By Modupe Gbadeyanka
The United Nations Special Rapporteur on human rights and international sanctions, Mr Idriss Jazairy, has welcomed the recent decision of President Barack Obama to lift most sanctions unilaterally imposed by the United States on Sudan.
“By lifting sanctions on Sudan, after adopting similar decisions on Cuba and Iran, President Obama will be remembered as a leader who listened to the international community and stakeholders, in particular the poor and the wretched who were the unintended main victims of such measures,” said Mr Jazairy, who has reported extensively on the adverse impact on human rights of these sanctions since his 2015 visit to the country.
The human rights expert noted that President Obama’s decision acknowledged the fact that the Government of Sudan has adopted ‘positives actions’ over the past six months.
“I urge the Sudanese authorities to intensify their efforts to enhance peace and stabilization efforts and uphold human rights,” he said.
“The decision by the Obama administration’s to revoke sanctions, is in line with the recommendation I made in my 2016 report to the Human Rights Council,” the Special Rapporteur said.
In his report, Mr Jazairy warned that imposing unilateral coercive measures (UCMs) on Sudan would “restrict trade and investment in the country, which in turn forces the population to face enormous challenges to their enjoyment of human rights.”
The expert cautioned that UCMs significantly affected the right to health and an adequate standard of living, the right to food, the right to education and the right to development in the country. He also deplored that exemptions to the sanctions regime were largely ineffective “when financial transactions with the banking system in the Sudan are prohibited.”
In Mr Jazairy’s report, he made a number of recommendations to mitigate the impact of sanctions, including the full activation of exceptions or waivers to the sanctions regime with regard to the trade in agricultural products and certain life-saving drugs.
He also called for the progressive lifting of prohibitions on transfers of remittances from abroad, and for commercial transactions, starting with imports recognized to be crucial to ensure basic human rights.
Finally, the expert noted with satisfaction that his recommendation to establish a mechanism between the UN and the Sudan for the procurement of life-saving medicines had been actually followed up and implemented through its establishment -with the US approval- under the auspices of the UN Office in Khartoum in cooperation with the Sudanese Ministry of Health in March 2016.
