Skip to content
View Featured Image

World Opposes Sanctions, Only United States And Europe Support Them

Above Photo: The UN Human Rights Council vote condemning sanctions on 3 April 2023.

West Vs The Rest.

The United Nations Human Rights Council voted overwhelmingly to condemn sanctions. The only countries that expressed support for the tool of economic warfare were the United States, Britain, European Union member states, Georgia, and Ukraine.

Sanctions are formally known as unilateral coercive measures, and they violate international law.

On 3 April, the UN Human Rights Council voted with 33 members in support of and 13 against a resolution that “urges all States to stop adopting, maintaining, implementing or complying with unilateral coercive measures”.

The document, A/HRC/52/L.18, “urges the removal of such measures, as they are contrary to the [UN] Charter and norms and principles governing peaceful relations among States”.

The resolution was submitted by Azerbaijan on behalf of the Non-Aligned Movement.

It illustrated how UN votes are often the West versus the rest of the world:

For (33)

  • Algeria
  • Argentina
  • Bangladesh
  • Benin
  • Bolivia
  • Cameroon
  • Chile
  • China
  • Costa Rica
  • Cote d’Ivoire
  • Cuba
  • Eritrea
  • Gabon
  • Gambia
  • Honduras
  • India
  • Kazakhstan
  • Kyrgyzstan
  • Malawi
  • Malaysia
  • Maldives
  • Morocco
  • Nepal
  • Pakistan
  • Paraguay
  • Qatar
  • Senegal
  • Somalia
  • South Africa
  • Sudan
  • UAE
  • Uzbekistan
  • Vietnam

Against (13)

  • Belgium
  • Czechia
  • Finland
  • France
  • Georgia
  • Germany
  • Lithuania
  • Luxembourg
  • Montenegro
  • Romania
  • Ukraine
  • United Kingdom
  • United States

Abstained (1)

    • Mexico

The resolution stated that it “strongly condemns the continued unilateral application and enforcement by certain powers of such measures as tools of pressure, including political and economic pressure, against any country, particularly against least developed and developing countries, with a view to preventing these countries from exercising their right to decide, of their own free will, their own political, economic and social systems”.

This is a clear reference to Washington’s blockades of Cuba and Venezuela, which aim to overthrow the country’s socialist governments, and which clearly violate international law.

The resolution added that sanctions cause “serious violations of human rights of targeted populations”, with “particular consequences for women, children, including adolescents, the elderly and persons with disabilities”.

The document cited many past UN General Assembly and Human Rights Council resolutions and reports by the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights that also condemned unilateral sanctions.

The West’s imposition of unilateral sanctions has skyrocketed in recent decades.

According to a 2021 Treasury review, 9,421 parties were sanctioned by the US government at the end of that year, a staggering 933% increase since 2000.

More than one-third of the global population lives in countries that are suffering under sanctions.

Urgent End Of Year Fundraising Campaign

Online donations are back! Keep independent media alive. 

Due to the attacks on our fiscal sponsor, we were unable to raise funds online for nearly two years.  As the bills pile up, your help is needed now to cover the monthly costs of operating Popular Resistance.

Urgent End Of Year Fundraising Campaign

Online donations are back! 

Keep independent media alive. 

Due to the attacks on our fiscal sponsor, we were unable to raise funds online for nearly two years.  As the bills pile up, your help is needed now to cover the monthly costs of operating Popular Resistance.

Sign Up To Our Daily Digest

Independent media outlets are being suppressed and dropped by corporations like Google, Facebook and Twitter. Sign up for our daily email digest before it’s too late so you don’t miss the latest movement news.