بسم الله الرحمن الرحیم Statement By H.E. Ambassador Esmaeil Baghaei Hamaneh Permanent Representative of the Islamic Republic of Iran To the United Nations Office and other international organizations in Geneva To “The LMG Ambassadorial meeting with the Special Rapporteur on the negative impacts of unilateral coercive measures on enjoyment of human rights” Geneva, 30 June 2022   Mr. Coordinator, Dear colleagues, Madam Special Rapporteur,             I have the honor to address all my esteemed colleagues in this very timely meeting.  We are deeply appreciative of the efforts Madam Special Rapporteur has made in discharging her mandate.  The pandemics has created a new momentum to recognize the utterly senseless nature of unilateral coercive measures and their lethal impacts on the affected populations.  It is a high time that the international community recognizing the extreme cruelty and illegality of UCMs as they are truly the most inhuman weapons of mass destruction. As it has been truly confirmed in the preliminary findings of her country visit to Iran, in 18th of May, Madam Douhan found that “despite the humanitarian exceptions, the ban on money transfer in the sanctions, hinders the purchase of medicines from foreign laboratories and even the UN agencies cannot provide the necessary medical assistance.” Any reference to existence of “humanitarian exception” is nothing but a big lie and a mere illusion. The measures which the United States have taken against targeted States have substantially extraterritorial effects and are unlawful under international law, as they unduly affect the interests of natural and legal third persons engaging in trade and related commercial activities with the targeted States. It is revealed now more than ever that due to the extraterritorial application of US sanctions, many Iranian diplomats in the European countries have been denied the right to access to e-banking cards, and the Missions have had many difficulties in payment of their salaries and of their living expenses. As she reaffirmed in her preliminary report, “foreign diplomats posted in Iran have not been able to transfer money from their banks at home to Iran” and “preventing Iranian diplomatic, consular and special missions and staff members from opening and maintaining bank accounts and exercising diplomatic and consular functions do not conform to provisions of the Vienna conventions on diplomatic and consular relations.” Here, I would like to stress the necessity of developing a legal doctrine with regards to the unilateral coercive measures in order to address the illegality and illegitimacy of UCMs in international legal literature. We believe that the most important issue that must be addressed in every future endeavors by the esteemed Special Rapporteur is the issue of “accountability” of those States that apply UCMs and those who fully comply with them. States have an obligation under international law not to give any effect/ recognition to other States’ wrongful acts; States must ensure that their sovereign rights and privileges as well as their international human rights obligations are not compromised as the result of their passive application of secondary sanctions imposed by foreign States. Otherwise they could be held to account as complicit in the crime. We urgently request for addressing the necessity of raising awareness among all relevant States and intergovernmental humanitarian and human rights forums as well as international bodies, in order to comprehensively address all different areas affected by the unjust and unlawful imposition of UCMs.   I thank you