#Alena Douhan

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U.N. Human Rights Council Demands U.S. End Designation of Cuba as State Sponsor of Terrorism

On June 26, 2024, the U.N. Human Rights Council in Geneva Switzerland issued a declaration signed by 123  countries demanding that the U.S. remove Cuba from the list of countreis that allegedly sponsor terrorism. [1] Cuba’s President, Miguel Diaz-Canel, expressed his gratitude for this expression of support. He also pointed out out that the unjust accusation goes against the fundamental…

[developmentinformationday]

Unilateral Coercive Measures as a critical impediment to the realization of the Right to Development.

In her most recent reports, from 2023 and 2024, the Special Rapporteur of the Human Rights Council on the negative impact of unilateral coercive measures on the enjoyment of human rights, Professor Alena F. Douhan, reported on the increasing trend of over-compliance with so-called "sanctions" by governments, companies, and various entities.

Watch the Unilateral Coercive Measures as a critical impediment to the realization of the Right to Development!

[toscanoirriverente]

GENEVA, September 13, 2024 — Today the UN rapporteur on sanctions will declare that all US, EU, British and Canadian sanctions on China over its human rights abuses constitute illegal “unilateral coercive measures” under international law.

Alena Douhan, a Belarus-based investigator who was appointed by the UN Human Rights Council — under a mandate created by the Iranian regime and other dictatorships — will today in Geneva present a new report that calls for lifting all Western sanctions that have been imposed on the Chinese regime over its human rights abuses against Uighurs, including forced labor, stifling democracy in Hong Kong, and arming sanctioned regimes such as Russia, Iran and North Korea.

“Douhan epitomizes the Orwellian nature of the UN’s human rights system. The world’s worst dictatorships initiated this UN mandate ten years ago in order to declare that all sanctions which seek to hold accountable their regimes for human rights abuses are themselves illegal measures,” said Hillel Neuer, executive director of UN Watch, an independent non-governmental human rights group based in Geneva.

Neuer will be taking the floor today in the UN debate with Douhan.

“Absurdly, this so-called UN human rights expert has conducted major propaganda visits for Ayatollah Khamenei’s Islamic Regime in Iran, Assad’s Syria, Maduro’s Venezuela, and now Xi Jinping’s China. She inverts reality and morality by speaking out for the supposed human rights of the perpetrator regimes, instead of speaking for their victims,” said Neuer.

(Watch Video: Alena Douhan at the conclusion of her May 2024 visit to China. “Unilateral sanctions against China do not conform with a broad number of international legal norms and cannot be justified as countermeasures under the law of international responsibility.”)

Prior to being selected for her post in March 2022, Douhan appeared on the 2017 biennial panel on unilateral coercive measures — dubbed the Mother of all Rogues’ Galleries — alongside other longtime UN apologists for dictators like  Jean Ziegler, Idris Jazairy and Alfred de Zayas.

In December 2022, when Iran was condemned at the UN for its assault on protesters in the wake of Mahsa Amini’s death, Douhan penned a letter to the United States blaming all of Iran’s problems on U.S. sanctions.

Douhan’s Office Took $200,000 From China

In 2021, Douhan received $200,000 from China at the same time as she helped the regime whitewash its ethnic cleansing of Uighur Muslims in Xinjiang, appearing at a Chinese regime propaganda event falsely portraying Xinjiang as a utopia. 

All of Douhan’s country visits to date — to Iran, Zimbabwe, Venezuela, Qatar, and Syria — have been propaganda opportunities for those regimes to whitewash their human rights abuses.

Her report on Syria, which she visited in 2022, commended the Assad regime for its “cooperation,” and declared that Western sanctions against the regime “may amount to a crime against humanity, against all Syrian people.”

