19/32, above note 3, paras 1–3; HRC Res. 24/14, above note 3, paras 1–3; HRC Res. 30/2, above note 3, paras 1–2, 4; HRC Res. 34/13, above note 3, paras 1–2, 4; HRC Res. 45/5, above note 3, Preamble; UNGA Res. 69/180, above note 4, paras 5–6; UNGA Res. 70/151, above note 4, paras 5–6; UNGA Res. 71/193, above note 4, paras 5–6.

16 International Law Commission, Draft Articles on Responsibility of States for Internationally Wrongful Acts, 2001, Art. 50.

17 Ibid., Art. 48(1)(b).

18 UNSC Res. 1267, 15 October 1999, para. 3; UNSC Res. 1333, 19 December 2000, para. 3; UNSC Res. 1373, 28 September 2001, para. 2.

19 UNSC Res. 2199, 12 February 2015; UNSC Res. 2249, 20 November 2015; UNSC Res. 2354, 24 May 2017, and many others.

20 UNGA Res. 60/288, 20 September 2006, available at: https://undocs.org/A/RES/60/288.

21 European Commission, “Commission Guidance Note on the Provision of Humanitarian Aid to Fight the Covid-19 Pandemic in Certain Environments Subject To EU Restrictive Measures”, 16 November 2020, available at: https://ec.europa.eu/info/sites/info/files/business_economy_euro/banking_and_finance/documents/201116-humanitarian-aid-guidance-note_en.pdf.

22 European Commission, “EU-Level Contact Point for Humanitarian Aid in Environments Subject to EU Sanctions”, available at: https://tinyurl.com/59acr5fs.

23 Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union, 26 October 2012, Art. 275, available at: https://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/EN/TXT/?uri=celex%3A12012E%2FTXT.

24 “Sanctions Judgments”, Sanctions: Law, Practice and Guidance, available at: www.europeansanctions.com/judgment/.

25 See A. Douhan, above note 13.

26 António Guterres, “Remarks at G-20 Virtual Summit on the COVID-19 Pandemic”, 26 March 2020, available at: www.un.org/sg/en/content/sg/speeches/2020-03-26/remarks-g-20-virtual-summit-covid-19-pandemic; António Guterres, “We Are All in This Together: Human Rights and COVID-19 Response and Recovery”, 23 April 2020, available at: www.un.org/en/un-coronavirus-communications-team/we-are-all-together-human-rights-and-covid-19-response-and; “COVID-19 Shows ‘Urgent Need’ for Solidarity, UN Chief Tells Nobel Forum”, UN News, 11 December 2020, available at: https://news.un.org/en/story/2020/12/1079802. See also UNGA Res. 74/270, “Global Solidarity to Fight the Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19)”, 3 April 2020, available at: https://undocs.org/en/A/RES/74/270.

27 UN Human Rights, “Bachelet Calls for Easing of Sanctions to Enable Medical Systems to Fight COVID-19 and Limit Global Contagion”, 24 March 2020, available at: www.ohchr.org/EN/NewsEvents/Pages/DisplayNews.aspx?NewsID=25744&LangID=E.

28 US Department of the Treasury, “Treasury Sanctions Nigerian Cyber Actors for Targeting U.S. Businesses and Individuals”, press release, 16 June 2020, available at: https://home.treasury.gov/news/press-releases/sm1034.

29 Executive Order 13928, “Blocking Property of Certain Persons Associated with the International Criminal Court”, 11 June 2020, available at: www.federalregister.gov/documents/2020/06/15/2020-12953/blocking-property-of-certain-persons-associated-with-the-international-criminal-court.

30 AL USA 15/2020, 23 June 2020, available at: https://spcommreports.ohchr.org/TMResultsBase/DownLoadPublicCommunicationFile?gId=25379.

31 US Department of State, “Ending Sanctions and Visa Restrictions against Personnel of the International Criminal Court”, press release, 2 April 2021, available at: www.state.gov/ending-sanctions-and-visa-restrictions-against-personnel-of-the-international-criminal-court/.

