International Sanctions - Sanctions in International Law

Sanctions in International Law

Entities favorable to the target of another government's sanctions may claim that sanctions imposed by single countries or by an intergovernmental body like the United Nations are "illegal" or "criminal" due to, in the case of economic sanctions, the Right to development or, in the case of military sanctions, the Right of self-defense.

A 1996 report by International Progress Organization criticized sanctions as "an illegitimate form of collective punishment of the weakest and poorest members of society, the infants, the children, the chronically ill, and the elderly."