Human Rights and Unilateral Coercive Measures

A/RES/78/202View PDF

Who adopted this document and its mandates?

A Resolution of the General Assembly, under agenda item 71b Human rights questions, including alternative approaches for improving the effective enjoyment of human rights and fundamental freedoms, published in 2023.

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.

What subjects does this mandate have?

4 subjects

Covid-19 Human Rights International Obligations Unilateral Coercive Measures

What’s in this document?

34 operative paragraphs

Urges all States to cease adopting or implementing any unilateral measures not in accordance with international law, international humanitarian law, the Charter of the United Nations and the norms and principles governing peaceful relations among States, 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 Rights and other international human rights instruments, in particular the right of individuals and peoples to development;

Strongly urges States to refrain from promulgating and applying any unilateral economic, financial or trade measures not in accordance with international law and the Charter that impede the full achievement of sustainable economic and social development, particularly in developing countries;

Condemns the inclusion of Member States in unilateral lists under false pretexts, which are contrary to international law and the Charter, including false allegations of terrorism sponsorship, considering such lists as instruments for political or economic pressure against Member States, particularly developing countries;

Urges all States not to adopt 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 his or her health and well-being and his or her right to food, medical care and education and the necessary social services, as well as to ensure that food and medicine are not used as tools for political pressure;

Strongly objects to the extraterritorial nature of those measures which, in addition, threaten the sovereignty of States, and in this context calls upon all Member States neither to recognize those measures nor to apply them, as well as to take administrative or legislative measures, as appropriate, to counteract the extraterritorial applications or effects of unilateral coercive measures;

Condemns the continuing unilateral application and enforcement by certain Powers of unilateral coercive measures, and rejects those measures, with all their extraterritorial effects, as being tools for political or economic pressure against any country, in particular against developing countries, adopted with a view to preventing those countries from exercising their right to decide, of their own free will, their own political, economic and social systems, and because of the negative effects of those measures on the realization of all the human rights of vast sectors of their populations, in particular children, women, the elderly and persons with disabilities;

Expresses grave concern that, in some countries, the situation of children is adversely affected by unilateral measures not in accordance with international law and the Charter that create obstacles to trade relations among States, impede the full realization of social and economic development and hinder the well-being of the population in the affected countries, with particular consequences for women, children, including adolescents, the elderly and persons with disabilities;

Reaffirms that essential goods such as food and medicines, including vaccines, should not be used as tools for political coercion, in particular in the context of global health challenges, such as the COVID-19 pandemic, and that under no circumstances should people be deprived of their own means of subsistence and development;

Also reaffirms its resolution 74/274 of 20 April 2020, in which it recognized the importance of international cooperation and effective multilateralism in helping to ensure that all States have in place effective national protective measures, access to and flow of vital medical supplies, medicines and vaccines, in order to minimize negative effects in all affected States and to avoid relapses of the COVID-19 pandemic;

Recognizes the role of extensive immunization against COVID-19 as a global public good for health in preventing, containing and stopping transmission in order to bring the pandemic to an end, through safe, quality, efficacious, effective, accessible and affordable vaccines for all, including countries affected by unilateral coercive measures, which are not in accordance with international law or the Charter;

Recalls the appeal made by the Secretary-General, on 26 March 2020, on the waiving of sanctions that undermine countries’ capacity to respond to the COVID-19 pandemic and the statement made by the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, on 23 March 2020, on the need to ease or suspend sectoral sanctions in the light of their potentially debilitating impact on the health sector and human rights;

Reaffirms its commitment to international cooperation and multilateralism and its strong support for the central role of the United Nations system in the global response to and recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic;

Emphasizes that the COVID-19 pandemic has revealed the short- and long-term impacts of unilateral coercive measures, which are not in accordance with international law or the Charter, on the enjoyment of all categories of civil, economic, social and cultural rights;

Calls upon Member States that have initiated such measures to abide by the principles of international law, the Charter, the declarations of the United Nations and world conferences and relevant resolutions and to commit themselves to their obligations and responsibilities arising from the international human rights instruments to which they are parties 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;

Recalls that, according to the Declaration on Principles of International Law concerning Friendly Relations and Cooperation among States in accordance with the Charter of the United Nations, contained in the annex to General Assembly resolution 2625 (XXV) of 24 October 1970, and the relevant principles and provisions contained in the Charter of Economic Rights and Duties of States, proclaimed by the Assembly in its resolution 3281 (XXIX), in particular article 32 thereof, no State may use or encourage the use of economic, political or any other type of measures to coerce another State in order to obtain from it the subordination of the exercise of its sovereign rights and to secure from it advantages of any kind;

