UN General Assembly
2001

that it has become a tool for implementing the policies of one single State; and that it now stands as a glaring model practitioner of double standards. Suffice it to cite, as just one example among many, the fact that the comprehensive sanctions imposed by the Council on Iraq constitute a flagrant violation of the Charter and the mandate of the Council. This was admitted by the United Nations itself, as stated in the report entitled “The right to food”, submitted under cover of the Secretary-General’s note of 23 July 2001, in which the Special Rapporteur of the Commission on Human Rights on the right to food said: “There can be little doubt that subjecting the Iraqi people to a harsh economic embargo since 1991 has placed the United Nations in a clear violation of the obligation to respect the right to food of people in Iraq.” (A/56/210, para. 56) Likewise, the expert of the Subcommission on the Promotion and Protection of Human Rights had this to say on the subject in a report dated 21 June 2000: