The UN expert on the promotion of a democratic and equitable international order, George Katrougalos, on Tuesday called on world leaders to strengthen human rights through “embedded multipolarity,” warning that increasing unilateral coercive measures and geopolitical fragmentation were weakening the UN Charter.
In his latest report presented to the Human Rights Council, Katrougalos described the emerging dynamic of states, which “is most congruent with the aspirations of the Charter of the United Nations,” as “embedded multipolarity.” This phrase characterizes “a genuinely diverse, non-hegemonic distribution of power across States and regions, operating within and sustained by the multilateral normative framework of the United Nations system.”
The report highlights an expanding use of sanctions and tariffs “as a vehicle of coercive
diplomacy” or “as tools for regime change,” as illustrated in the contexts of the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela, Cuba, and the Islamic Republic of Iran. The UN Security Council has recognized that targeted sanctions may be allowed under Chapter VII of the UN Charter in certain circumstances, particularly when it is imperative to “maintain or restore international peace and security,” unless such sanctions violate fundamental human rights to food, health, and human dignity.
Katrougalos further emphasized that the extraterritorial reliance of domestic financial institutions has created a “compliance chilling effect”, which disproportionately affects developing countries, restricting access to international banking services, hindering remittance flows, and pushing back direct foreign investments essential for sustainable development.
This aligns with the ICJ’s judgment in the case concerning military and paramilitary activities in and against Nicaragua, where the Court held that coercive measures designed to deprive a state of its freedom of choice in the aspects of political, economic, social, and cultural systems and external affairs constituted prohibited intervention under customary international law.
He argued that contemporary unilateral sanctions regimes satisfied the Court’s threshold as such sanctions were often used as a tool to coerce a change of government administration and were pursued through the systematic weakening of the targeted country’s fulfillment of its obligations towards its citizens. The expert says, “Unilateral sanctions thus do not merely undermine sovereignty in the abstract; they generate humanitarian catastrophes in the concrete.”
This comes amid a cascade of sanctions and tariffs issued by US President Donald Trump since his return into power in 2025, targeting countries such as the Republic of Iran, Canada, China, Mexico, and foreign entities accused of supporting Iran. In early August, the US also issued sanctions against ICC President, prosecutors, and staff members, which has been challenged by Human Rights Watch in a US District Court.