Samenvatting

This thesis focuses on the effect economic sanctions have on the population of Iran. It will be measured by the rate of GDP, inflation, unemployment and child mortality. For the past few years, it seems economic sanctions have been affecting the Iranians in a negative way. The research will provide an answer to the question what the influence of economic sanctions is on the population of Iran, when analysing the GDP, inflation, unemployment and child mortality rate.
Economic sanctions may affect the political life of the country, but more importantly they will also affect the population. So, economic sanctions have pros and cons and consequently strong advocates and fierce opponents. This research will not discuss whether sanctions are justified after the balance of advantages and disadvantages has been made, but it will investigate what kind of tool economic sanctions are and which alternatives or variations thereof could be used in the future. The main purpose of the current analysis is looking at the broad effect the sanctions have on the Iranian population as a whole. This explains the motives of the policymakers and the consequences of the sanctions for the Iranian population.
The policy of sanctions is important during the process of imposing sanctions. Imposing sanctions is a forceful tool that should be used with responsibility and carefully. It is also important for the international community to agree upon sanctions in a coherent way. This is important because economic sanctions also cause disadvantages for the countries that impose them upon a state. That is a reason why some member states of the United Nations were not in favour of this measure.
In order to provide more insight and to expose the complexity of international sanctions, some questions and sub questions are added to structure this study. These contain information about the general background of sanctions, antecedents of the sanctions, the establishment of sanctions against Iran, a summary of the sanctions against Iran, the actual influence the sanctions have on Iran and how Iran tries to avoid sanctions.
Based on statistical data, together with data obtained in an interview with Mrs Kazemi, a columnist in de Volkskrant of Iranian origin, and literature research it can be concluded economic sanctions are probably influencing Iran's economy and hence the Iranian population. The degree of this influence cannot be inferred from the current analysis. Therefor, additional research is warranted.