News

Mr. President, I would like to thank you for taking the initiative to organise this timely briefing on general issues concerning sanctions. I also thank Under-Secretary General Jeff Feltman and Secretary General of Interpol Jurgen Stock for their informative briefings. In 2014, two new sanctions regimes were set up- CAR and Yemen, making it a total of 15 sanctions regimes. Sanctions, however, remain rather an exceptional measure taken by the Security Council under Article 41 of the Charter, with a view to maintaining or restoring international peace and security.

Whether intended to coerce, constrain, or deter, sanctions can only serve their underlying purpose when they are properly targeted and implemented. Even the best of sanctions regimes will not have the desired effect where gaps in communication and the capacity to implement persist, or where there is a lack of political will to pursue their implementation.

Communication, outreach, and transparency in the work of the sanctions committees are paramount. My delegation believes that sanctions committees should actively engage with the countries concerned, consulting on the expectations and requirements in regard to sanctions implementation, as well as in response to the needs and difficulties that arise as countries set out to implement these sanctions.

Ongoing interaction is required not only with the country that gives the name to the sanctions committee and its immediate neighbours. The wider UN membership needs to be also informed and engaged. Public briefings by chairs of sanctions committees should be a standard, not an exception. We are pleased to note that more chairs have chosen to hold public briefings this year. Only yesterday an open briefing by the Argentinian chair of Sudan sanctions committee reinforced this upward trend.

Result-oriented communication also requires readily accessible online information. We welcome and encourage further progress in developing sanctions committee websites available in all official UN languages. Regular use of press releases on sanctions committee work, available in languages other than English, is important. Visits by chairs of sanctions committees to the countries concerned should be also encouraged as a useful tool for enhancing awareness of and compliance with sanctions regimes.

Regarding the work of the committees, we have found it useful to engage with the thematic SRSGs, including on children and armed conflict, sexual violence in conflict, and SASGs on the prevention of genocide on the responsibility to protect. We also see value added in contacts and exchanges between relevant sanctions committees, panels of experts and the office of the Prosecutor of the ICC, as well as relevant Commissions of Inquiry.

Likewise, we have found highly useful holding joint meetings with other relevant Council subsidiary bodies, for example a joint meeting of Yemen sanctions committee, CTC, and Al-Qaida sanctions committee. We believe such practice and synergies between relevant committees should be further explored and encouraged.

With regard to implementation, we believe there is a need of a change of attitude towards sanctions, so that sanctions regimes are taken as an opportunity for national and regional capacity building. Reporting on sanctions implementation and committee dialogue with the countries concerned should be better used to identify countries’ capacity, training and technical assistance needs and seek practical help, also because improved sanctions implementation capacities can add to the overall improvement of countries’ ability to respond to wider security concerns. Thus, for example, assistance provided to border or financial controls in relation to sanctions implementation would also strengthen the capacity to tackle threats arising from terrorism, international organized crime, and trafficking and illicit flows of arms.

In this respect my delegation sees merit in establishing a dedicated unit within the Security Council Affairs Division tasked with improving the coordination and integration of sanctions implementation. In addition to providing better support to sanctions committees, such a unit would also improve mobilization of technical assistance and capacity building in response to the needs articulated by individual member states.

This latter aspect would be particularly useful as there are many potential assistance providers within the UN system, including UN Office for Disarmament Affairs, UN Mine Action Service, UN Office on Drugs and Crimes and the Counter-Terrorism Implementation Task Force, as well as specialized agencies such as INTERPOL, World Customs Organization, ICAO, International Maritime Organization, Financial Action Task Force, and others.

With regard to the panels of experts and monitoring groups, even if sanctions regimes differ, there is in our view a distinct value added in sharing relevant information, good practices, and lessons learned, including on establishing patterns of trafficking of natural resources, illegal financial and arms flows, and identifying movements, interdependence and affiliations of armed groups. Again, existence of a dedicated unit would enable to do this in a more coherent and systematic way.

Periodic reporting on sanctions implementation by the Secretary General would also be useful to highlight implementation challenges, discuss how the Council can better address the coordination of sanctions regimes with other peace and security mechanisms, and provide recommendations for improving coordination within the UN system and support to member states.

Mr. President,

Before I conclude, let me briefly comment on the due process mechanisms related to the sanctions regimes. Due process must be a basic standard and an imperative in all sanctions regimes. As noted on many previous occasions, the office of Ombudsperson is an important mechanism for improving the credibility of measures taken within the Al-Qaida sanctions regime. Providing similar mechanisms of redress would be important in all existing sanctions regimes, either by extending or replicating the Ombudsperson’s mandate, or by applying other mechanisms to the same effect.

I thank you.