Syrian Law Journal:
You have written extensively about the illegality under international humanitarian law of US and Western economic sanctions targeting Syria's civilian population. Could you please elaborate more on this subject? Can Syrians, especially the legal community, challenge these sanctions and if so, in what forum?
Dr. Lamb:
Yes. I firmly believe these US-led civilian targeting sanctions can be successfully challenged in various legal venues by Syrian lawyers and I have discussed this subject with specialized practitioners at The Hague and elsewhere, who agree. These sanctions constitute war crimes also punishable before a special tribunal for Syria with universal jurisdiction, which is virtually certain to be established. But it is not necessary to wait for a STS to be established. Accountability measures should be filed immediately.
International and national legal jurisdictions and established tribunals are available where a Syrian-led legal team can file a class action lawsuit on behalf of Syria civilian victims of the continuing US and Western sanctions. War crimes being committed in Syria include economic sanctions that target civilians, the most draconian ever imposed by the United States or any other country. These sanctions massively violate many principles, standards and rules of international humanitarian law, customary law and the UN Charter designed to protect civilian populations during armed conflicts, due to their damaging effects on the health of non-belligerent civilians. The severe US-led sanctions regime indeed constitutes a form of collective punishment of the weakest and poorest members of society: infants, children, the chronically ill, and the elderly.
US-led sanctions targeting Syria are the face of economic strangulation. History teaches that the claimed targets - the military and political leaderships -, will easily insulate themselves from its consequences, and place a disproportionate burden on the civilian population. History also teaches that economic sanctions will consolidate the state's power rather than undermine it and economic sanctions are unlikely to stop military aggression, or stop human rights violations, or achieve compliance with any political or military demand, even when sanctions drag on for decades.
While economic sanctions are rapidly becoming one of the major tools of international governance of the post-Cold War era, I would argue that economic sanctions, like a siege, intend harm to civilians and therefore cannot be justified as a tool of warfare. The history of US-led sanctions demonstrates that they are not a device that keeps the peace and enforces international law. Those who travel in Syria these days constantly observe countless examples of how these sanctions have devastated civilian lives. These effects include rampant inflation, with skyrocketing costs for nearly every consumer food and quality of life items. They are also blocking Syrians from repairing electricity infrastructure, health care facilities, access to fuel, the transport network and wider reconstruction.
Moreover, it is unlikely that on a specific day Syria as a whole will move from war to peace. Unless addressed now, the impact of sanctions will last well after the sanctions are either removed or modified, and may create a new catastrophe in terms of crippling economic and humanitarian effects and war crimes to be judged.
To the extent that sanctions deprive the most vulnerable and least political sectors of society of the food, drinkable water, medical care, and fuel necessary for survival and basic human needs, sanctions should be subject to the same international humanitarian legal standards as siege warfare, which I argue should be adjudicated as war crimes. US-led sanctions targeting Syria are imposing an economic siege which the UN claims is contributing to the killing of as many Syrians as those who have died from weapons. The civilian population is dying of illness and malnutrition. There is little doubt that the US-led sanctions will increase quality of life pressure on most who still remain in Syria.
The United Nations and International NGOs working in Syria are also expert on the effects on US-led, civilian-targeting sanctions. A recently leaked report from The UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs in Syria, (UNOCHA), entitled Humanitarian Impact of Syria-Related Unilateral Restrictive Measures (aka US-led Sanctions) constitutes a strong indictment of the effects of US and EU sanctions on the civilian population of Syria. Aid agencies cited in the report complain, for example, that they cannot procure basic medicines or medical equipment for hospitals because sanctions are preventing foreign commercial companies and banks from any dealings with Syria.
Successful litigation could immediately suspend the sanctions via temporary injunctions and interim orders of protection. Adjudication by the proper tribunal/s could end many of the US and Western economic sanctions targeting Syria's civilian population and possibly result in financial penalties payable to Syria's government to compensate her citizens.
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