Making Targeted Sanctions Effective - Small Arms Survey

§ 111
THE STOCKHOLM PROCESS | 50
stands, the lack of a central information depository means that the
accumulated information and evidence of the Expert Panels and
Monitoring Mechanism investigators largely remains in their personal
custody. Priority should be given to establishing an in-house
database for all sanctions-related documentation and information.
In the future, in consultation with the Sanctions Committees, the
Sanctions Branch could make this data available to the Sanctions
Committees, members of Expert Panels and Monitoring Mechanisms
and other authorized individuals through a security-protected
Internet Web Portal. A centralized Internet web portal, whether
housed at the UN or at a participating academic center, would enhance
the interchange of ideas and information regarding sanctions
implementation, while also adding to the transparency of UN sanctions
issues. The system could be designed to serve both the wider
interested community of scholars, advocacy groups, and think
tanks, as well as the internal informational needs of key UN actors,
with some information made publicly available (thus aiding transparency)
while other information remains password protected, accessible
to key UN officials only.
§ 112
Institutional Support for the Expert Panels and Monitoring
Mechanisms
While the ad hoc character of the Expert Panels has helped ensure
their flexibility and independent authority, the proliferation of panels
has strained the ability of the Sanctions Branch to provide needed
substantive administrative, logistical, and analytical support. Such
support is even more essential to those Expert Panels that are not
based at UN Headquarters in New York. According to those members
of the Expert Panels who participated in the Stockholm Process,
chronic shortcomings include: logistical and budgetary delays,
which sometimes affected the timing of field investigations, lack of
a centralized archive or database on the information collected by
previous or parallel panels, and lack of coordination and information
exchange among Panels who are engaged in parallel investigations,
sometimes covering the same ground. A common refrain was