Making Targeted Sanctions Effective - Small Arms Survey

THE STOCKHOLM PROCESS | 20
– either by the Security Council or Member States – on the accumulated
Expert Panel recommendations. The Sierra Leone Panel’s
recommendation to impose sanctions on Liberia is a notable, if
partial, exception. Lack of follow-through can be attributed to two
factors: recommendations that are largely aspirational and not ripe
for implementation; and a lack of time and attention by an otherwise
over-burdened Security Council. Just as the Expert Panels
should be encouraged whenever possible to make practical recommendations,
the Security Council should redouble its efforts to
ensure that Member States act on them. In the absence of decisive
follow-through, both the credibility of the expert investigations and
monitoring activities and their capacity to bring Member States
into compliance will likely diminish over time.
Unintended Consequences
§ 32 As is well known, sanctions can produce unintended humanitarian,
social and economic consequences, for the civilian population of the
targeted country as well as for affected third parties. Occasionally,
these negative effects have created political conditions that have
hampered the UN’s ability to ensure effective implementation. Reducing
the negative impact of sanctions is the chief reason and objective
of the shift from comprehensive to targeted sanctions. Yet,
while measures such as arms embargoes, financial sanctions, and
travel bans have fewer undue consequences as compared with the
comprehensive trade sanctions they were designed to replace, they
may still cause unintended harm to individuals, businesses, general
populations of civilians, and third States. Unintended negative impacts
of targeted sanctions include both the direct and extended
social costs of the disruption of trade and commercial activities,
increased incentives for criminal evasion, increased civilian dependence
on criminal economic activities, and damage to the financial
and reputational standing of individuals and entities associated with
those who are listed as targets, as well as of those who may be unjustly
targeted. The Security Council should continue its efforts to
identify and anticipate these impacts, as well as to design more effective
measures to minimize them, including improved design and