The United States’ breaching of the Iranian people’s right to health and its legal liability in Donald Trump’s administration*

Abstract

Several studies on the consequences of sanctions show that they have the potential to drastically harm ordinary people’s health and widely affect human rights standards in the target countries. The Right to Health (RTH) is a fundamental human right, and international law requires States to honour it in any situation. The United States (US) is a treaty party or signatory to a number of universal human rights treaties which codify the RTH as a fundamental right, along with the right to life. Additionally, the erga omnes nature of the RTH requires the US to rectify its sanctions regime. In this article, applying a descriptive-analytic method, it is argued that the Trump administration’s policy of pursuing ‘maximum pressure’ and reinstatement of fatal sanctions against Iran as of May 2018 violated the Iranian people’s basic RTH. This implies that the US is internationally liable for what the Iranian people and State experienced due to these sanctions. This violation has continued during Joseph Biden’s administration as of July 2021. © 2021 Australian Journal of Human Rights.