[ferrolano-blog]

La guerra ilegal contra Venezuela de la que no se habla... Contra Venezuela se ha ejecutado una auténtica «guerra de hambre»... Los economistas Mark Weisbrot y Jeffrey Sachs calcularon los efectos de esa guerra económica: 40.000 muertes solo entre 2017 y 2018. Y la relatora especial de Naciones Unidas Alena Douhan informó que unos 2,5 millones de venezolanos sufrían de inseguridad alimentaria y 300.000 estaban en peligro de muerte por haber caído las importaciones en un 73%, debido a las sanciones y a pesar de que Venezuela tenía recursos para pagarlas... las sanciones provocaron que sólo pudiera funcionar el 20% del equipo hospitalario del país. Incluso se bloqueó el pago de vacunas contra el Covid para que el gobierno de Maduro no pudiera contar con ellas. Como dijeron Weisbrot y Sachs en su informe, las potencias occidentales han aplicado un «castigo colectivo de la población civil», algo condenado por las convenciones internacionales de Ginebra y de La Haya, contrario a las leyes internacionales y a la propia legislación interna estadounidense... Uno de los principales objetivos de la guerra económica contra Venezuela fue atacar y sabotear la labor de los llamados Comités Locales de Abastecimiento y Producción de Alimentos (CLAP), que trataban de proporcionar alimentos a bajo coste a la población. En 2016, 2019 y 2020 Estados Unidos estableció sanciones a las empresas que suministraran bienes o recursos a esos Comités... Si Venezuela se ha convertido en una especie de ogro o diablo al que se combate con tanta intensidad desde que Hugo Chávez comenzó a gobernar es, sencillamente, por algo que se oculta: Venezuela tiene las reservas de petróleo y de oro más grandes del planeta... lo que buscan quienes hacen la guerra contra Venezuela no es esto último, democracia y libertad, sino apoderarse de nuevo de sus inmensas riquezas naturales (Juan Torres López)

[tieflingkisser]

Withholding tax revenue and revoking banking waivers could paralyze Palestinian economy - UN experts warn

GENEVA, Thursday, April 25, 2024 (WAFA) - Unilaterally cutting off Palestinian banks from the global banking system would be a violation of the fundamental principles of international law, two UN experts warned today after an Israeli Minister threatened to revoke a protection waiver issued annually to two banks in Israel that maintain connections to Palestinian financial institutions. “Cutting off Palestinian banks from the global banking system unilaterally also violates the principle of sovereign equality of states, the principle of non-intervention into the domestic affairs of states, the principle of cooperation in good faith,” the experts said. “The impossibility of bank transfers will affect all people of Palestine indiscriminately, exacerbate the ongoing humanitarian catastrophe, and affect all fundamental human rights, including the right to food, right to water and sanitation, right to health, freedom from torture and the right to life.” The Palestinian economy runs on the Israeli shekel and its financial dealings with the rest of the world must go through the Israeli banking system. Isolating the Palestinian Authority from the financial world will cripple the Palestinian economy, the experts warned, recalling that the protection waivers guaranteed under the Oslo and Paris Accords. Since the 1990s peace accords, Israel has also collected tax revenue on behalf of Palestinians and transferred the funds to the Palestinian authority. A large portion of these funds is used for wage payments. Since 24 January 2024, the monthly tax revenue previously allocated to the Palestinian Authority’s public sector employees in Gaza has been transferred to a Norwegian-based trust account. However, the Norwegian fund cannot release the money to pay public sector employees in Gaza without Israel’s permission. “Because a significant proportion of taxes in the Palestinian Authority’s budget is collected by Israel, the Palestinian Authority is vulnerable to unilateral suspensions by Israel of transfers of clearance revenue, qualifying as unilateral coercive measures contrary to international law,” the experts said. The experts have established communication channels with the Israeli Government to address these concerns. They called for interim measures to prevent irreparable harm and potential breaches of international law. The experts are Professor Attiya Waris, an Independent Expert on Foreign Debt and human rights, and Professor Alena Douhan, a Special Rapporteur on the negative impact of unilateral coercive measures on the enjoyment of human rights. Special Procedures’ experts work on a voluntary basis; they are not UN staff and do not receive a salary for their work. They are independent from any government or organization and serve in their individual capacity.

[aquilestpd]

Alena Douhan, relatora de la ONU profundiza en un artículo sobre el impacto de las medidas coercitivas unilaterales y su daño humanitario.

[xtruss]

US ‘Cries Crocodile Tears’ About Quakes’ Impact on Syria While Stealing Oil and Keeping Crushing Sanctions in Place

Monday’s devastating earthquakes killed hundreds of Syrians and shattered critical infrastructure already battered by the West’s decade-long dirty war against the Middle Eastern nation. But Washington has refused to budge on its sanctions, which aptly bear the name of an ancient Roman emperor known for his cruelty.

The United States will not be lifting its Caesar Act sanctions or other restrictions against Syria following Monday’s quakes, State Department spokesman Ned Price has indicated.

