Human Rights Standards for Targeted Sanctions
A report of the Sanctions and Security Research Program
January 2010

The core legal principles that are to ensure due process in instances of targeted sanctions are crystallizing through doctrine and jurisprudence. They are grounded in fundamental principles of law, as embodied in the United Nations Charter and international treaties, including the founding documents of the European Union. These standards are meant to apply to the sanctions regime designed by UN Security Council Resolution 1267 and subsequent resolutions and to the operations of its sanctions committee (the Al-Qaida and Taliban Sanctions Committee).

At the core of these legal obligations is the principle of human rights protection. Of central importance in the context of the listing practices under the Al-Qaida and Taliban sanctions regime is the right to a fair hearing, as this right is a prerequisite for contesting the extent to which other rights such as the freedom of movement or the right to property have been violated by a particular listing. The right to a fair hearing in turn implies the right to be heard, the right to impartial and independent judicial review, and the right to a remedy. These rights form the very foundation of due process of law.

link to report in pdf >>

Patterns of Implementation:
Do Listing Practices Impede Compliance with UN Sanctions? A Critical Assessment
A report of the Sanctions and Security Research Program
December 2009

It is widely assumed that concerns about due process rights in listing and delisting procedures have impeded compliance with targeted sanctions against Al-Qaida and the Taliban. While most governments regard UN sanctions as essential tools in the fight against global terrorism and consider them among the most important instruments availabie to the Security Council, a growing number of states are concerned about flaws in the listing and delisting process.

This report examines designation patterns in sanctions targeting to determine if due process concerns are impeding the willingness of states to implement these measures. The focus is on UN Security Council sanctions against Al-Qaida and the Taliban, but the analysis also includes observations and general conclusions about patterns of implementaiton for other Security Council sanctions.

Read report in pdf >>

Human Rights and Targeted Sanctions: An Action Agenda for Strengthening Due Process Procedures
A report of the Sanctions and Security Research Program
November 2009

This report offers a timely menu of policy options for the UN Security Council as it considers targeted sanctions against Al-Qaida and the Taliban. The findings identify a range of concrete proposals for improving due process procedures and human rights protections for targeted sanctions.

Early versions of the paper were presented at the “Seminar on Strengthening the UN Targeted Sanctions through Clear and Fair Procedures,” sponsored by the Belgian Foreign Ministry in Brussels on 15 October, and at a meeting hosted by the Permanent Mission of Finland to the United Nations in New York on 30 October.

Read report in pdf >>

Overdue Process
Protecting Human Rights while Sanctioning Alleged Terrorists
A report to Cordaid from the Fourth Freedom Forum and Kroc Institute for International Peace Studies at the University of Notre Dame, March 2009

Practices used by the United Nations Security Council in the name of countering terrorism have led to serious concerns about violations of human rights and limitations on the work of civil society groups. The use of blacklisting has eroded due process rights and discredited elements of the international fight against terrorism. Enhanced efforts to create clear and fair listing procedures are urgently needed and long overdue.

Oversight or Overlooked?
Civil Society's Role in Monitoring and Reforming Security Systems and the Practice of Counterterrorism
A report to Cordaid from the Fourth Freedom Forum and Kroc Institute for International Peace Studies at the University of Notre Dame, March 2009

This report considers civil society's role in monitoring Security System Reform (SSR) and counterterrorism both in policy and in practice. The report argues that civil society engagement, particularly with local actors, is central to ensuring proper civilian oversight and the overall effectiveness of both SSR and counterterrorism efforts and examines how efforts to engage civil society may be improved.

Friend Not Foe: Civil Society and the Struggle against Violent Extremism

a report to Cordaid from the Fourth Freedom Forum and Kroc Institute for International Peace Studies at the University of Notre Dame, October 2008

Repressive counterterrorism measures have led to an erosion of civil liberties and human rights in many countries. The repercussions have been felt keenly by civil society groups, especially in the global South. States have a duty under international law to assure all citizens the full range of human and civil rights, including freedoms of association and expression. But civil society groups are working to dry up the wells of extremism from which violence springs, and in the global struggle against terrorism they should be welcomed as friends, not hounded as foes.

The Sanctions Era: Themes and Trends in UN Security Council Sanctions since 1990
In Part II: The Roles of the Security Council, in The United Nations Security Council and War(Oxford University Press, 2008)
chapter by David Cortright, George A. Lopez, and Linda Gerber-Stellingwerf

This chapter explores the role of sanctions in Security Council actions, and specifically explores: sanctions in Iraq; an overview of the efficacy of UN sanctions in general; humanitarian impacts and sanctions; evaluation and adjusting of sanctions to respond to adverse impacts; the fine-tuning of sanctions, emphasizing travel bans, arms embargoes, and sanctions on commodity exports; regional sanctions assistance missions; Sanctions and terrorism; and the improving of sanctions monitoring and implementation.

