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Compendium: High Level Review of United Nations Sanctions
exploitation of natural resources such as wildlife or minerals used to finance
conflict. Sanctions have also developed as a tool to support governments and
regions working toward peaceful transition, recover state assets, provide protective support, and act as a deterrent against violence. The Security Council
continues to use sanctions in new situations and innovative ways.
At the same time, related institutions, initiatives and instruments dealing with many of the same threats have multiplied. The growing frequency
with which other UN crisis resolution tools are used—peacekeeping and
political missions, mediation and special representatives, referrals to international judicial processes—as well as the application of sanctions by regional
organizations raises issues of coordination and complementarity. The range of
international partnerships addressing aspects of UN sanctions has expanded
and never been broader. Today the United Nations interacts not only with
Member States and regional organizations, but also with INTERPOL, the
International Criminal Court, the Financial Action Task Force, the World
Customs Organization, and other functional organizations (e.g. the International Civil Aviation Organization, the International Maritime Organization, export control regimes, etc.). Member States, the private sector and civil
society also play critical roles in implementing UN sanctions.
These institutional dynamics and developments reflect the need for
the Security Council, the Secretariat and UN agencies, Member States, and
related international actors and bodies to continually adapt sanctions to the
intricacies of new threats to international peace and security. With limitation
on some of the tools in the international toolbox, new ways must be found
to make the most effective use of this Charter-based sanctions instrument.
A. The high level review
The High Level Review of UN sanctions is an initiative sponsored by Australia, Finland, Germany, Greece, and Sweden, and organised by the Watson Institute for International and Public Affairs at Brown University and
Compliance and Capacity Skills International, LLC, to enhance the implementation of UN sanctions to better address threats to international peace
and security through improved integration with the network of internal and
external institutions and related legal instruments.
The Review was conducted from May through the end of 2014 by
three working groups that examined respectively, UN integration and coordination; the relationship between UN sanctions and external institutions
and instruments; and mitigating the humanitarian impact of UN sanctions,