“First, I would like to start today by echoing the president and secretary in expressing our deepest condolences (Bullshit) to the people of Turkey and Syria following the devastating earthquakes in Kahramanmaras, in southeastern Turkey,” Price said in a briefing Monday. “We stand in solidarity with our allies, our partners, and the people of Turkey and Syria affected by those terrible events.”

Price clarified that this “solidarity” doesn’t extend to the Syrian government. Asked why Washington wasn’t ready to coordinate aid with Damascus directly, the spokesman suggested that it “would be quite ironic, if not counterproductive, for us to reach out to a government that has brutalized its people over the course of a dozen years now.”

Instead, according to Price, the US will be working with “NGO partners on the ground,” who, “unlike the Syrian regime, are there to help the people rather than brutalize them.” The spokesman did not elaborate on just who these “partners on the ground” were, except to say that they will “need to have access to be able to go back and forth across the border” to provide help.

What is the Caesar Act?

Syria is being suffocated by Western sanctions, including the "Caesar Syria Civilian Protection Act," better known simply as the Caesar Act, a major piece of US legislation passed in late 2019 which targets the Syrian government and businesses with severe sanctions, and threatens punitive measures against any foreign individuals, businesses or countries cooperating with Damascus. While touted as being intended to “Punish” the Syrian government and President Bashar Assad for “war crimes” against the Syrian people, the law has in practice resulted in untold suffering among Syria’s civilian population by blocking imports of essential goods like food, energy, and basic medical supplies and equipment.

The Caesar Act is one of dozens of packages of US sanctions against Syria, with restrictions against the country going back as far as 1979. Syria is one of the most heavily sanctioned nations in the world, with over 2,600 sanctions in place against the country by the US and its European allies at this time.

The sanctions have served to dramatically worsen the socioeconomic crisis caused by the West’s long-running dirty war in the country, have affected the country’s neighbors and have sparked criticism even from anti-Assad media and governments over their cruel and indiscriminate nature.

Late last year, after a 12-day fact-finding trip to Syria, UN Special Rapporteur Alena Douhan urged Washington and its allies to immediately lift all “suffocating” unilateral sanctions against Syrians, saying she had been “struck by the pervasiveness of the human rights and humanitarian impact of the unilateral coercive measures” imposed against the country.

138 Earthquakes Recorded in Central Turkey Over Last 27 Hours - EMSC

‘Crocodile Tears’

“In the current situation, suspending sanctions would be an obvious and most helpful action to take for any Western government sincerely desiring to help, rather than posturing, political points scoring and crying crocodile tears,” Peter Ford, Britain’s former ambassador to Syria, told Sputnik when asked to comment on the US position.

“It has been clear for a long time that the US is more interested in regime change in Syria than in the welfare of the Syrian people,” Ford emphasized. “The cruel sanctions impact far more on ordinary citizens than on the Syrian government.”

US Theft of Syrian Oil Driving Diesel Prices Sky-High in Areas of Government Control

NGOs Can’t Match Effectiveness of the State in Aid Distribution

Dr. Imad Salamey, an associate professor of political science at the Lebanese American University, agrees that ignoring the Syrian government’s existence will limit the effectiveness of any US aid to the quake-stricken country.

“It’s always better as a general practice to work with the government rather than with different NGOs because the government has centralized power and can provide much more effective coordination,” Salamey explained. “Working with NGOs is an approach with many limitations, because NGOs are usually not accountable for the state as much as they are [to] a donor, and those donors can be foreign entities, so the NGOs end up not necessarily in the interest of the nation, but rather in the interest of the donor. In addition, NGOs are typically small organizations, and they don’t have much capacities to respond to major disasters or to respond to major humanitarian catastrophes,” the professor told Sputnik in an interview.

According to Dr. Salamey, the Caesar Act does have provisions for possible cooperation with Damascus in support of humanitarian relief objectives, but such cooperation “would require decisions from the White House,” which, judging by Price’s remarks, seem unlikely, because President Joe Biden doesn’t want to be taking a soft line on Assad.

Peter Ford was more blunt, saying the US would “naturally” prefer to continue working in Syria “through its own puppet NGOs like the White Helmets, whose primary purpose is not to help civilians but to whitewash the image of the jihadi controllers of northern Syria and thereby justify the continuing Western support for the armed opposition against the legitimate Syrian government.”

