Guidance Note on Overcompliance with Unilateral Sanctions and its Harmful Effects on Human Rights

On June 28, 2022 the UN published a press release and guidance note that hits the bull eye. It reads:

GENEVA (28 June 2022) – A UN human rights expert today urged banks and other financial institutions around the world to stop over-complying with sanctions regimes imposed by various countries, saying the practice was inadvertently leading to human rights violations.

Overcompliance with sanction rules is harmful

In essence, in their drive to make all financial institutions comply, supervisors around the world are pushing strong on compliance with sanction rules. In order to be safe rather than sorry (and avoid fines) companies may be overdoing this for a series of reasons.

Apart from the guidance note. the Medium-article: Sanctions as an institutional and social construct — not just as a ‘technical’​ measure, provides a further analysis that may be helpful in understanding the importance of Human Rights in Finance.