Alfred de Zayas is a law professor at the Geneva School of Diplomacy and served as a UN Independent Expert on International Order 2012-18. In this article, Zayas clarifies that what are commonly referred to as “sanctions” imposed on Nicaragua by the United States are actually “Unilateral Coercive Measures” which constitute “collective punishment against innocent persons and contravene the very foundations of the rule of law.” UN experts have called for an end to to UCM’s documenting that they are a form of hard power that violates human and civil rights.