IMPRESS-U Call Partner Search Tool

General Information

• Type: Partner looking for project
• Organisation: Cardinal Stefan Wyszyński University in Warsaw
• Country: Poland (PL)

Research area

• NSF calls:
  • EAGER
  • International Supplements
• Keywords:

  international law; unilateral sanctions; economic sanctions; human rights

• Brief description of your expertise / expertise you are looking for:

  I am a Phd student, who does her research in the area of international law, with particular focus on unilateral sanctions, their impact on human rights, and the principle of non-recognition of unlawful situations as a means to challenge imposed unilateral sanctions.

• Brief description of your project / the project you would like to join:

  Recent decades have witnessed the shift from the comprehensive economic sanctions, as the reaction to a threat to international peace, toward the so-called targeted or «smart» sanctions. One of the features of this movement should be declared an adoption of targeted sanctions by states individually or collectively outside the framework of the UN despite the provisions of the UN Charter, which empowers exclusively the Security Council to take either military or non-military action in order to restore international peace and security (articles 39–43). As the examples may serve the imposition of sanctions on Islamic Republic of Iran (1979–present), Cuba (1960–present), Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela (2005– present), Russian Federation (2014–present), Qatar (2017–present), etc. These tendencies raise serious concerns among international community, which are explained by a plethora of reasons ranging from the ambiguities in understanding the nature of the sanctions in general to the questionable legitimacy of unilateral sanctions under international law and the implications of their extraterritorial application, which may constitute breaches of international law commitments. In particular, in her reports Special Rapporteur A. Douhan repeatedly drew attention on unlawfulness of unilateral sanctions and such results of their implementation as the violation of all categories of economic, social and cultural rights in targeted States, namely: - the right to life and health; - the right to food; - the right to an adequate standard of living; - the right to education; - the right to development; - the right to a healthy environment. However, despite Special Rapporteur\'s recommendation to lift, suspend or minimize any unilateral coercive measures, the same as steady expressed concerns of the UN General Assembly about the fact that coercive measures continue to be promulgating and applying, observed trends do not indicate States abandoning the resort to unilateral sanctions. Simultaneously, the contemporary system of international law does not provide individuals, whose rights were infringed by unilateral sanctions, with a comprehensive mechanism for the protection. Rather the opposite, the system provides individuals with limited protection mechanisms, which may include diplomatic protection by States, as in the case of Qatar when it instituted proceedings before the International Court of Justice, the Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination, the Universal Postal Union and through individual appeals to regional courts. These facts gave a rise to discussion about reforming the existing and creating new mechanisms «for assessing and/or promoting accountability with regard to unilateral coercive measures that adversely affect the enjoyment of human rights». Nonetheless, the perspectives of identifying appropriate and effective mechanisms for these purposes and their final establishment does not seem realistic since this would demand collective efforts of most of States, including those of them who do not hesitate to impose unilateral sanctions and do not seek ways of limitations of this their practice. In this regard, some international law practitioners tend to consider already existing under international law principle, that impose an obligation of non-recognition of unlawful situations on States, as a possible legal basis for ensuring the protection of human rights violated by unilateral sanctions. At the same time, it is worth noting that there is unclearness regarding the content of the principle of non-recognition of unlawful situations and the practice of non-recognition both in theory and practice of international law. Thereby, the hypothesis about the principle of non-recognition of unlawful situations as a a legal basis for an obligation to resist the extraterritorial application of unilateral sanctions was chosen as the subject of the present research project and, in particular, due to: - the persistent violations of human rights by application of unilateral sanctions; - the need of developing instruments, which will be able to ensure the adequate protection of infringed human rights; - the unclarity and ambiguity of the principle of non-recognition of unlawful situations in international law; - the lack of sustainable practice of States` resistance to the application of unilateral sanctions grounding on the principle of non-recognition of unlawful situations; - the lack of scientific research devoted to this issue.

Yelyzaveta Karliuha

• Organisation: Cardinal Stefan Wyszyński University in Warsaw
• Position: a Phd student
• E-mail: llizakarlyuga@gmail.com
• Phone: +48574181406