Ford characterized the State Department’s stance on direct aid as “the height of callousness,” stressing that “the most practical and effective course for delivering assistance” would be state-to-state support. “The US, with its ‘triple no’s’ of no sanctions lifting, no contact with the legitimate authorities and no coordination with them is clearly behaving hypocritically and selfishly,” Ford concluded.

US Intransigence Sparks Bewilderment, Condemnation

US and European silence on the provision of direct support to Syria has sparked criticism from countries, humanitarian agencies, and human rights advocacies around the world.

The Syrian branch of the International Committee of the Red Cross has called on the West to urgently lift restrictions. “We call for the lifting of the blockade and economic sanctions imposed on Syria in order to deal with the impact of the devastating earthquake,” Syrian Red Crescent chief Khaled Hboubati said in a press conference Tuesday. “We need heavy equipment, ambulances and fire brigades to speed up search and rescue operations. To do this, it’s necessary to remove sanctions against Syria as soon as possible,” the official said. The Red Crescent has expressed readiness to take aid from any country, except Israel.

The Middle East Council of Churches, a Beirut-headquartered group representing the Middle East’s Christian communities, has also called on the West to lift crushing restrictions and “allow access” for aid, “so that sanctions may not turn into a crime against humanity.”

The American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee, a US-based grassroots civil rights advocacy, is also calling for sanctions to be lifted, stressing that “time is of the essence” in the provision of “immediate relief to those in need.”

Iran – which has already dispatched a planeload of aid including food, medical, and sanitary supplies to Damascus, is calling on the international community to put pressure on Washington to change its course.

“The important point is that different countries must exert pressure on the US government to lift the cruel siege of Syria so that international humanitarian aid can be delivered to the quake-stricken people of Syria without any obstacles in the shortest possible time,” Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Nasser Kanaani said.

Potential Watershed Moment

Major Middle Eastern countries have demonstrably refused to toe the US line on post-quake assistance to Syria, with Egypt, Algeria, Tunisia, Iraq, Bahrain, Saudi Arabia, Oman, Qatar and the United Arab Emirates joining traditional Syrian allies Iran and Russia in providing aid, or expressing readiness to do so. On Tuesday, Egyptian President Abdel el-Sisi spoke to President Assad by phone, offering condolences and pledging Cairo’s “full support” for relief efforts. The call was the first of its kind since el-Sisi came to power in 2014.

Commenting on these surprise developments, Syrian political scientist Hassan Yousef expressed hope that the "humanitarian aid delivered by all these countries could become an important starting point for improving relations between all Arab countries in the region," and for mending ties between Damascus and countries which had once joined forces with Washington in trying to overthrow the Syrian government.

"The resumption of peaceful inter-Arab relations is what everyone hopes for anyway, even without earthquakes or other natural disasters," Yousef said in an interview with Sputnik Arabic.

Lebanese military expert and retired general Omar Al-Mughrabi echoed Yousef's sentiment, saying that while the "politicization" of relief efforts demonstrated the "barbaric" "true face of the collective West" in relation to Syria, the apparent unity shown by the leaders of Arab countries by contrast gives rise to questions whether the disaster could become a factor for regional reconciliation, and perhaps even accelerate Damascus's return to the Arab League.

Veteran Syrian political commentator Alla Al-Asfari believes the answer is 'no', because the majority of the countries of the Persian Gulf lack the political will to make independent decisions due to US pressure and fear of US wrath, even if they would like to see a rapprochement in ties with Syria.

Al-Asfari nevertheless calls for a "united Arab position and united actions demanding the lifting of these unfair sanctions so that Syria can continue rescue operations, since hundreds of citizens are still trapped under the rubble while civil defenses are forced to rescue them using simple and primitive tools."

Asked to comment on Riyadh's surprise display of solidarity with Damascus in the wake of the quakes, Saudi political scientist and strategic affairs researcher Fawaz Kaseb Al-Enezi explained to Sputnik Arabic that the kingdom "always separates its humanitarian positions from political ones," with food, medical and financial aid to Syria based on concerns "about Arab national security, which can be threatened by such natural disasters."

A 7.7-magnitude earthquake struck southeastern Turkey on Monday morning, with devastation spreading out from the Turkish epicenter into neighboring Syria. A second quake measuring 7.5 on the Richter scale hit several hours later. On Tuesday, a third, 5.5 magnitude quake hit central Turkey. Over 3,500 people in Turkey were killed in the disaster, with 20,000+ injured. Syrian authorities have reported over 800 fatalities and 1,400+ injuries in government-controlled areas of the country, with over 700 more people feared dead in Idlib – the Syrian province controlled by US and Turkish-backed jihadists.

