全球各地律师喊话拜登：“别再搞单边经济制裁，惩罚的是平民”

Hundreds of lawyers from around the world called on the US to end the use of unilateral economic sanctions, saying the tool amounts to collective punishment of civilians and is illegal under international law.

In a letter to US President Joe Biden, the lawyers, legal organizations and scholars decried the US's increased reliance on sanctions to punish and coerce its adversaries and said the measures can lead to economic instability, hunger and reduced access to medicine and essential goods.

“Collective punishment is a standard practice of US foreign policy today in the form of broad, unilateral economic and financial sanctions,” the signatories said. While the use of sanctions is different from conventional warfare, “its collective impact on civilians can be just as indiscriminate, punitive, and deadly,” they said.

The letter amounts to an attempt to push back against successive administrations’ increased reliance on financial sanctions instead of military force to punish countries such as Russia and Iran. Waves of sanctions have now choked off Russia, Iran, Syria, Venezuela and many other countries from the global economy, though many regimes have found workarounds to stay afloat.

US officials generally cite humanitarian exemptions to broad economic sanctions, saying government actions are carefully calibrated to avoid harming civilians. 

Still, humanitarian organizations complain that the sanctions make it more difficult to aid civilians, and blame sanctions for instability and poverty in Venezuela, Cuba and other nations that have led to increased migrant flows to the US.

“The United States does not consider itself to be at war with these states that it's imposing sanctions on, and nevertheless is doing things that have effects that states have outlawed even in the context of war,” said Ntina Tzouvala, associate professor at the Australian National University College of Law.

The letter-writers said sanctions are often meant to punish innocent people. They point to a 1960 State Department memo suggesting that economic desperation and hunger could spur regime change in Cuba.

More recently, the authors quote then-Secretary of State Mike Pompeo as saying poor living conditions in Iran could spur popular revolt against the regime.

“Civilian suffering is not merely an incidental cost of these policies, but often their very intent,” the writers said.

While the letter may not yield a policy shift from the outgoing Biden administration, its signers hope to raise awareness not only among policymakers but within the general public.