Sanctions by West hamper aid missions

Sanctions imposed by the West, particularly the United States, on some Middle Eastern countries are not only hurting people's right to health and crippling access to basic necessities, but they are also making things more difficult for humanitarian aid workers in carrying out relief work, experts say.

They said aid organizations in some cases overcomply with sanctions rather than risk hefty fines.

Alena Douhan, the United Nations' special rapporteur on the negative impact of unilateral coercive measures on the enjoyment of human rights, said one of the problems that nongovernmental organizations face is the failure to understand which sanctions are imposed against a specific country.

In a global appeal, the UN has repeatedly urged a rethink on sanctions due to their impact on people's health and other rights.

It warned last year that an overcompliance with US sanctions was harming "butterfly kids"－children suffering a life-threatening skin condition－in Iran. Similarly, the UN had expressed worries that a variety of sanctions on countries such as Afghanistan, Cuba, the Democratic People's Republic of Korea, Venezuela and Zimbabwe may also impede medical efforts and relief.

Some efforts have been made to ease humanitarian activity. The UN Security Council unanimously adopted a resolution in December seeking to clear the way for aid to reach the Afghan people who are in desperate need of basic support, while preventing the Taliban from obtaining funds.

Douhan said if one often speaks about the application of unilateral sanctions, some countries may say such sanctions target a number of names. In practice, these names are usually those of senior state officials who oversee their countries' economies.

"Therefore, the position of any third country or third-country bank or company (is that if) the whole sector of the economy is under a sanctions regime, they reject to deal with them," Douhan said.

Rasha Al Joundy, a research supervisor at the Dubai Public Policy Research Center, said the primary purpose of sanctions is to prevent financing for terror activities or constrain regimes that are perceived to violate human rights and commit atrocities against civilians.

'Society weakened'

Abdulghani Al-Iryani, who previously worked with the UN in the Office of the Special Envoy of the Secretary-General for Yemen, said sanctions "punish the population for the crimes of the leaders" and weaken society, making it easier for authoritarian leaders to control their people.

Douhan said when governments are deprived of all resources－denying countries the chance to "interact normally with other states", constrain their ability to bring in necessary medical equipment, food, basic goods or machinery, or do bank transfers, it results in nontransparency, and ultimately, "the rising vulnerability of the people".

Hussein Hassan, an international aid worker, hopes there could be a unified mechanism without the hassle and prior conditions in which funds can be available in countries where humanitarian workers are serving. "Securing the commitment and confirmation of funds is not the end of the story, but accessing those funds and making sure those funds are utilized in a timely manner are the most important thing," Hassan said.