Turkey's Earthquake Death Toll Tops 5,400, Over 31,000 People Injured

— Sputnik | Monday February 07, 2023

[fuckyeahmarxismleninism]

At a press conference in Caracas, the UN independent expert urged Washington to reconsider and remove all sanctions against the Venezuelan public sector and to refrain from imposing blockades on the South American nation.

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Informe preliminar sobre Venezuela de la señora Alena Douhan de la ONU, dos correcciones de fondo. Por Pasqualina Curcio

Informe preliminar sobre Venezuela de la señora Alena Douhan de la ONU, dos correcciones de fondo. Por Pasqualina Curcio

El informe presentado por la Sra. Alena Douhan, relatora especial especial de la Organización de las Naciones Unidas (ONU), sobre el impacto negativo de las medidas coercitivas unilaterales contra los Derechos Humanos, ilustra de manera descarnada el impacto del bloqueo económico, no solo sobre la economía, sino principalmente sobre las condiciones de vida del pueblo venezolano ante la dificultad…

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U.N. Experts Urge the U.S. to Stop  Actions Adverse to Cuba

U.N. experts called on the U.S. to remove Cuba from its list of state sponsors of terrorism and to end the U.S. embargo  of the island. They also warned of the U.S. expansion of restrictions against Cuba that will add additional constraints on the island and impose adverse effects on its capacity to meet the needs of the Cuban people.[1] “These additional trade restrictions expanded the list of…

[dempameat]

国連監視団体「UNウオッチ」は19日、国連のアリーナ・ドゥハン特別報告者が2021年に中国から20万ドル（約2560万円）を受け取る一方、同国がイスラム系少数民族ウイグル人に対する「民族浄化を隠蔽（いんぺい）するのを支援」したと非難し、返金を求めた。

��ドゥハン氏はベラルーシ人法学者。2020年3月、国連人権理事会から特別報告者に任命された。一方的な制裁の負の影響を専門とする。国連特別報告者の主張は必ずしも国連の見解を反映するものではない。

[pasparal]

Tulsi Gabbard calls out the US dirty war on Syria that Biden, aides admit to

By The Grayzone

While Joe Biden has faced some mild Congressional pushback for bombing the Iraq-Syria border, Tulsi Gabbard says her former colleagues are ignoring the larger issue: the ongoing US dirty war on Syria. After a decade of proxy warfare that empowered Al Qaeda and ISIS, the US is now occupying one-third of Syria and imposing crippling sanctions that are crushing Syria's economy and preventing reconstruction.

While Gabbard has been vilified for her stance on Syria, many top White House officials -- including Joe Biden himself -- have already acknowledged the same facts that she has called out. Aaron Maté plays clips of Biden and some of his most senior aides admitting to the horrific realities of the US dirty war on Syria, and argues that Gabbard only stands apart in being wiling to criticize it.

Featuring video clips from: Tulsi Gabbard, former Democratic Congressmember; President Joe Biden; Brett McGurk, National Security Council coordinator for the Middle East and North Africa; Martin Dempsey, former Joint Chiefs chairman; Rob Malley, Special Envoy for Iran; John Kerry, Special Envoy for Climate & former Secretary of State; former President Donald Trump; Alena Douhan, UN Special Rapporteur on Sanctions; Dana Stroul, Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for Middle East; Vice President Kamala Harris.

[ferrolano-blog]

El bloqueo impuesto a Venezuela ha tenido efectos devastadores... el relator especial para la ONU, Alfred de Zayas, calculó que 100 mil venezolanos habrían muerto como resultado de las sanciones. Dos años después, la relatora especial de la ONU, Alena Douhan, detalló cómo el embargo a la industria petrolera, las sanciones secundarias, la apropiación de bienes venezolanos en el extranjero y la negativa de bancos a tratar con el país por miedo a represalias, han devastado los sistemas de alimentación, de salud, de educación, de infraestructura y han propiciado una enorme emigración... los recursos que se perdieron debido a esta guerra económica hubieran alcanzado para importar alimentos y medicinas suficientes para 45 años o para financiar el sistema de salud público y privado por 29 años