Uganda rallies NAM states to protest US sanctions

The Non-Alignment Movement (NAM) on Wednesday evening voted against the unilateral coercive measures such as trade embargos often used by the United States and European Union (EU) on poor and developing states.
During the sitting of the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva, Switzerland, 32 countries including Algeria, Bangladesh, Benin, Brazil, Burundi, Chile, China, Cuba, and Costa Rica voted for the resolution against the unilateral coercive measures.

Only Argentina abstained, while 14 countries including Belgium, Bulgaria, Finland, Georgia, Germany, Japan, and Lithuania voted against the resolution.
The resolution was sponsored by the 121-NAM countries, and co-sponsored by Russia, and Palestine which is recognised by the NAM alliance as an independent country.
Uganda’s Deputy Permanent Representative to the United Nations Mission in Geneva Arthur Kafeero, told the human rights council before the voting that the resolution captures language on the importance of access to justice as a precondition to exercising human rights and as a safeguard to ensuring fairness and equality.
“It also introduces language on the growing risk of over compliance on universal unilateral measures by financial institutions and third parties beyond the original states imposing the sanctions,” Ambassador Kafeero remarked.
The NAM resolutions are, however, morality indicators. Only the UN Security Council, the world body’s most powerful organ, resolutions are legally binding.

Economic sanctions
The UN defines unilateral coercive measures as a form of economic sanctions taken by one state to compel a change in the policy of another state.  These include trade sanctions in the form of embargoes and the interruption of financial and investment flows between sender and target countries.

The tools, alongside travel ban, are mostly employed by Washington and its key ally across the Atlantic, EU in Brussels, and the United Kingdom in response to egregious human rights violations, governance deficits, and economic crimes on rogue governments and individuals around the world.
Several NAM member states in Africa, Southeast Asia, and South America have been affected by these measures.

NAM was midwifed 69 years ago at the Bandung Conference as a foreign policy  instrument of allying with neither the US nor USSR—at the height of the Cold War—but has since emerged as a collective voice of poor and developing countries.

During the 19th Non-Alignment Movement (NAM) summit in Kampala in mid-January, NAM Heads of State adopted the 416-page Outcome Document in which they decried the continued denial and delay in issuance of entry visas to representatives of NAM states by US embassies around the world to access the UN headquarters in New York where the alliance’s main activities are coordinated.
The UN also lists “smart” or “targeted” sanctions such as asset freezing and travel bans have been employed by individual States in order to influence persons who are perceived to have political influence in another state as part of the measures.
The human rights council is among the several meetings on the UN calendar that have agenda items on which NAM states have a common position hence necessitating presentation.

Uganda, which assumed the NAM chairmanship during the summit held at Munyonyo until 2027, coordinates NAM activities through the different NAM chapters in New York, Geneva, Vienna, The Hague, Rome, and Paris.
Ugandan diplomats have since been giving key addresses during the various summits on NAM positions: some meetings are closed, and others open.

On Wednesday, Ambassador Kafeero said that despite the member countries’ divergent views on the matter, “we should at least acknowledge the unilateral coercive sanctions in the form of economic sanctions and secondary sanctions have far reaching implications on the enjoyment of human rights by the general population of targeted states, disproportionately affecting the poor and persons in the most vulnerable situations.”

“It is well established that the poorest of persons in the vulnerable situations in the least developed and developing countries are the most affected by the impacts of unilateral coercive measures often because of developed countries,” he added.

Human rights
According to the UN, unilateral coercive measures can impact the full enjoyment of human rights set forth in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, in particular the rights of everyone to a standard of living adequate for their health and well-being, including food and medical care, housing and necessary social services.

Ambassador Kafeero cited the reports of the special rapporteur on unilateral coercive measures and the summary report of the office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights on the biennial panel discussion on unilateral coercive measures and human rights held in September 2021, which noted that  coercive measures and legislation and secondary sanctions, are contrary to international law, international humanitarian law, international human rights law, the UN Charter and the norms and principles governing peaceful relations among States.