Books
Economic Sanctions from Havana to Baghdad
Economic sanctions have been imposed on dozens of countries and thousands of individuals, triggering humanitarian crises and creating economic chaos, often with little accountability. Sanctions can cause particular harm to vulnerable populations, including women, children, migrants, and the poor. Economic Sanctions from Havana to Baghdad: Legitimacy, Accountability, and Humanitarian Consequences addresses a range of issues in the design and implementation of the economic sanctions regimes that emerged in the post-Cold War era. Drawing on cases from Venezuela, Iran, Iraq, Syria, Cuba, and elsewhere, the chapters in this volume explore issues such as the gendered effects of sanctions; how migrants are affected; risk assessment practices by international businesses; how sanctions affect private actors such as banks; and the effects of sanctions on economic development, infrastructure, and access to healthcare.
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Humanitarian Impact of Unilateral Sanctions and Over-Compliance: Theoretical Challenges and Practical Implications
The new collective monograph, convened by UN Special Rapporteur Professor Alena Douhan, brings together international scholars and practitioners to critically examine the challenges posed by unilateral sanctions and over-compliance. Framed against the UN Charter and binding principles of international law, it highlights how the expansive use of sanctions, including secondary sanctions and de-risking practices, often undermines sovereign equality, non-intervention, peaceful dispute settlement, and even peremptory norms (jus cogens). The volume explores both theoretical and practical dimensions, assessing their wide-ranging human rights impacts – on groups, specific rights such as work, health and property, and on the broader enjoyment of rights within affected countries.
Recordings of the book presentation in Paris are available at
- Video - Part 1 «Humanitarian impact of unilateral sanction and over-compliance » (1/2) Alena DOUHAN.
- Video - Part 2 «Humanitarian impact of unilateral sanction and over-compliance » (2/2) Questions from the audience.
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Sanctions, Business and Human Rights
The collective volume Sanctions, Business and Human Rights, published by Clarity Press in 2025, marks a major contribution to the global debate on unilateral sanctions as the UN approaches the 80th anniversary of its Charter. Edited by UN Special Rapporteur Professor Alena F. Douhan and her team, the book builds on the Guiding Principles on Sanctions, Business and Human Rights and their Commentary, developed by the mandate, and compiles insights from the 2024 Geneva conference that gathered States, UN experts, humanitarian actors, scholars and practitioners. Bringing together leading voices from law, human rights, economics, political science and business, it provides a comprehensive multidisciplinary analysis of the legality, enforcement and humanitarian consequences of unilateral sanctions, as well as their impact on business practice, access to justice and remedies. By underlining both States’ legal obligations and businesses’ human rights responsibilities, the volume offers practical guidance to prevent and mitigate over-compliance, strengthen accountability, and safeguard fundamental rights in the sanctions context.
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