International economic sanctions and fundamental rights: Friend or foe?

Abstract

After a short presentation of what is generally meant by “economic sanctions” (Sect. 9.2), this paper will focus on a single question, which is to know if, and to what extent, fundamental human rights (which, in this paper, will be considered as including human rights law and humanitarian law) affect the recourse to, and the practice of, economic sanctions in international relations. Upon analysis, it will be explained that the violation of fundamental rights can be a trigger for the adoption of “smart” economic sanctions (Sect. 9.3) but on the reverse that the protection of fundamental rights is also a strong argument to deny the legality of such sanctions (Sect. 9.4). Finally, it will be concluded that if international human rights and humanitarian law does influence the practice of international economic sanctions, this is still to a (too) limited extent (section “Conclusion”).