Feb 9, 2021
Syrian Organizations Respond to the UN Unilateral Coercive Measures
The statement by the UN Special Rapporteur, Alena Douhan, fundamentally misattributed blame for the dire state of human rights in Syria. In her view, US financial sanctions and trade embargoes have violated human rights and worsened the COVID-19 situation by “depriving the Syrian people of the chance to rebuild their basic infrastructure.”
This argument dangerously presumes that sanctions are the reason for the country’s broken health care system, for example, rather than the Syrian government’s systematic attacks on hospitals and medical workers; or that sanctions have rendered Syrians homeless, instead of the Syrian government’s long-standing campaign of expropriating civilian property.
Beyond obviously destructive government policies, many processes have contributed to the situation in Syria that are hard to disaggregate, including the financial crisis in neighboring Lebanon.
