Unilateral Economic Sanctions: Immorality and Arrogance of Great Power Politics

President of International Progress Organization delivers keynote speech at global town hall debate

Vienna, 9 May 2021
RE/27993c-is

At an international civil society conference on global threats and challenges, organized by the Germany-based Schiller Institute, the President of the International Progress Organization (I.P.O.), Dr. Hans Köchler, yesterday criticized the excessive use of unilateral sanctions in today’s global system. Characterizing sanctions as “conduct of war by other means,” he said that, in the absence of a global balance of power, economic coercion has become “a tool of choice in a new version of asymmetric warfare” where the intervening state “intends to achieve maximum results with minimum risk for itself.” Focusing on the illegality of unilateral sanctions as a tool of power politics, Dr. Köchler criticized the punitive measures imposed by the United States on Syria and Yemen that have further aggravated the suffering of the people under conditions of a devastating civil war and are actually prolonging the conflicts in both countries. The President of the I.P.O. said that the noble principles of human rights would be utterly meaningless if we allow governments to continue with punishing entire peoples under the guise of human rights protection.

The global town hall debate on "The Moral Collapse of the Trans-Atlantic World and the Quest for a New Paradigm" was moderated by Mr. Harley Schlanger, Vice-President of the Schiller Institute USA. In two panels, speakers from Afghanistan, Austria, France, Japan, Germany, Netherlands, Peru and Syria addressed the threats to global peace and the need for reform of the system of international relations. Among the keynote speakers were Dr. Bouthaina Shaaban, Political and Media Advisor to the Syrian Presidency, Col. Richard H. Black, former head of the US Army’s Criminal Law Division at the Pentagon, Mr. Sayed Mujtaba Ahmadi, Deputy Chief of Mission, Embassy of Afghanistan in Canada, Prof. Éric Denécé, Director, French Center for Intelligence Research, Mr. Daisuke Kotegawa, former Director for Japan at the International Monetary Fund (IMF), and Dr. Joycelyn Elders, former Surgeon General of the United States.

Transcript of speech