UN team says sanctions against terror groups need strengthening

As Al-Qaida evolves and the Taliban revives its attacks in Afghanistan, the team monitoring sanctions against those groups recommends making the strictures more powerful by more accurate listing of terrorists, actions to stop abuse of charities, and a widening of the arms embargo, according to a United Nations report released today.

“Despite concerted international action and many successes, such as the arrest of prominent terrorists and disruption of their operations, the threat from Al-Qaida remains as widespread and pernicious as at any time since the attacks of 11 September 2001,” says the third report of the team to the Security Council, which also says that the significance of the Taliban attacks is uncertain.

“The key elements of the Security Council sanctions – the Consolidated List, the assets freeze, the arms embargo and the travel ban – continue to provide the basis for an effective regime.” it adds. “But while there have been further reports of assets freezing, the combination of sanctions has still not achieved its full potential.”

The report says that many States perform asset freezing well, some do it adequately and others struggle to minimally implement the measures. In addition, the freeze suffers from the ability of terrorists and their supporters to use a variety of alternative means to raise and transfer money, including charities.

To lower the risk that third parties may act unwittingly in that respect, the report recommends that the list of sanctioned groups and individuals become better known. In addition, States can improve governance of the charity sector, it says.

Since terrorist tactics change continuously, the arms embargo should also evolve, the team says, and be more effectively linked to other international non-proliferation agreements.

The travel ban, the team finds, serves as an important deterrent to terrorism since it forces individuals to risk obtaining false documents. To strengthen it, the team supports initiatives to increase the use of biometrics in travel documents and to enhance regional and international cooperation.

The sanctions monitoring team was established by Security Council resolution 1526 in 2004. It reports to the sanctions Committee established by resolution 1267 in 1999.