Staff Reporter
The United Nations Special Rapporteur on the negative impact of unilateral coercive measures on the enjoyment of human rights in Zimbabwe, Professor Alena Douhan, has said that the country lost over US$100 billion due to sanctions and reiterated the call for the immediate removal of the illegal embargoes.
In her report compiled after her 10 day visit to the country, Prof Douhan said sanctions were to blame for the country’s poor economic performance that has limited Government’s ability to provide basic social services.
“It is reported that since 2001, Zimbabwe might have lost access to more than US$100 billion in bilateral donor support, international commercial loans, and grants and loans from IMF, the World Bank and the African Development Bank.
“Due to this, Zimbabwe had a reported US$34 billion funding gap in infrastructure financing in 2017. The inability to generate additional revenue and the country’s poor economic performance has limited the Government’s ability to provide basic social services,” said Prof Douhan.
Prof Douhan added that sanctions had made Zimbabwe to be classified as a country ‘in debt distress’ by the IMF as it failed to service its international loans due to sanctions.
“In terms of access to credit, the price of loans for Zimbabwe is reportedly 7 percent due to risk perceptions and over compliance; the average is 0,5 percent in other countries. Most commercial loans are for less than 10 years. The IMF classifies Zimbabwe ‘in debt distress’ with large and longstanding arrears to international; financial institutions and commercial creditors,” said Douhan.
According to Prof Douhan, sanctions caused Zimbabwe to be isolated, unable to access international aid and financing and the country was also expelled from global financial markets.
On her recommendations, the Special Rapporteur urged all stakeholders at the international and national levels to stop using the rhetoric of sanctions as an advocacy tool and to engage in structural dialogue to settle any disputes in accordance with the law. She added that the Sustainable Development Goals can only be achieved when countries work harmoniously together.
Prof Douhan also called on banks and private companies to behave in accordance with the Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights to avoid over compliance and the consequent violation of rights of nationals and residents of Zimbabwe.
Prof Douhan was in the country between the 18th and 28th of this month and she met representatives from Government, opposition political parties, civil society, the private sector and she visited Bulawayo in a bid to get first-hand information on the effects of the illegal sanctions that have been imposed by the West for the past 20 years.
