DISINFO: The UN opposes sanctions, which are illegal and aren’t part of international law
SUMMARY
The policy of sanctions is now an everyday occurrence, despite the stance of the UN against this kind of tools, which are illegal. They are against the international law, but Washington, Brussels, London and others don’t seem to care.
RESPONSE
The claim is false.
Chapter VII of the UN Charter establishes the legal basis for the imposition of coercive measures through the United Nations, including sanctions.
Restrictive measures are a key tool of EU's Common Foreign and Security Policy which, by virtue of Article 29 of the Treaty of the EU, can be used to defend its strategic interests and protect its fundamental goals overseas. Other international actors have the right to impose them under international law as well under certain conditions.
Therefore, EU sanctions, for example, are not illegal but licit restrictions imposed in accordance with international and European law as a response to violations of international legalities, such as Russia’s actions undermining or threatening the territorial integrity, sovereignty and independence of Ukraine, Russia’s use of chemical weapons in an assassination attempt against opposition leader Alexei Navalny, his unlawful imprisonment, and repression against Russian demonstrators (See formal notice), or China’s large scale arbitrary detentions of Uyghurs (See formal notice).
See other examples of this disinformation narrative in our database, such as claims that the West is using Navalny’s case as a pretext for sanctions; that the West needs a cause to sanction Russia and if there isn’t one, they will invent it; that the West invented Navalny’s poisoning to uphold the myth of an aggressive Russia; or that sanctions are a childish reaction of the EU.
This disinformation message appeared in the same TV programme as the claims that “Sanctions on Russia and China are an artificial attempt to maintain a vanishing Western hegemony” and that “The US has militarily occupied Europe to encircle Russia”.