THE UN SANCTIONS REGIME REQUIRES STRENGTHENING

The UNSC adopted resolutions 1267 in 1999 and 1333 in 2000 which impose duties on states to prevent and suppress the financing of terrorism.

- Vaishali Basu Sharma

It is now more than 50 years since the UN general assembly negotiated its first anti-terrorism convention. And almost 30 years ago the UN Security Council imposed sanctions against Libya for sponsoring acts of terrorism. The UNSC adopted resolutions 1267 in 1999 and 1333 in 2000 which impose duties on states to prevent and suppress the financing of terrorism. The UNSC designated Osama bin Laden and associates as terrorists and established a sanctions regime to cover individuals and entities associated with Al-Qaida, Osama bin Laden and/or the Taliban wherever located. But it was the attacks of 9/11 led to a fl urry of UN measures to confront the terrorist threat, and the regime has since been reaffirmed and modified by a dozen further UN SC Resolutions, with sanctions being applied to individuals and organizations in all parts of the world. The international economic sanctions region established by these resolutions has been characterised as the sole vehicle for truly global action against terrorism. The Council also extended the sanctions on Al Qaeda, which were originally just focused on Afghanistan, to all parts of the globe, vastly expanding the list of individuals and entities against whom the 1267 sanctions regime would be applied. Targeting individuals, rather than a specific State, marked a qualitative change in the UN Security Council’s sanctions policy. These so-called ‘targeted sanctions’, or ‘smart sanctions’, were introduced in a number of Security Council resolutions directed against individuals and entities allegedly associated with the Taliban and Al-Qaida. To date, pursuant to resolutions 1267 and 1333 approximately 699 individuals and 253 entities have been placed on a list known as the consolidated list and their assets are required to be frozen by member states.