RES/9/4 Human rights and unilateral coercive measures

Human Rights Council

Resolution 9/4. Human rights and unilateral coercive measures

The Human Rights Council,

Recalling the purposes and principles of the Charter of the United Nations,

Recalling also all previous resolutions on human rights and unilateral coercive measures

adopted by the Commission on Human Rights, the Council and the General Assembly,

Reaffirming its resolution 6/7 of 28 September 2007 and Assembly resolution 62/162 of

18 December 2007,

Taking note of the report of the Secretary-General on this issue (A/HRC/9/2),

Stressing that unilateral coercive measures and legislation are contrary to international law,

international humanitarian law, the Charter of the United Nations and the norms and principles

governing peaceful relations among States,

Recognizing the universal, indivisible, interdependent and interrelated character of all

human rights and, in this regard, reaffirming the right to development as a universal and

inalienable right and an integral part of all human rights,

Expressing its concern at the negative impact of unilateral coercive measures in the field of

human rights, development, international relations, trade, investment and cooperation,

Recalling the final document of the Fourteenth Conference of Heads of State or

Government of the Non-Aligned Movement, held in September 2006 in Havana and the final

document of the Ministerial Conference of the Non-Aligned Movement, held in Teheran in

July 2008, at which the high dignitaries of the Member States agreed to oppose and condemn

these measures or laws and their continued application, to persevere with efforts to effectively

reverse them and urged other States to do likewise, as called for by the General Assembly and

other United Nations organs, and to request States applying these measures or laws to revoke

them fully and immediately,

Recalling also that the World Conference on Human Rights, held in Vienna from 14 to

25 June 1993, called upon States to refrain from any unilateral measure not in accordance with

international law and the Charter of the United Nations that creates obstacles to trade relations

among States and impedes the full realization of all human rights, and also severely threatens the

freedom of trade,

Deeply concerned that, despite the resolutions adopted on this issue by the

General Assembly, the Council, the Commission on Human Rights and at United Nations

conferences held in the 1990s and at their five-year reviews, and contrary to norms of

international law and the Charter of the United Nations, unilateral coercive measures continue to

be promulgated, implemented and enforced, inter alia, by resorting to war and militarism, with

all their negative implications for the social-humanitarian activities and economic and social

development of developing countries, including their extraterritorial effects, thereby creating

additional obstacles to the full enjoyment of all human rights by peoples and individuals under

the jurisdiction of other States,

Reaffirming that unilateral coercive measures are a major obstacle to the implementation of

the Declaration on the Right to Development,

Recalling article 1, paragraph 2, common to the International Covenant on Civil and

Political Rights and the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, which

provides, inter alia, that in no case may a people be deprived of its own means of subsistence,

1. Urges all States to stop adopting or implementing unilateral coercive measures

not in accordance with international law, international humanitarian law, the Charter of the

United Nations and the norms and principles governing peaceful relations among States, in

particular those of a coercive nature with extraterritorial effects, which create obstacles to trade

relations among States, thus impeding the full realization of the rights set forth in the Universal

Declaration of Human Rights and other international human rights instruments, in particular the

right of individuals and peoples to development;

2. Strongly objects to the extraterritorial nature of those measures which, in addition,

threaten the sovereignty of States and, in this context, calls upon all Member States neither to

recognize these measures nor apply them, and to take effective administrative or legislative

measures, as appropriate, to counteract the extraterritorial application or effects of unilateral

coercive measures;

3. Condemns the continued unilateral application and enforcement by certain powers of

such measures as tools of political or economic pressure against any country, particularly against

developing countries, with a view to preventing these countries from exercising their right to

decide, of their own free will, their own political, economic and social systems;

4. Reiterates its call upon Member States that have initiated such measures to abide by

the principles of international law, the Charter of the United Nations, the declarations of the

United Nations and world conferences and relevant resolutions and to commit themselves to

their obligations and responsibilities arising from the international human rights instruments to

which they are parties by putting an immediate end to such measures;

5. Reaffirms, in this context, the right of all peoples to self-determination, by virtue of

which they freely determine their political status and freely pursue their economic, social and

cultural development;

6. Recalls that, according to the Declaration on Principles of International Law

concerning Friendly Relations and Cooperation among States in accordance with the Charter of

the United Nations, contained in the annex to General Assembly resolution 2625 (XXV) of

24 October 1970, and according to the relevant principles and provisions contained in the

Charter of Economic Rights and Duties of States proclaimed by the Assembly in its

resolution 3281 (XXIX) of 12 December 1974, in particular article 32, no State may use or

encourage the use of economic, political or any other type of measure to coerce another State in

order to obtain from it the subordination of the exercise of its sovereign rights and to secure from

it advantages of any kind;

7. Reaffirms that essential goods, such as food and medicines, should not be used as

tools for political coercion and that under no circumstances should people be deprived of their

own means of subsistence and development;

8. Underlines the fact that unilateral coercive measures are one of the major obstacles

to the implementation of the Declaration on the Right to Development and, in this regard, calls

upon all States to avoid the unilateral imposition of economic coercive measures and the

extraterritorial application of domestic laws that run counter to the principles of free trade and

hamper the development of developing countries, as recognized by the Intergovernmental Group

of Experts on the Right to Development in its report on its second session (E/CN.4/1998/29);

9. Rejects all attempts to introduce unilateral coercive measures, as well as the

increasing trend in this direction, including through the enactment of laws with extraterritorial

application which are not in conformity with international law;

10. Recognizes that the Declaration of Principles adopted at the first phase of the World

Summit on the Information Society, held in Geneva in December 2003, strongly urged States to

avoid and refrain from any unilateral measure in building the information society;

11. Invites all special rapporteurs and existing thematic mechanisms of the Council in the

field of economic, social and cultural rights to pay due attention, within the scope of their

respective mandates, to the negative impact and consequences of unilateral coercive measures;

12. Decides to give due consideration to the negative impact of unilateral coercive

measures in its task concerning the implementation of the right to development;

13. Requests:

(a) The United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, in discharging her

functions in relation to the promotion and protection of human rights, to pay due attention and

give urgent consideration to the present resolution;

(b) The Secretary-General to bring the present resolution to the attention of all States

Members of the United Nations and to seek their views and information on the implications and

negative effects of unilateral coercive measures on their populations, and to submit a report

thereon to the Council at its twelfth session;

14. Decides to examine this question, on a priority basis, as appropriate, in accordance

with its annual programme of work under the same agenda item.