| Executive Summary
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The purpose of this handbook is to provide guidance to humanitarian practitioners and policymakers on identifying and measuring possible humanitarian implications of sanctions. The information and guidelines presented are relevant to a wide variety of sanctions, including: arms embargoes, financial sanctions, travel-related sanctions and targeted trade sanctions. At the core of this handbook is an assessment methodology that facilitates evaluation of possible humanitarian consequences of sanctions. The methodology can be applied in advance of, during, or following sanctions, and aims to address two important challenges that present themselves when assessing the impact of sanctions on humanitarian conditions: (i) accurate evaluation of the current status of humanitarian conditions, and (ii) separation of the effects of sanctions on health and well-being from those due to other causes.
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 can also be useful in improving the targeting of humanitarian assistance to best meet the needs of vulnerable groups. more.......... |
Preface
Sanctions are an important tool in promoting and maintaining international peace and security and there has been substantial progress in recent years in refining these coercive measures. There is now increased awareness of, and sensitivity to, the need to have targeted sanctions and to properly assess and mitigate their potential humanitarian implications. Three important international initiatives—the Interlaken, the Bonn-Berlin and the Stockholm Processes—were launched sequentially between 1998 and 2002, with the objective of making United Nations sanctions more effective by targeting them more precisely on their political objectives. As these Processes were under way, the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) identified a need for a more standardized approach to assessing the humanitarian implications of sanctions, and launched a project to develop such a method. more..............
Jan Egeland
Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs and
Emergency Relief Coordinator
Making sanctions more effective
This Handbook and the companion set of Field Guidelines complement the reference documents produced under the three international processes on more effective and targeted sanctions—the Interlaken, Bonn-Berlin and Stockholm Processes—undertaken between 1998 and 2003. The final report of the Stockholm Process on the Implementation of Targeted Sanctions (2003) noted:
“…[T]he routine undertaking of periodic assessments of humanitarian, social, and economic impacts on third parties during the course of sanctions implementation is desirable and often more feasible [than preassessments]. Aside from providing an additional way of evaluating the overall impact of sanctions, well-designed ongoing assessments would be useful in distinguishing the impact of sanctions from other causes of humanitarian suffering and economic hardship, thereby reducing one of the main sources of opposition to sanctions generally.”
The report went on to recommend:
“These [regular humanitarian, social, and economic impact] assessments should proceed under an established methodology . . . taking into account the specificities of each sanctions situation.”
The methodology presented here, developed by OCHA in conjunction with the Inter-Agency Standing Committee, serves to fulfil the need for a standardized methodology to assess the potential humanitarian implications of sanctions, with
a view to making sanctions more effective.
OCHA—Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs
United Nations
S-3600
New York, NY 10017
United States of America
Tel.: +1 212 963-1234
Fax: +1 212 963-1312
E-mail: ochany@un.org
Web: ochaonline.un.org
View a pdf copy of the handbook. Sanctions Assessment Handbook
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