UN Experts Call For The Removal Of All Unilateral Sanctions To Allow Sanctioned Countries To Protect Themselves From COVID-19

A group of UN experts has called for the removal of all unilateral sanctions and cited that people in sanctioned countries needed to protect themselves from COVID-19 too, Newsday reports.

A statement released by the experts on the matter reads in part:

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.
Sanctions that were imposed in the name of delivering human rights are in fact killing people and depriving them of fundamental rights, including the rights to health, to food and to life itself.

According to Alena Douhan A UN Rappatouer, who is one of the experts to sign the statement, sanction are causing suffering and death to people in Cuba, Iran, Sudan, Syria, Venezuela and Yemen. Zimbabwe is under targetted US and EU sanctions too and was not mentioned among the countries not being able to protect itself from COVID-19 due to sanctions.

More: Newsday