Iran Press/ Europe: In a statement on Friday, the group said sanctions were "bringing suffering and death" to people in countries including Iran, Sudan, Syria, Yemen, Venezuela, and Cuba.
Alena Douhan, UN special rapporteur on the negative impact of unilateral coercive measures on the enjoyment of human rights said, "Sanctions should be lifted - or at a minimum eased - so people can get basics like soap and disinfectants to stay healthy, and so that hospitals can get ventilators and other equipment to keep people alive."
Douhan said nothing had improved since she called for the lifting of all unilateral sanctions preventing states from adequately fighting the COVID-19 pandemic back in April.
The International Red Cross, Red Crescent societies, and several US lawmakers made a similar appeal at the start of the pandemic, but the calls have been widely ignored.
"Sanctions that were imposed are in fact killing people and depriving them of fundamental rights, including the rights to health, to food and to life itself," said Douhan and other UN experts, without calling any particular sanctioning country out by name.
"We renew our call for sanctioning countries to urgently lift, suspend or minimize their sanctions so that medicine, medical equipment, food, and fuel can get through," the UN experts said in the statement.
On May 8, 2018, US President Donald Trump unilaterally withdrew his country from the international agreement and announced the return of nuclear sanctions, in violation of Washington's commitments under the UN Security Council.
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