UN takes new steps to ensure sanctions do not hurt civilians

The United Nations today launched a new initiative to assess the impact of sanctions on civilians.

Noting that the frequent use of sanctions by the UN Security Council since 1990 has led to increased concerns about their potential – albeit unintended – humanitarian consequences, the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) said it had devised a standardized method to figure out whether or how sanctions could cause harm.

Secretary-General Kofi Annan “has been a steadfast and determined advocate for efforts to ensure that UN sanctions do not negatively impact the living conditions of civilian populations in targeted countries,” OCHA said in a statement.

Since 1990, the UN has approved 13 cases of sanctions. By contrast, from 1945 to 1989, the UN-backed sanctions involved only two cases.

OCHA, which has been at the forefront of efforts to ensure that UN sanctions do not negatively impact the living conditions of civilians, said its latest initiative would make sanctions more effective by assessing humanitarian implications before, during and after their enforcement.

“Identifying possible humanitarian consequences of sanctions early on can reduce confusion about humanitarian conditions and their causes, and can help mitigate any unintended consequences,” it added.

Jointly funded by the Canadian and Swiss Governments, the OCHA project was undertaken in collaboration with humanitarian agencies within the UN system and beyond. The experts on humanitarian affairs also consulted with the Security Council members while formulating their assessment methodology.

Meanwhile, Jan Egeland, the Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs, urged “those engaged in considering and designing sanction regime to employ this methodology to minimize their unintended humanitarian consequences.”

OCHA also voiced hope that its new approach would make a “significant contribution to the protection of civilians” in sanctioned states, and that it would enhance the capacity of the UN agencies and Security Council members alike to anticipate and prevent deteriorations in humanitarian conditions that might result from sanctions.

In the past, OCHA has evaluated humanitarian implications of sanctions on Afghanistan, Liberia and the former Yugoslavia.