The News International: UN committee to look into Pak-Iran gas deal impact

Help is at hand from an unexpected source for the Pak-Iran Gas Pipeline Project. Professor Jean Ziegler, Chairman of the UN Human Rights Council Advisory Committee has asked his Committee to prepare a case study to ascertain how the US sanctions against Iran are violating the human rights of Pakistanis. The committee held its 12th session in Geneva recently and discussed the impact of unilateral coercive measures on human rights. Unilateral coercive measures usually refer to economic actions, such as sanctions, taken by one state to compel a change in the policy of another state and could have potentially severe effects on human rights in the targeted state as well as other non-targeted states.

Ahmer Bilal Soofi former Federal Law Minister and renowned international law expert, who arrived from Geneva on Monday, told The News: “This is perhaps for the first time that a human rights perspective in the context of Iran-Gas Pipeline has been highlighted at a UN forum. It provides an interesting option to the government of Pakistan to take up with the US government and explain to them the impact of sanctions on a non-target State like Pakistan and its economy”. The said report, once finalized by the group of experts in the working group, will be presented to the UN Human Rights Council and will bring to the attention of the international community a unique and unfair aspect of the unilateral sanctions regime. In this regard, Soofi was appointed Vice-President for the Asia Group of the Committee. MORE

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