ABSTRACT
For decades, human rights bodies of the United Nations and the General Assembly have regularly expressed their concerns regarding the adverse human rights effects of the imposition of economic sanctions. These concerns related to the potential (or actual) effects of both unilateral sanctions (enacted by individual States or groups of States) and "multilateral" sanctions adopted under Chapter VII of the UN Charter. This has prompted efforts, especially within the UN system, towards the principled recognition of the applicability of human rights standards to economic sanctions regimes. However, there is evidence that such recognition remains to date a 'work in progress'. The present contribution aims at evaluating the status questionis of the main international human rights issues arising from the practice of sanctions, be they comprehensive (such as trade embargoes) or 'targeted'. It describes the various measures set up at the UN and regional level (including within the EU) to safeguard human rights when implementing sanctions. It evaluates whether and to what extent these may be viewed as satisfactory in light of the jurisprudence of human rights bodies and courts, or whether further action may be called for, particularly in order to ensure the availability to all those targeted by sanctions of effective judicial or other remedies, including compensation for harm resulting from sanctions. An important component of the question, i.e. the controversial existence (and extent) of extra-territorial human rights obligations of States (and possibly international organizations) when imposing sanctions under the various human rights instruments, will also be addressed.