32 A. Douhan, above note 13.

33 Reisman, W. Michael and Stevick, Douglas L., “The Applicability of International Law Standards to United Nations Economic Sanctions Programmes”, European Journal of International Law, Vol. 9, No. 1, 1998, pp. 100CrossRefGoogle Scholar, 103–104, 110–111, 114–116, 120–121. A similar position is expressed in Petrescu, Ioana M., “The Humanitarian Impact of Economic Sanctions”, Europolity, Vol. 10, No. 2, 2016, pp. 207–210Google Scholar; Marc Bossuyt, “The Adverse Consequences of Economic Sanctions”, 2000. On the assessment of the humanitarian effect of UN Security council sanctions, see also Katie King, Naz K. Modirzadeh and Dustin A. Lewis, “Understanding Humanitarian Exemptions: UN Security Council Sanctions and Principled Humanitarian Action”, Working Group Meeting Memorandum, Harvard Law School Program on International Law and Armed Conflict, Counterterrorism and Humanitarian Engagement Project, 2016, available at: https://tinyurl.com/spb9hkbe; Alice Debarre, “Safeguarding Humanitarian Action in Sanctions Regimes”, International Peace Institute, June 2019, available at: www.ipinst.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/06/1906_Sanctions-and-Humanitarian-Action.pdf; High-Level Review of UN Sanctions Working Group 3, UN Sanctions: Humanitarian Aspects and Emerging Challenges, Chairperson's Report, 19 January 2015; Claude Bruderlein, “Coping with the Humanitarian Impact of Sanctions: An OCHA Perspective”, 2 December 1998; Ruiz, Marco Alberto Velásquez, “International Law and Economic Sanctions Imposed by the United Nations’ Security Council: Legal Implications in the Ground of Economic, Social and Cultural Rights”, Revista Colombiana de Derecho Internacional, No. 21, 2012Google Scholar.

34 Marc Bossuyt, “The Adverse Consequences of Economic Sanctions on the Enjoyment of Human Rights”, 5 April 2012, available at: www.ohchr.org/Documents/Events/WCM/MarcBossuyt_WorkshopUnilateralCoerciveSeminar.pdf; M. Bossuyt, above note 33.

35 Caesar Syria Civilian Protection Act, Public Law 116-92, Title LXXIV, 20 December 2019; Executive Order 13894, “Blocking Property and Suspending Entry of Certain Persons Contributing to the Situation in Syria”, 14 October 2019, available at: www.federalregister.gov/documents/2019/10/17/2019-22849/blocking-property-and-suspending-entry-of-certain-persons-contributing-to-the-situation-in-syria.

36 See AL USA 30/2020, 21 December 2020, available at: https://spcommreports.ohchr.org/TMResultsBase/DownLoadPublicCommunicationFile?gId=25785.

37 UNGA Res. 75/157, “Women and Girls and the Response to the Coronavirus Disease (COVID-19)”, 16 December 2020, available at: https://undocs.org/en/A/RES/75/157.

38 European Commission, above note 21.

39 Ibid.

40 Sibylle Bauer, “For the Bathroom or the Missile Factory? Why Dual-Use Trade Controls Matter”, Stockholm International Peace Research Institute, 12 December 2012, available at: www.sipri.org/commentary/essay/2012/bathroom-or-missile-factory-why-dual-use-trade-controls-matter.

41 UN Human Rights, “UN Expert Issues Sanctions Guidance Amid COVID-19 Aid Concerns”, 10 December 2020, available at: www.ohchr.org/en/NewsEvents/Pages/DisplayNews.aspx?NewsID=26589&LangID=E.

42 A. Douhan, above note 13, paras 91–92 (on exempted medical supplies and non-exempted transportation methods).

43 A. Douhan, above note 6, para. 60.

44 European Commission, above note 21.

45 A. Douhan, above note 13, paras 87–89.

46 UN Human Rights, “Preliminary Findings of the Visit to the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela by the Special Rapporteur on the Negative Impact of Unilateral Coercive Measures on the Enjoyment of Human Rights”, 12 February 2012, available at: www.ohchr.org/en/NewsEvents/Pages/DisplayNews.aspx?NewsID=26747&LangID=E.

47 International Court of Justice, “Appeal Relating to the Jurisdiction of the ICAO Council under Article 84 of the Convention on International Civil Aviation (Bahrain, Egypt, Saudi Arabia and United Arab Emirates v. Qatar)”, available at: www.icj-cij.org/en/case/173.

48 International Court of Justice, “Alleged Violations of the 1955 Treaty of Amity, Economic Relations, and Consular Rights (Islamic Republic of Iran v. United States of America)”, available at: www.icj-cij.org/en/case/175.

49 See: www.icc-cpi.int/itemsDocuments/180925-otp-referral-venezuela_ENG.pdf.

50 See: www.icc-cpi.int/itemsDocuments/200212-venezuela-referral.pdf.