Rejects all attempts to introduce unilateral coercive measures, and urges the Human Rights Council to take fully into account the negative impact of those measures, including through the enactment and extraterritorial application of national laws that are not in conformity with international law, in its task concerning the implementation of the right to development;

Requests the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, in discharging his 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 his annual report to the General Assembly;

Underlines the fact that unilateral coercive measures are one of the major obstacles to the implementation of the Declaration on the Right to Development and the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development,²⁵ and in this regard calls upon all States to avoid the unilateral imposition of economic coercive measures and the extraterritorial application of national laws that run counter to the principles of free trade and hamper the development of developing countries, as recognized by the open-ended Working Group on the Right to Development of the Human Rights Council;

²⁵Resolution 70/1.

Recognizes that, in the Declaration of Principles adopted at the first phase of the World Summit on the Information Society, held in Geneva from 10 to 12 December 2003,²⁶ States were strongly urged to avoid and refrain from any unilateral measure not in accordance with international law and the Charter of the United Nations in building the information society;

²⁶A/C.2/59/3, annex, chap. I, sect. A.

Reaffirms paragraph 30 of the outcome document of the United Nations summit for the adoption of the post-2015 development agenda, entitled “Transforming our world: the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development”, in which States are strongly urged to refrain from promulgating and applying any unilateral economic, financial or trade measures not in accordance with international law and the Charter of the United Nations that impede the full achievement of economic and social development, particularly in developing countries;

Recalls the decision of the Human Rights Council, in its resolution 27/21, to appoint a Special Rapporteur on the negative impact of unilateral coercive measures on the enjoyment of human rights, and welcomes the work done in delivering her mandate;

Takes note of the report of the Special Rapporteur of the Human Rights Council on the negative impact of unilateral coercive measures on the enjoyment of human rights;²⁷

²⁷A/78/196.

Recalls the decision taken by the Human Rights Council, in its resolution 54/15 of 11 October 2023,²⁸ to extend, for a period of three years, the mandate of the Special Rapporteur as set out in Council resolution 27/21;

²⁸See Official Records of the General Assembly, Seventy-eighth Session, Supplement No. 53A (A/78/53/Add.1), chap. III, sect. A.

Requests the Secretary-General and the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights to provide all the human and financial resources necessary for the effective fulfilment of the mandate of the Special Rapporteur, and also requests them, in discharging their functions in relation to the promotion and protection of human rights, to pay due attention and to give urgent consideration to the present resolution;

Recalls that the Human Rights Council took note of the research-based progress report of its Advisory Committee containing recommendations on mechanisms to assess the negative impact of unilateral coercive measures on the enjoyment of human rights and to promote accountability;²⁹

²⁹A/HRC/28/74.

Also recalls the contribution of the first biennial panel discussion on the issue of unilateral coercive measures and human rights organized by the Human Rights Council in 2015 to increase awareness of the negative impact that unilateral coercive measures have on the enjoyment of human rights in the targeted and non-targeted countries, and invites the Council to follow up on the discussion at the fourth panel discussion, in 2021;

Invites the Human Rights Council and the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights to continue paying attention to and explore ways to address the negative impact of the application of unilateral coercive measures on the enjoyment of human rights;

Reiterates its support for the invitation of the Human Rights Council to all special rapporteurs and existing thematic mechanisms of the Council in the field of economic, social and cultural rights to pay due attention, within the scope of their respective mandates, to the negative impact and consequences of unilateral coercive measures on the enjoyment of human rights;

Takes note with interest of the proposals contained in the report of the Special Rapporteur on the negative impact of unilateral coercive measures on the enjoyment of human rights, and requests the Special Rapporteur to include in her report to the General Assembly at its seventy-ninth session more information on the process regarding the discussions of her proposals at the Human Rights Council;

Reaffirms the request of the Human Rights Council that the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights organize a workshop on the impact of the application of unilateral coercive measures on the enjoyment of human rights by the affected populations, including in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic, in the States targeted;

Requests the Special Rapporteur to submit to the General Assembly at its seventy-ninth session a report on the implementation of the present resolution and on the negative impact of unilateral coercive measures on the full enjoyment of human rights, including in the context of the response to and recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic;

Invites Governments to cooperate fully with the Special Rapporteur in the fulfilment of her mandate through, inter alia, the submission of comments and suggestions on the implications and negative effects of unilateral coercive measures on the full enjoyment of human rights;

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

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