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ECOSOC Guide

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15 views

ECOSOC Guide

Uploaded by

Armaan Mehtani
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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Mitigating the impact of economic sanctions

on the most vulnerable

ECOSOC

Chair: Armaan Mehtani


Co-chair:
Introduction
The Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC) is one of the six principal organs of the United Nations,
and is responsible for promoting international economic and social cooperation and development.
ECOSOC oversees various commissions and programs that work to achieve the UN’s goals, including
eliminating poverty, education, health, and sustainable development. It also ensures that economic
measures, such as sanctions, align with the UNs efforts to protect human rights and promote equity.

Economic sanctions have long been used as a tool for achieving foreign policy objectives for a given
state. This ranges from promoting human rights to halting weapons proliferation. However, their
consequences often fall disproportionately on the most vulnerable populations—children, women, the
elderly, and those in poverty. From Syria to Venezuela, sanctions have contributed to humanitarian
crises, limiting access to food, medicine, and basic necessities.

Key Terms
● Economic Sanctions: Restrictive measures (e.g., trade barriers, asset freezes) placed by one
or more countries to influence another nation’s actions or behaviour.

● Targeted Sanctions: Measures aimed specifically at individuals or sectors of a country rather


than entire states.

● Humanitarian Exceptions: Exceptions within sanctions allowing for essential goods like
food to reach populations in need.

● Secondary Sanctions: Sanctions that are placed on third-party countries that engage with a
sanctioned nation in a negative way.

● Blockade: The restriction of import/export of goods to a country - usually considered an act


of war

● Embargo: A total ban on trade or activities with another country.

General Overview
Sanctions are an ancient tool of international diplomacy, dating back to ancient Greece and the
practice of city-states imposing restrictions on trade to satisfy political objectives. In modern history,
sanctions have become one of many strategies for dealing with global challenges, including
aggression deterrence, the promotion of human rights, and the non-proliferation of weapons of mass
destruction.

The Cold War saw an extensive use of sanctions by both the United States and the Soviet Union
against smaller states. The U.S., for instance, imposed a trade embargo on Cuba in 1962, which is
among the longest-lasting sanctions regimes in modern history. Similarly, the comprehensive
sanctions imposed by the United Nations on Iraq in the 1990s were designed to coerce that regime
into disarmament of their weapons; however as a result of these sanctions, devastating impacts were
seen in the civilian population. Over recent years, sanctions have increasingly shifted to become more
specified, focusing on selected individuals, entities, or sectors such as financial institutions, energy
companies, and military operations. This approach is called "smart sanctions," which aims at causing
minimum damage to the civilian population while keeping up the pressure on the government or
group concerned. The economic and social consequences of these sanctions are usually very serious.
Though they are placed to apply pressure to states, more often than not, they affect the most
vulnerable populations. Some examples of this include:
● Sanctions imposed on North Korea and Venezuela have raised the degree of food shortage,
contributing to hunger and starvation in already quite fragile economies.
● Restrictions to medical imports, as with Iran, have disrupted access to lifesaving medicines
and created humanitarian public health crises.
● Sanctions can even destabilize the economies of targeted states, creating hyperinflation,
unemployment, and extreme poverty, as in Venezuela and Zimbabwe.
● Sanctions easily disrupt world trade, creating economic problems in neighboring countries or
even trade partners-such as the impact of sanctions on Russia that directly affect European
energy markets.
Sanctions have severe geopolitical consequences. Many criticize sanctions for being one-sidedly used
by powerful states like the United States and European Union members to enforce dominance. The
result has been strained multilateral relations and the fostering of alternative alliances, such as those
between Russia and China. Supporters maintain that sanctions are a non-military means to compel
governments and enforce international law. Opponents argue that sanctions are often ineffective
toward their stated goals and have brought suffering to the ordinary citizen more than to the targeted
political elite.

Timeline of Key Events

● 1919: The League of Nations imposes sanctions for the first time on Hungary to
pressure for border changes after World War I
● 1973: The Arab oil embargo targets the United States and other nations supporting
Israel during the Yom Kippur War, causing a global energy crisis.
● 1997: The European Union imposes sanctions on Myanmar in response to human
rights violations by the military junta.
● 2006: The United Nations imposes sanctions on North Korea after its first nuclear
test, targeting weapons programs and restricting international trade.
● 2010: The European Union and the United States impose sanctions on Iran, targeting
its nuclear program. These sanctions severely impact Iran’s economy, including oil
exports and banking.
● 2014: Western nations impose sanctions on Russia following its annexation of
Crimea.
● 2017: Sanctions on Venezuela increase as the United States and other nations
respond to alleged human rights abuses and corruption. These sanctions worsen the
ongoing economic crisis.
● 2018: The United States withdraws from the Iran Nuclear Deal (JCPOA) and
reinstates sanctions, affecting Iran's oil exports and banking sector.
● 2020: The United States imposes the Caesar Act sanctions on Syria, targeting
individuals and entities supporting the Assad regime. These sanctions exacerbate
the country’s economic challenges.
● 2022: Western nations impose unprecedented sanctions on Russia following its
invasion of Ukraine, including freezing assets, banning SWIFT access for Russian
banks, and restricting energy imports.
● 2023: Sanctions targeting advanced semiconductor exports to China are introduced
by the United States, aiming to curtail China's technological development and military
capabilities.

Solutions in the Past

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