Illegal and unreasonable, the unilateral coercive measures are a tumor of human society, and China urges the U.S. and some other Western countries to face squarely the international appeal for justice and immediately cancel such measures to practice true multilateralism with concrete actions, Dai Bing, China's deputy permanent representative to the United Nations (UN), said on Wednesday.

Dai was speaking during the side event of the Group of Friends in Defense of the Charter of the UN on the Negative Impact of Unilateral Coercive Measures on Human Rights.

The international community has all along voiced its consistent opposition to unilateral coercive measures, Dai said, and China calls on member states, the UN system and other international organizations to provide sufficient support to sanctioned countries to alleviate their practical difficulties.

Violating the UN Charter and international law

Dai said unilateral coercive measures, initiated by individual countries based on their domestic laws and those countries' abuse of long-arm jurisdiction, seriously violate the purposes and principles of the UN Charter, the fundamental principle of sovereign equality in international law and the basic norm of non-interference in international relations.

Some countries even attempt to use those measures to suppress the legitimate governments of the countries concerned and instigate "color revolutions" for regime changes, which poses a serious threat to world peace and stability, he added.

Undermining basic human rights

"The unilateral coercive measures by the U.S. and some other Western countries under the pretext of human rights are, in fact, a violation of the human rights in other countries," Dai said.

He said the abuse of those measures by Western countries has seriously infringed upon the rights to subsistence, health, development and education for people in the affected countries.

Those measures have led to the increased mortality rate for women and newborns in the countries concerned, creating greater difficulties for people with disabilities to access rehabilitation equipment and for students to use video conferencing services for distance learning, he said.

Dai said those Western countries must be held responsible and accountable for the systematic violation of human rights caused by their unilateral coercive measures.

Exacerbating global crises

The abuse of sanction measures by some individual countries, like imposing trade bans, blocking financial investments and interfering with markets, is disrupting international economic, trade and technological cooperation, gravely threatening global food, energy and financial security and exacerbating the livelihood difficulties for developing countries, even resulting in humanitarian disasters in some vulnerable countries, he said.

Unilateral coercive measures also cause severe damage to the harmony and stability of international relations, Dai said, adding that even ordinary activities, such as paying UN dues and attending UN meetings in New York City, have been affected by those measures, and such practices should be condemned.

"China always stands on the side of multilateralism and on the side of fairness and justice," Dai said, adding that China calls on the international community to pay great attention to the measures' negative impacts, reject such illegal behavior and work together for a better world where everyone can equally enjoy human rights.

(Cover: Dai Bing, China's deputy permanent representative to the UN, addresses attendees at the side event of the Group of Friends in Defense of the Charter of the UN on the Negative Impact of Unilateral Coercive Measures on Human Rights in New York, U.S., October 12, 2022. / Permanent Mission of the People's Republic of China to the UN)