Better or Worse? The Effect of Economic Sanctions on Human Rights

TLDR

Economic sanctions are theorized to reduce human rights violations if they weaken a regime’s coercive capacity, but may increase violations if they fail to do so and instead heighten economic hardship and political violence. The study investigates whether economic coercion improves or deteriorates government respect for human rights in sanctioned countries. It empirically analyzes cross‑national time‑series data from 1981‑2000 on physical integrity rights to test these competing hypotheses. The results indicate that sanctions generally worsen human rights, with extensive sanctions being more harmful than partial ones, and that multilateral sanctions have a greater negative impact than unilateral sanctions, confirming that sanctions remain counterproductive even when aimed at improving rights.

Abstract

Does economic coercion increase or decrease government respect for human rights in countries targeted with economic sanctions? If economic sanctions weaken the target regime's coercive capacity, human rights violations by the government should be less likely. If, on the contrary, sanctions fail to attenuate the coercive capacity of the target elites and create more economic difficulties and political violence among ordinary citizens, the government will likely commit more human rights violations. Focusing on competing views of why sanctions might improve or deteriorate human rights conditions, this article offers an empirical examination of the effect sanctions have on the physical integrity rights of citizens in target countries. Utilizing time-series, cross-national data for the period 1981—2000, the findings suggest that economic sanctions worsen government respect for physical integrity rights, including freedom from disappearances, extra-judicial killings, torture, and political imprisonment. The results also show that extensive sanctions are more detrimental to human rights than partial/selective sanctions. Economic coercion remains a counterproductive policy tool, even when sanctions are specifically imposed with the goal of improving human rights. Finally, multilateral sanctions have a greater overall negative impact on human rights than unilateral sanctions.