Sanctions: A Crime Against Humanity

One-third of the world’s population lives under sanctions regimes, which deny access to food and medicine and have killed hundreds of thousands of people.
The first recorded use of sanctions was in 432 BC, when the Athenian Empire banned traders from Megara from its marketplaces, thereby strangling the rival city state’s economy. It was not however until the 20th century that the use of economic sanctions became more prominent.
The League of Nations, and later the United Nations, played a key role in forging country-based sanctions in the early 20th century, often lazily imposing such measures on countries they wanted to pressure into complying with a specific foreign policy objective. Country-based sanctions are a form of restrictive measure imposed by one country or entity on another with the aim of limiting the target country’s trade and business relations. The imposition of country-based sanctions can have a massive adverse effect on the economy and humanitarian wellbeing of the targeted country.
As recognised by Kofi Annan, the former Secretary General to the United Nations in his 1997 report to the UN, country-based sanctions tend to inflict the most harm on vulnerable civilian groups and can cause great collateral damage to third states. The US government says that economic sanctions are an alternative to war. But history shows that they can be more lethal than any gun, gas, or megaton bomb — a weapon, in the words of the US 28th President Woodrow Wilson, “more tremendous than war.”
For those who may not understand how sanctions work, or who have never considered life underneath a U.S. blockade: Sanctions are tools of warfare. The U.S. uses its power to isolate smaller nations, cutting them off from vital resources like food, medicine, and energy. Just 15 minutes of the U.S. Blockade is equal to the cost of hearing aids for Cuba’s special education system. 30 minutes of the Blockade is equal to cost of covering national wheelchair needs. The cost of 25 days of the Blockade could cover national medicine needs. US-led West uses sanctions to punish countries that don’t abide by its rules. It sanctioned India over Pokhran2, Iraq over non-existent WMDs, and Iran over its n-programme.
Africa is sanctioned more than any other continent. Over a dozen of its countries are under restrictions that cripple the economy and hit local populations hard. Those behind them – mainly the US – believe the measures can bully sovereign states into states into aligning with Western policy. History shows that rarely happens, but what does happen is the destruction of ordinary people’s lives. In Zimbabwe US sanctions were imposed in 2001. Zimbabwe was already facing economical strain by 1999 partly because of payments to war vets from 1997 (equal to 3% of GDP) and massive spending in the Congo War 1998. Zimbabwe was defaulting World Bank loans for the first time since 1980. All this before land seizures of 2000. Zimbabwe is paying the price of challenging western imperialism with a major land reform that put land back in the hands of the Black majority. Today it’s one of the most sanctioned countries in the world.
Sanctions represent a form of economic warfare, with the U.S. global sanctions regime imposing significant consequences worldwide. Currently, one-third of all nations are under U.S. sanctions, disproportionately affecting poorer countries, where 60% face various forms of restrictions. These measures disrupt economies and exacerbate humanitarian crises, prompting urgent discussions about the ethics and effectiveness of such a strategy in addressing global challenges.
Biden is the president who has imposed the most sanctions, amassing over 6,000 in just two years. These sanctions have inflicted devastating consequences on innocent civilians, causing immense suffering and potentially leading to the deaths of hundreds of thousands. In Cuba, critical medical supplies have become nearly impossible to import, while in Venezuela, the sanctions have contributed to a financial collapse three times greater than the Great Depression. Syria faces its worst humanitarian crisis this year after a decade of sanctions. Additionally, sanctions have fueled a corrupt multi-billion-dollar lobbying industry, enriching former U.S. officials and local oligarchs alike. Worst of all, despite the widespread suffering they cause in predominantly poor countries and the corruption they foster, there is little evidence to suggest that sanctions effectively achieve their intended goals.
U.S. Passes Bill to extend Sanctions on Syria until 2032
According to the US Caesar sanctions were intended to create accountability for crimes by the Syrian government and its allies Russia and Iran. The Sanctions were also to discourage foreign investors from doing business with the Syrian government, in an effort not to reward war crimes. Caesar sanctions are purposed to financially punish Assad and his associates for committing atrocities. Hence, the sanctions would mainly target providing goods, services, technology, information, or any support that would expand local production in the field of natural gas, oil and its derivatives. The legislation was reintroduced by Representative Eliot Engel as House Resolution 31 of 2019, and it was passed in the House on January of the same year. It was later incorporated into the National Defense Authorization Act which was enacted and then signed by President Trump. But truly The Caesar sanctions are based on a Qatari and US intelligence scam, named for a CIA asset, and designed to starve and impoverish the Syrian population into oblivion. It is sadistic punishment for Syria’s refusal to bow to the West as so many other Arab nations have.
Written By Yvonne KatsandeThe post Sanctions: A Crime Against Humanity first appeared on LN24.