The UN special rapporteur Alena Douhan said that Iran has been subject to widespread sanctions and that the United States has imposed heavy financial and trade sanctions on Iran since the 1970s and has taken steps to isolate Iran from the world financial and trade system.
She pointed to the US withdrawal from the internationally-signed nuclear deal with Iran or the so-called the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) in 2018. She said the US placed the Central Bank of Iran and several Iranian banks on the sanctions list among sanctions on other legal and natural figures.
Sanctions imposed on Iran are unjustifiable from the view of the Human Rights Council and the UN General Assembly, she said.
Douhan stressed: "I call on international organizations not to forget their obligations and not impose extraterritorial sanctions because it violates human rights, and I call on regional and national legal and judicial institutions to take measures that put these sanctions at risk. I call on countries to make sure that Iran pays its membership dues and that Iranian diplomats can open bank accounts and do their banking business. Blocking diplomats' accounts is a violation of the Vienna Convention."
UN Special Rapporteur: Unilateral sanctions can hamper medical equipment access amid COVID-19
The UN rapporteur highlighted the sanctions on medicines and the problems the ban has made for the patients, especially those children suffering from EB:
"Some drugs are domestically produced, but the raw materials are imported and go back to bank payments and the quality of the raw materials. For certain diseases, the drug cannot be produced domestically. Exemptions are said to have been imposed on Iran, but even UN agencies could not provide them to Iran."
She appreciated Iran's hosting the Afghan refugees for more than four decades: "Iran hosts a large number of Afghan refugees and cannot manage this without the help of the United Nations. 5 to 8 million Afghans are entering the country, and it is difficult for the Iranian government to manage them without international assistance.
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