SANCTIONS, COLLECTIVE PUNISHMENT AND VIOLATIONS OF RIGHT TO FREEDOM OF MOVEMENT OPEN LETTER TO UN
ΕΝΩΜΕΝΟ ΡΕΠΟΥΜΠΛΙΚΑΝΙΚΟ ΚΟΜΜΑ ΚΥΠΡΟΥ
UNITED CYPRUS REPUBLICAN PARTY
OPEN LETTER
December 01, 2023
United Nations
Mr. Volker Türk
The Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR)
Geneva, Switzerland
Dear Sir, Madam,
Re Sanctions, collective punishment and violation of right to freedom of movement
We are all witnessing mass commissioning of internationally wrong acts by various governments when under sanctions regime their own civilians are effectively used as a weapon against adversary governments. As the law of armed conflict unconditionally bans and forbids collective punishment some state actors evidently decided to refrain from declaring an armed conflict state of affairs to justify the effective use of their population as a weapon. This is a grave violation of the UN Charter, which says it its preamble: WE THE PEOPLES OF THE UNITED NATIONS DETERMINED ... to reaffirm faith in fundamental human rights … HAVE RESOLVED TO COMBINE OUR EFFORTS TO ACCOMPLISH THESE AIMS.
The citizens of many countries condemned collective punishment and even voted for a new government. For instance, on 13 November 2023, the new Government of the Slovak Republic approved its manifesto which says:
Proposals to impose sanctions against any state will be evaluated
based on the analyses of their effectiveness in achieving the intended objectives
and, in particular, on the basis of their economic and social impact on the citizens of Slovakia
The United Cyprus Republican Party (ERKK) received hundreds of signed human rights violations complaints from Cyprus citizens about the open-ended decision by the Government of Cyprus dated February 27, 2022 to effectively ban direct flights between Cyprus and Russia (NOTAM dated 27.02.2022 is enclosed as Annex 1). Thousands more filed online petition within campaign, initiated by a Cypriot Michael Philaniotis, to resume direct flights between Russia and Cyprus. Citizens of Cyprus are determined that no government is in position to disregard the impact of sanctions on the citizens and to infringe their fundamental human rights, including the right to freedom of movement enshrined in article 13 of Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR).
For the sake of impartiality it must be noted that the Government of Cyprus reportedly made a written reservation to review its decision to follow the EU’s policy on the ban on Russian aircraft into its airspace if Turkey refuses to follow suit. But the fact is that such reservation become a dead one.
The Notice to Airman (NOTAM dated 27.02.2022) contains exemption of humanitarian flights from a general flights ban, and ERKK already raised the matter before the Government of Cyprus to invoke this exemption just to hear the reply that as long as hypothetical possibility to fly to and from Cyprus to Russia exists via third countries the humanitarian exemption can not be invoked. One would argue that it will always be a hypothetical possibility to move from one place to another via various transit points in a style of war correspondent. But this is not what is written in the article 13 of UDHR.
Article 13 of UDHR reads as follows:
1. Everyone has the right to freedom of movement and residence within the borders of each state.
2. Everyone has the right to leave any country, including his own, and to return to his country.
It is necessary to introduce to the peoples an effective mechanism of implementations of humanitarian exemptions.
ERKK recognizes the right of any Government to restrain freedom of movement in times of war. But then the Government is restrained by the law of an armed conflict and still must uphold the fundamental human rights. In time of peace no government should get involved in banning civilian aircrafts, to disregard the impact of sanctions on its citizens and hence indirectly infringe the fundamental human right of its citizens to the freedom of movement.
The issue of civilian aviation ban as a form of collective punishment is effecting millions of people in many parts of the world. Cyprus is more than any other country effected by civil aviation ban, due to its geographical position as island and because of the unignorable fact that the population of Cyprus has close historical and social interconnection with Russia via mixed families, similar dominant Christian Orthodox religion and similar culture.
The civil aviation ban as unilateral coercive measure must be urgently and strongly condemned by the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights and by the Special Rapporteur on the negative impact of unilateral coercive measures on the enjoyment of human rights.
Encl/
Sincerely,
Nicolaos Khovrin Komnenos
General Secretary
United Cyprus Republican Party
Comments
Post a Comment