{"id":58856,"date":"2015-12-02T00:01:14","date_gmt":"2015-12-01T22:01:14","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/sudan-unilateral-sanctions-hit-the-innocent-harder-than-the-political-elites-warns-un-rights-expert\/"},"modified":"2015-12-02T00:01:14","modified_gmt":"2015-12-01T22:01:14","slug":"sudan-unilateral-sanctions-hit-the-innocent-harder-than-the-political-elites-warns-un-rights-expert","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/sudan-unilateral-sanctions-hit-the-innocent-harder-than-the-political-elites-warns-un-rights-expert\/","title":{"rendered":"Sudan: Unilateral sanctions hit the innocent harder than the political elites, warns UN rights expert"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>                        <span dir=\"ltr\"><br \/>\n                                                    GENEVA, Switzerland, December 1, 2015\/APO (African Press Organization)\/ &#8212;<br \/>\n                                                <\/span><\/p>\n<p>The United Nations Special Rapporteur on human rights and international sanctions, Idriss Jazairy, today urged States which have imposed unilateral coercive measures (UCMs) on Sudan to consider a review of their current policy \u201cgiven the developments taking place in the country since the imposition of the sanctions regimes.\u201d<br \/>\n\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>\u201cSudan has been under unilateral coercive measures for two decades without any adaptation to the sustained evolution of the internal context,\u201d Mr. Jazairy said at the end of his first official visit* to the country to assess the adverse impact of UCMs on the enjoyment of human rights. Referring to the impacts of these measures, the expert added that \u201cin fact, the evolution of the impact of the measures has only fluctuated subject to the whims of fate.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\nThe expert called for the limitation in scope and time of UCMs, and their linking to achieving specific purposes. \u201cThe signal given by compulsory measures is in contradiction with their proclaimed objectives,\u201d he said referring to the recent tightening of international financial transfers with Sudan after the record fines imposed on European banks for having done business with the Sudan.<\/p>\n<p>\nMr. Jazairy welcomed the exemptions introduced for vital supplies but indicated that they remain to be activated by lifting constraints on financial transfers needed to make the exemptions effective. He also suggested the broadening of exemptions and the inclusion of other vital areas \u201cthat preserve the enjoyment of fundamental human rights, including full access to health, education and other basic services thus ensuring the right to development and to decent living,\u201d as well as relaxing the restrictions on financial transfers between the Sudanese living in the country and those abroad.<\/p>\n<p>\n\u201cSanctions do not affect officials and elites. Their full impact is on innocent populations, and they contribute to social stratification, inter-regional disparities and to the broadening of the black market, as well as to the loss of control over financial transfers,\u201d he stressed, while noting that \u201cSudan is one amongst few countries that are still under comprehensive unilateral coercive sanctions.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\nThe UN Special Rapporteur warned that if the adverse impacts of UCMs on human rights in the Sudan are clearly visible in the health sector for instance, \u201cthe relative impact of UCMs and of endogenous shortcoming on human rights is difficult to distinguish and needs more studies and investigation.\u201d He underlined that \u201cthe study of the dysfunctions in the economic, social and educational areas in the Sudan show that these have causes related to UCMs as well as to the internal situation.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\nMr. Jazairy deplored the absence of detailed surveys and studies to be undertaken by independent sources. \u201cA comprehensive assessment of the situation in Sudan is a two-track process that should take into account the domestic and the external factors affecting the overall human rights situation,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<p>\nIn that respect, the expert called for cooperation of a technical nature between the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights and relevant UN agencies operating in Sudan, to develop and design parameters to enable the assessment of the separate impact of UCMs on human rights violations.<\/p>\n<p>\n\u201cUN experts may come together and undertake a case study that may assist in devising a methodology on impact assessment in other targeted countries,\u201d he recommended.<\/p>\n<p>\nThe Special Rapporteur called for the \u201cgradual removal of the restrictions imposed on the financial transfers relating to business deals.\u201d Mr. Jazairy suggested engaging international donors and creditors to restructure Sudan\u2019s crippling external debt, in line with resolution No. 539 (2015) of the Peace and Security Council of the African Union calling for \u2018comprehensive debt relief, the lifting of sanctions against Sudan and development support for South Sudan.\u2019<\/p>\n<p>\nDuring his eight-day visit, from 23-30 November, the expert met with the Vice President of the Republic as well as with Ministers and State officials of a number of Ministries concerned by sanctions, as well as with MPs, business and civil society organizations, trade union and party leaders academics and other experts. He also interacted with representatives of UN agencies and regional organizations in addition to members of the diplomatic community from Europe, Asia, Africa and the Americas present in Sudan, in order to gather relevant information.<\/p>\n<p>\nThe Special Rapporteur will present a comprehensive report on his visit to Sudan to the UN Human Rights Council in September 2016.<\/p>\n<p>\n(*) Check the Special Rapporteur\u2019s full end-of-mission statement:<br \/>\nEnglish: http:\/\/www.ohchr.org\/EN\/NewsEvents\/Pages\/DisplayNews.aspx?NewsID=16824LangID=E \u00a0<br \/>\nArabic: http:\/\/www.ohchr.org\/AR\/NewsEvents\/Pages\/DisplayNews.aspx?NewsID=16824LangID=A<\/p>\n<p>\n\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>GENEVA, Switzerland, December 1, 2015\/APO (African Press Organization)\/ &#8212; The United Nations Special Rapporteur on human rights and international sanctions, Idriss Jazairy, today urged States which have imposed unilateral coercive measures (UCMs) on Sudan to consider a review of their current policy \u201cgiven the developments taking place in the country since the imposition of the [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[4584],"tags":[428,4585,830],"class_list":{"0":"post-58856","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-africa-news-2","7":"tag-africa","8":"tag-apo","9":"tag-news","10":"entry"},"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/58856","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=58856"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/58856\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=58856"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=58856"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=58856"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}