Human Rights and Unilateral Coercive Measures

A/RES/61/170View PDF

Who adopted this document and its mandates?

A Resolution of the General Assembly, under agenda item 67b Human rights questions, including alternative approaches for improving the effective enjoyment of human rights and fundamental freedoms, published in 2007.

What else is in this group?

42 documents · 1997–2025

Newer documents in this group exist (latest: 2025).

Year	Symbol	Title	Word length	Text similarity
2025	A/RES/80/209	Human rights and unilateral coercive measures	3,078	–
2024	A/RES/79/167	Human rights and unilateral coercive measures	3,310	–
2023	A/RES/78/202	Human rights and unilateral coercive measures	3,401	–
2023	A/HRC/RES/54/15	Human rights and unilateral coercive measures	1,512	–
2023	A/RES/77/214	Human rights and unilateral coercive measures	3,320	–

This group bundles related documents that are not individually ordered.

Which reports were submitted under this mandate?

1 report · 2007

Year	Symbol	Title		Mandate resolution
2007	A/62/255	Human rights and unilateral coercive measures report of the Secretary-General		A/RES/61/170

What’s in this document?

10 operative paragraphs

Urges all States to refrain from adopting or implementing any unilateral measures not in accordance with international law and the Charter of the United Nations, in particular those of a coercive nature with all their extraterritorial effects, which create obstacles to trade relations among States, thus impeding the full realization of the rights set forth in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights¹² and other international human rights instruments, in particular the right of individuals and peoples to development;

¹²Resolution 217 A (III).

Also urges all States to take steps to avoid and to refrain from adopting any unilateral measures not in accordance with international law and the Charter that impede the full achievement of economic and social development by the population of the affected countries, in particular children and women, that hinder their well-being and that create obstacles to the full enjoyment of their human rights, including the right of everyone to a standard of living adequate for their health and well-being and their right to food, medical care and the necessary social services, as well as to ensure that food and medicine are not used as tools for political pressure;

Invites all States to consider adopting administrative or legislative measures, as appropriate, to counteract the extraterritorial applications or effects of unilateral coercive measures;

Rejects unilateral coercive measures with all their extraterritorial effects as tools for political or economic pressure against any country, in particular against developing countries, because of their negative effects on the realization of all the human rights of vast sectors of their populations, in particular children, women and the elderly;

Calls upon Member States that have initiated such measures to commit themselves to their obligations and responsibilities arising from the international human rights instruments to which they are party by revoking such measures at the earliest possible time;

Reaffirms, in this context, the right of all peoples to self-determination, by virtue of which they freely determine their political status and freely pursue their economic, social and cultural development;

Urges the Human Rights Council to take fully into account the negative impact of unilateral coercive measures, including the enactment of national laws and their extraterritorial application, in its task concerning the implementation of the right to development;

Requests the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, in discharging her functions relating to the promotion, realization and protection of the right to development and bearing in mind the continuing impact of unilateral coercive measures on the population of developing countries, to give priority to the present resolution in her annual report to the General Assembly;

Requests the Secretary-General to bring the present resolution to the attention of all Member States, to continue to collect their views and information on the implications and negative effects of unilateral coercive measures on their populations and to submit an analytical report thereon to the General Assembly at its sixty-second session, while reiterating once again the need to highlight the practical and preventive measures in this respect;

Decides to examine the question on a priority basis at its sixty-second session under the sub-item entitled “Human rights questions, including alternative approaches for improving the effective enjoyment of human rights and fundamental freedoms”.

Human Rights and Unilateral Coercive Measures

Who adopted this document and its mandates?

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