Sanctions
In Part V: International Peace and Security, in The Oxford Handbook on the United Nations (Oxford University Press, 2007)
chapter by David Cortright, George A. Lopez, and Linda Gerber-Stellingwerf

This chapter explores the reasons sanctions gained popularity in the 1990s in response to security threats, and also reexamines the effects of sanctions in Iraq and the former Yugoslavia. The chapter also gives an overview of UN sanctions imposed between 1990 and 2005; reviews the humanitarian impacts of sanctions, what has been learned and how the UN has improved sanctions monitoring and implementation. The chapter concludes with further recommendations for institutionalizing reform.

Destroying Security: The Folly of Bombing Iran

an online publication of the Fourth Freedom Forum, September 2008

The roots of a looming U.S. attack on Iran lie in the strategic failures of American policy in the Gulf region, which have simultaneously empowered and threatened Iran. The flawed invasion and occupation of Iraq have benefited Iran strategically—the very result White House officials wanted to avoid—but they have also increased Tehran’s insecurities, confronting the regime with large American military bases next door and a growing naval strike force in the Gulf. By designating Iran an enemy and ignoring the perverse consequences of our failed policies in the region, American policymakers have made war with Iran more likely.

Overcoming Nuclear Dangers

From the Stanley Foundation Policy Brief, November 2007
by David Cortright

In January 2007 the Bulletin of Atomic Scientists moved the hands of its famous Doomsday Clock two minutes closer to midnight, in recognition of the growing danger from nuclear weapons. While nuclear dangers and East-West rivalries are on the rise, recent months have brought glimmers of hope for a denuclearized future. Perhaps the most remarkable sign of hope came in January 2007, when former Secretaries of State George Shultz and Henry Kissinger joined with former Senator Sam Nunn and former Secretary of Defense William Perry in issuing a statement, published in the Wall Street Journal, calling for "a world free of nuclear weapons." This paper is a contribution to that discussion.

Behind the Sanctions in Iran

From NPR: Interview with David Cortright, 29 October 2007
About David Cortright

In an interview on NPR's Bryant Park Project, host Luke Burbank interviews Dr. David Cortright, president of the Fourth Freedom Forum about recently imposed U.S. sanctions against military leaders of the Revolutionary Brigade and against a number of banks in Iran.

Myanmar Sanctions

From NPR: Interview with David Cortright, 27 September 2007
About David Cortright

In an interview on NPR, Dr. David Cortright, president of the Fourth Freedom Forum affirmed sanctions as an effective instrument to economically harm the leaders of the ruling military regime, but more importantly, to send a message of support and solidarity to the democracy movement within the country.

Enhancing the Implementation of Security Council Sanctions: A Symposium sponsored by the Permanent Mission of Greece to the United Nations, 30 April 2007

Plenary panelists with the Secretary-General. From left: George A. Lopez, Joan B. Kroc Institute for International Peace Studies at the University of Notre Dame; Peter Wallensteen, Uppsala University and the Kroc Institute (second row); David Cortright, Fourth Freedom Forum and the Kroc Institute; Ellen Margrethe Løj, former Permanent Representative of Denmark to the United Nations and chair of the Liberia sanctions committee (2005-2006); Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon; Robert Fowler, former Permanent Representative of Canada and Angola sanctions committee chair (1999-2000) (second row); Adamantios Th. Vassilakis, Permanent Representative of Greece to the United Nations and former chair of the Côte d’Ivoire sanctions committee (2005-2006); Danilo Tűrk, former Permanent Representative of Slovenia to the United Nations and chair of the Libya sanctions committee (1998-1999)(second row). Not pictured: Sue E. Eckert of the Watson Institute for International Studies at Brown University. (UN/DPI PHOTO)

Read the Symposium Report:
Enhancing the Implementation of United Nations Security Council Sanctions

A Symposium sponsored by the Permanent Mission of Greece to the United Nations, 30 April 2007

Sanctions and Stability Pacts: The Economic Tools of Peacemaking

In Peacemaking and International Conflict: Methods & Techniques, rev. ed., ed. I. William Zartman, 385-418 (Washington, D.C.: United States Institute of Peace, 2007)
chapter by David Cortright

In this chapter, Cortright examines current opportunities and cases where economic tools can be more effectively employed for desired results.

Uniting Against Terror

Cooperative Nonmilitary Responses to the Global Terrorist Threat, The MIT Press, 2007
edited by David Cortright and George A. Lopez

As terrorist attacks continue around the world, from London and Madrid to Afghanistan and Iraq, questions multiply about the effectiveness of current antiterrorist strategies. America's reliance on military approaches and the Bush administration's avowal of a constant state of war have overshadowed nonmilitary, multilateral efforts, and there has been an analogous neglect of these alternative strategies in the literature on terrorism. Uniting Against Terror fills this gap, examining and evaluating post-9/11 cooperative nonmilitary responses to the global terrorist threat, with a particular focus on efforts of the United Nations, the Financial Action Task Force, the European Union, and a wide array of multilateral institutions.