The sanctions decade

Over the past decade the UN Security Council has imposed comprehensive or partial sanctions on 12 different countries - six times as often as in its previous 45 years. In a new book titled 'The Sanctions Decade: Assessing UN Strategies in the 1990s', David Cortright and George Lopez provide the first in-depth assessment of the effectiveness of UN sanctions during this period. Financed mainly by Canada, which has made improving the efficacy of sanctions a major focus of its agenda during its chairing of the Security Council, the book's Monday release is timed to prepare Council members for two sessions on sanctions scheduled for the coming week, the second of which is on Angola. Described by Canadian Foreign Minister Lloyd Axworthy as "outstanding work", the study is based on more than 200 interviews with officials from the United Nations and sanctioned countries, and other involved actors. In Africa the book describes the UN arms embargoes imposed in Somalia, Liberia and Rwanda as utterly ineffective responses to the catastrophes of famine, war and genocide. They were fundamentally flawed and allegedly constituted a desperate attempt by policy makers to do something in the face of disaster. "In each case the sanctions came too late, after huge stockpiles of weapons were already in place and many of the atrocities had already occurred," the authors say. In the cases of Sierra Leone and Angola, according to the authors, the attempt was to apply more focused pressure as part of a "smart sanctions" policy. In each case the Security Council sought to impose sanctions on specific leadership groups and factions while avoiding measures that would exacerbate existing humanitarian problems. The authors - from Notre Dame University's Kroc Institute of International Peace Studies - concluded that in neither case did sanctions manage to constrain the military capabilities of the rebel movements they targeted as they were neither effectively monitored nor enforced. The cases of Libya and Sudan are grouped together as examples of the use of travel bans and aviation sanctions being used to exert pressure on states perceived to be sponsoring international terrorism. In the case of Libya, the authors conclude that sanctions contributed to the resolution of the crisis as a negotiated solution was reached that permitted the extradition of suspected terrorists, albeit after a long period of diplomatic stalemate. With Sudan, travel sanctions were threatened but never imposed and failed to alter Khartoum's policy of hosting and supporting terrorist organisations, the authors said. Consequently, controversy over the government's alleged involvement in the 1995 assassination attempt against President Hosni Mubarak of Egypt remained unresolved. As part of the process of creating more humane and effective sanctions the authors recommend that sanctions should be designed to deny assets to decision-making elites but avoid adversely affecting opposition constituencies within the targeted society and creating humanitarian harm. Decision makers must realise, the authors say, that sanctions on their own cannot achieve major policy objectives but can be effective instruments of persuasion when tied to a carrot-and-stick bargaining process. Greater transparency needs to be given to the work of the Security Council and its sanctions committees and communications with member states and the international community improved. In addition, the capacity of the UN Secretariat to administer sanctions should be enhanced through the creation of an Office of Sanctions Affairs. Efforts should be made to freeze the financial assets not only of government entities, but also their supporters. In addition, Security Council resolutions should include terms that conform with definitions used in the financial sector, according to the book. Member states should be encouraged to pass laws criminalising violations of arms embargoes and military contract services, military training and a specific list of dual use items should be prohibited in resolutions imposing arms embargoes.