Human Rights Double Standard: Iranian Sanctions Impact the Most Vulnerable - JURIST - Commentary - Legal News & Commentary
▻https://www.jurist.org/commentary/2019/01/human-rights-double-standard-iranian-sanctions-impact-the-most-vulnerable
The sanctions thereby openly advocate for interference, which has been labeled the new imperialism. This belief is strengthened by the inability of the authorities to respect human rights as stated in the Iranian constitution (right to life, right to food, gender equality…) due to external obstruction. In such a context, human rights become a luxury, raising doubts about their universality. How can human rights be universal when they are used to coerce a country into forfeiting its sovereignty, thereby supporting a foreign power’s political agenda? It is a double standard practice the Iranian authorities have long complained about.
Overall, the human rights’ violations of the Iranians living under sanctions illustrate why the United Nations Food Programme has called sanctions “brutal instruments.” It is the powerless and the voiceless citizens that are struck first in the name of human rights. Some scholars and practitioners argue that sanctions will bolster human rights, while the impact is clearly that of a violation of economic and social rights. This is not a schizophrenic attitude towards human rights if one considers the overall aim of the sanctions is to ensure a change of regime that would hopefully respect human rights. This, therefore, creates a double standard, where the United States and the European Union can use international human rights law to criticize the Islamic Republic while simultaneously breaching Iranian citizens’ rights. It begs the question of “which” human rights standards are applicable to Iranians? Should Iranians be punished for a system that exists above and beyond them?