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This should be of interest to those of you who have tried to lobby Amnesty. Here the UN are clearly looking at human rights. Amnesty should be involved not because this is Iraq but because the general principal is so important: impose sanctions and you should consider the effects on human rights. > Forwarded extracts from the UN Human Rights Commission - the second > extract explicitly says that humanitarian exemptions, in the context of > sanctions, do NOT have the desired effect. It is also written that > states imposing sanctions have the OBLIGATION to respond to suffering > caused by their sanctions. snip > Furthermore, the Committee adopted a General Comment No. 8 (1997) on the > relationship between economic sanctions and respect for economic, social > and cultural rights. This General Comment received extensive press > coverage and great deal of interest from States parties to the Covenant. > It focuses on the DRAMATIC IMPACT SANCTIONS ALWAYS HAVE ON THE RIGHTS > recognized in the Covenant and underlines that, DESPITE THE INCLUSION OF > HUMANITARIAN EXEMPTIONS in the sanction regimes established by the > Security Council in order to ensure basic respect for economic, social > and cultural rights, A NUMBER OF RECENT UNITED NATIONS REPORTS AND > STUDIES SHOW THAT THESE EXEMPTIONS DO NOT HAVE THE EXPECTED EFFECT > (emphasis added). It concludes by suggesting that three steps be taken, > which follow from the recognition of economic, social and cultural > rights: > 1) these rights must be fully taken into account when a sanction regime > is being designed; > 2) effective monitoring should be undertaken throughout the period that > sanctions are in force, and > 3) the party or parties responsible for the imposition, maintenance or > implementation of the sanctions have the OBLIGATION "to take steps, > individually and through international assistance and co-operation, > especially economic and technical", in accordance with article 2, > paragraph 1, of the Covenant, in order TO RESPOND to ANY > disproportionate suffering experienced by vulnerable groups within the > targeted country (emphasis added). Mark Parkinson -- ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- This is a discussion list run by Campaign Against Sanctions on Iraq. To be removed/added, email soc-casi-discuss-request@lists.cam.ac.uk, NOT the whole list. Archived at http://linux.clare.cam.ac.uk/~saw27/casi/discuss.html