international law
sanctions are criminal [EXCERPT]
Rania Masri
In the fifty years since the inception of the United Nations, there have been ten instances of economic sanctions imposed by its Security Council; eight have been during the 1990s. The fact that this new wave of militarily-enforced sanctions has mainly been a feature of the past ten years has led to a situation where their violation of all legal, humanitarian, and other norms of international behavior is only slowly becoming exposed. Economic sanctions against industrialized and industrializing countries, which include a ban on foreign trade, can be more lethal than limited military assaults. In contrast to the use of bombs and missiles, economic warfare typically does not result in the same level of public outcry over the loss of innocent lives. It becomes, thus, a silent form of killing, one that can be maintained for longer periods of time, causing death and destruction upon a broad spectrum of the population, until the politics behind the policy are satisfied.
By blocking foreign trade to a country that depends on foreign trade for its survival, the very life of civilians is threatened. Sanctions thus punish an entire population, targeting children most of all. According to numerous UN reports, the UN sanctions against the Iraqi people have claimed far more deaths than the deadly Gulf War in 1991. The lack of foodstuffs, medical supplies, and spare parts in Iraq, due to the sanctions and the stringent constraints on humanitarian imports imposed by the UN, have caused untold suffering for the general population. One consequence of sanctions is that Iraq’s child mortality has increased by six-fold, causing the estimated death of more than 4,500 children each month over the previous mortality.
The sanctions against the people of Iraq have been the most stringent and destructive in history. From their imposition on 6 August 1990, the sanctions have blatantly disregarded international law and morality. These sanctions were imposed upon the people, via UN Security Council Resolution 661, to demand that Iraq withdraw all its forces to the points in which they were located on 1 August 1990 and to "restore the authority of the legitimate government of Kuwait." Although the sanctions were established to secure specific and concrete objectives, no reference was made in SCR 661 as to when or how the sanctions would be lifted once the said objectives had been achieved. Subsequent resolutions have escalated the sanctions, transformed their objectives, and broadened their spheres.
Soon after SCR 661, the Security Council introduced a new and dangerous mechanism for the enforcement of the sanctions: authorization for member states to utilize maritime forces "to halt all inward and outward maritime shipping in order to inspect and verify their cargoes" (SCR 665). The most dangerous aspect of Resolution 665 is that by changing the means of enforcement from diplomatic and political means to the arbitrary use of various national navy forces, the Security Council drastically mutated the nature of economic sanctions. The maritime blockade, coupled with the air blockade imposed under SCR 670 in 1990, amounted to an act of war, thereby making the economic sanctions an act of war as well under the law.
Excerpted from CHALLENGE TO GENOCIDE
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