Call For Lifting Of Sanctions

The UN's Special Rapporteur on the Right to Food has called (31 March 2020) for the immediate lifting of international sanctions to prevent hunger crises in countries hit by the COVID-19 pandemic.

"The continued imposition of crippling economic sanctions on Syria, Venezuela, Iran, Cuba, and, to a lesser degree, Zimbabwe, to name the most prominent instances, severely undermines the ordinary citizens' fundamental right to sufficient and adequate food," said Hilal Elver.

"These countries are already under stress and cannot handle the additional burden of sanctions. As the world exhibits new bonds of solidarity in response to the pandemic, it is now a matter of humanitarian and practical urgency to lift unilateral economic sanctions immediately."