Informed discussions about and thorough understanding of unilateral coercive measures and their impact on human rights require a systematic collection of information and data, which is currently lacking. There is no unified system for the assessment of adverse effects of UCMs at the national, regional or international levels, and existing research on this issue is sparse and fragmented among different research disciplines. A number of states directly affected by such measures have themselves established their own national mechanisms of impact assessment. However, these are based on these states’ respective specific conditions and their priority sectors of impact, and there is no significant cross-fertilisation among them. 

The observed difficulty in developing monitoring and impact assessment tools for UCMs is not only due to methodological challenges, but also due to inter alia the absence of a thorough understanding of the mechanisms and patterns triggered by the imposition of such measures, as well as due to the reduced national capabilities of the targeted by UCMs states. 

The mandate of the Special Rapporteur has repeatedly highlighted the importance of a systematic monitoring and assessment of the humanitarian impact of unilateral sanctions and over-compliance (A/78/196, para. 83; A/HRC/48/59, para 110), and in 2021, drawing also from previous UN and other initiatives, it launched a consultative process towards the development of a simplified and unified monitoring and impact assessment tool, which will host data and information submitted by all stakeholders, process and systematise it, and present it in an online, user-friendly, platform.

The sanctions monitoring and assessment tool developed by the mandate is currently available online and can be accessed here: https://ucmmonitoring.ohchr.org

Click on “Country data” to access the visualized data overview of sanctioning states, countries under unilateral sanctions as well as third states affected by unilateral coercive measures and “Tabular data” showing tabular data statistics.

To ensure comprehensiveness of monitoring and assessment and provide for the possibility of verification, the Special Rapporteur invites all interlocutors to submit information about the humanitarian impact of unilateral sanctions and over-compliance via submission form.

While working on the monitoring and assessment tool, the Special Rapporteur produced a report that provides an overview of initiatives and mechanisms for monitoring and assessing the impact of unilateral sanctions, the means of their enforcement and over-compliance on human rights. It draws parallels from the 2004 Handbook for Assessing the Humanitarian Implications of Sanctions developed by the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs in collaboration with members of agencies of the Inter-Agency Standing Committee; and, it outlines the main methodological approach of the Special Rapporteur for the future monitoring and impact assessment tool based on her thematic and country specific work, information collected during her country visits and submitted information by governmental and non-governmental stakeholders.

Finally, it briefly presents the Special Rapporteur’s monitoring and impact assessment tool and includes preliminary observations following the collection and analysis of information submitted by stakeholders, including reporting challenges and reflections about the submission and processing of quantitative and qualitative data.

The report concludes with several recommendations including the following:

  • States to establish national mechanisms for the comprehensive and consistent monitoring and assessment of the negative impact of unilateral coercive measures;
  • UN and UNCTs to include the issue of the adverse effects of unilateral coercive measures in their assessments of the human rights and humanitarian situations around the world, in accordance with their respective mandates;
  • civil society organizations, including those in sanctioned countries, should be supported, without discrimination, in their information-gathering and monitoring work on sanctions-related matters;

Visit the report page to learn more

Link access: Sanctions Monitoring & Impact Assessment Tool.