Background

In her thematic work, in accordance with the scope of her mandate, the Special Rapporteur on the negative impact of unilateral coercive measures on the enjoyment of human rights has repeatedly highlighted the importance of a systematic monitoring and assessment of the human rights impact of unilateral sanctions and the clear identification of the targets of such measures. She also highlighted the absence of such a mechanism of assessment despite the important steps taken in early 2000s within the UN system. The Special Rapporteur is of the view that any informed discussion around unilateral sanctions should be the result of a clear understanding of the adverse effects through collection, analysis and reporting by all relevant actors of specific information, which will be based on specific criteria and indicators. In this context, since early 2022, she has launched a process of expert consultations towards the elaboration of a simplified and unified methodology for impact monitoring and assessment, with categories of indicators that will be brought to stakeholders’ attention for further reflection.

Under Human Rights Council resolutions 27/21 and 45/5 and General Assembly resolution 74/154, the UN Special Rapporteur is tasked with gathering all relevant information relating to the negative impact of unilateral coercive measures on the enjoyment of human rights; studying relevant trends, developments, and challenges; and making guidelines and recommendations on ways and means to prevent, minimize and redress the adverse impact of unilateral coercive measures on human rights

Toward that end, the Special Rapporteur builds on past work by the UN Inter-Agency Standing Committee (IASC) and the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) and introduces here a preliminary tool to better identify the effects that unilateral sanctions have on human rights. It consists of a non-exhaustive set of questions and indicators that can be readily used, by governments, international and regional organisations, civil society, academia and others who observe or have information about situations in which sanctions are harming human rights. The objective of the data is to establish more clearly the links between specific sanctions and the various human rights that are impacted, and this preliminary tool is also an invitation to all stakeholders to engage in the monitoring and assessment of such impact.

Objective

The purpose of this call is to engage with relevant stakeholders and to seek their feedback and possible additional proposals/suggestions on how to further expand its scope and enhance its precision and thus its usefulness.

The proposed questions and indicators are based on the Special Rapporteur’s empirical work and observations during her country visits, information she has received on specific situations and cases, as well as her overall interaction with various relevant actors for the last 3 years.

Structure

The tool proposes several areas/blocks, particularly those that have been explored by the Special Rapporteur in the implementation of the activities of her mandate, such as the thematic reports, communications on specific cases, and observations/findings following her official visits to affected by sanctions countries.

Each block contains a non-exhaustive list of questions and indicators meant to capture information in as much detail as possible. It is not expected that a single user/stakeholder will be able to provide information on all the areas covered by these blocs and indicators.

The tool is available to any user/stakeholder who wishes to submit relevant information. Users/stakeholders may focus only on those areas and blocks for which they can provide information. They are not required to fill all the fields.

In her effort to render it more user friendly, the Special Rapporteur intends to build an online version of this tool for the direct submission of information.

How inputs will be used

The submitted feedback and information will be reviewed and considered by the Special Rapporteur for confidential purposes in order to amend and further develop the draft tool. A consultation process may also take place at a later stage.