MOSCOW (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 29th December, 2020) UN Special Rapporteur on Negative Impact of Unilateral Coercive Measures on Human Rights Alena Douhan urged the United States to lift its latest sanctions on Syria, saying they undermine the country's reconstruction efforts, the UN Office of the High Commissioner for Human Right said Tuesday.
In June, Washington imposed additional sanctions on Syria under the Caesar Syria Civilian Protection Act, potentially targeting anyone involved in helping to restore the war-torn country.
"UN human rights expert Alena Douhan today called on the United States to remove unilateral sanctions which may inhibit rebuilding of Syria's civilian infrastructure destroyed by the conflict," the office said in a statement.
The UN official noted that when announced the act was promised not to harm the country's civilian population.
"Yet enforcement of the Act may worsen the existing humanitarian crisis, depriving the Syrian people of the chance to rebuild their basic infrastructure," Douhan said as quoted in the statement.
The rapporteur went on to raise concerns over the act undermining the Syrian people's rights to health and housing.
"The U.S. government must not put obstacles in the way of rebuilding of hospitals because lack of medical care threatens the entire population's very right to life," Douhan continued.
Syria has been engulfed in a protracted civil war since 2011, with the Syrian government's forces fighting against various insurgent groups, devastating the country's economy and infrastructure in the process.
