TEHRAN— According to Nasser Kanaani, spokesman for Iran's Foreign Ministry, the UN special rapporteur's reports illustrate how much the US government sanctions have caused "pain" and "damage" to the Iranian people rather than the government.

Referring to the UN special rapporteur's report on sanctions against Iran, Iran's Foreign Ministry spokesman Nasser Kanaani said on Tuesday that the report shows that the U.S. administration's unilateral and criminal sanctions, as well as so-called secondary sanctions, have had a negative impact on Iranian citizens' livelihoods rather than their alleged target, Iranian government organizations.

Kanaani went on to explain that, contrary to the U.S. administration's claim that the sanctions were placed against the Iranian regime and its institutions, the sanctions have plainly had a severe impact on the people's livelihood and have only contributed to their misery.

In her report, the UN Human Rights Council’s Special Rapporteur Alena Douhan said she has been greatly affected by the impact of sanctions on Iranian citizens suffering from “genetic diseases” or “cancer”.

“What made a lasting impression on me was the impact of the sanctions on the health care system,” Professor Douhan said in an interview with the website of Iran’s High Council for Human Rights published on Saturday, September 12. 

Douhan, an international law professor, also said sanctions is the cause of death among certain people afflicted with serious diseases.

“It has usually been maintained that unilateral sanctions are imposed by ‘good guys on bad guys’ for some ‘supreme purpose’ and with good intentions, but unfortunately in reality that is the people of the country who are affected enormously,” she notes.

The Special Rapporteur also says though Iran is under severe economic sanctions it is has been providing services to millions of refugees from Afghanistan.

“Iran gives refugees free access to primary health care and schooling, regardless of whether they are documented or non-documented,” Douhan noted.

“The purpose of my visit was limited by the scope of my mandate – to assess humanitarian impact of unilateral coercive measures on the enjoyment of human rights. For this purpose, I talked to all affected groups, both governmental and non-governmental, and got the strong impression that the sanctions have a massive impact on people's lives. I met officials in hospitals, visited hospitals and universities, and business enterprises. I spoke with all 17 UN missions in Iran, as well as with embassy officials from both countries that support the sanctions and those that oppose them. I also visited Isfahan and talked to associations representing the Afghan community. There, I spoke directly with people affected by the sanctions,” she noted.

According to Douhan, the impact of the sanctions is not always clear but sometimes “it is rather obvious.”

“In the cases where health is at stake, it is very clear. Let me give you an example. For a while, Iran produces around 95 per cent of medicine domestically. After sanctions have been imposed Iran largely lost access to the raw materials or faces impediments in delivery of proper quality raw materials,” she said. 

“If companies are willing to work with Iran, there are two problems still. The first one is the transfer of money. Even UNICEF, which operates in Iran and works with a Swedish pharmaceutical company, cannot guarantee payment from Iran to Sweden as Iran is cut off from SWIFT and banks decide not to risk. Thus, the payment had to be made in alternative ways via third countries.

If everything has still worked up to this point, then there is the problem of delivery. All transport companies in Iran are under sanctions. Anyone who delivers goods to Iran can be penalized by secondary sanctions. Any transportation insurance company is under sanctions against Iran.

I have talked to some of humanitarian associations. We have seen the documents that clearly show that they do not want to sell the drugs to Iran. I have talked to the Swedish and Swiss governments and to the pharmaceutical companies, because we have clear indications that there is a connection with the sanctions. Because of the lack of medicine, we have an increasing deterioration in the health of the population in Iran, especially among people suffering from rare and severe deceases. You can see the increasing death rate not only in intensive care patients like diabetics, cancer patients and many others, but also in less dangerous diseases. Deaths have tripled,” she spoke of her observations in Iran.