According to its organizers, this meeting is one of the emblematic events scheduled for this month at the Security Council under the presidency of Russia, a country that has opposed sanctions and unilateral coercive measures several times.

A report by the UN Under-Secretary-General for Political and Peacebuilding Affairs, Rosemary DiCarlo, is expected at this session.

Since the outbreak of the pandemic, UN Secretary General António Guterres has urged to lift unilateral sanctions imposed on several States, which hamper and hinder the fight against Covid-19 and prevent the promotion and enjoyment of all human rights.

UN independent experts also condemned those coercive measures and called on the nations that impose sanctions to lift them as soon as possible or, at least, to reduce them to the minimum.

Nations on which sanctions have been imposed such as Cuba, Venezuela, Syria and Iran cannot procure essential services amid the pandemic, including medicines, food, electricity, water and fuel, the rapporteurs wrote in a report.

States must implement the principle of precaution when unilateral sanctions are adopted to prevent a negative humanitarian impact, the experts said and called for the end of punishment of innocent civilians.

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