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The purpose of this handbook is to provide guidance to humanitarian practitioners and policymakers on identifying and measuring possible humanitarian consequences of sanctions.
The information provided is relevant to a number of different types of sanctions, including: arms embargoes, financial sanctions, travelrelated sanctions and targeted trade sanctions. The methods presented are applicable to United Nations (UN)–imposed sanctions and to those imposed unilaterally or by regional actors.
The United Nations Security Council (UNSC) imposed sanctions in 12 cases between 1990 and 2003.1 They had been imposed only twice during the UN’s prior four decades.2 Concern about humanitarian damage that may be caused by sanctions has accompanied their increased use, and two projects in the 1990s attempted to address this issue.3 While these projects increased awareness of the need to assess humanitarian impact, they failed to provide a reliable method for identifying the unique effects of sanctions, separate from those due to other causes.
In light of this increased concern for unintended consequences of sanctions, and the ad hoc approach to assessing humanitarian conditions in sanctioned States during the 1990s, the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) initiated a project towards the end of 2002 to develop a standard method for assessing the humanitarian implications of sanctions. The project was conducted in close collaboration with the IASC Task Force on Humanitarian Consequences of Sanctions.4 Funding for the project was provided through equal contributions from the Governments of Canada and Switzerland.
One of two main products of that project, this handbook is a reference manual for people involved in humanitarian assessments under sanctions. In addition, it is intended to inform policymakers of how such assessments should be performed. A partner publication to this handbook—a set of Field Guidelines—provides concise guidelines to assist practitioners in contributing to or carrying out humanitarian assessments under sanctions. Both documents were endorsed by the InterAgency Standing Committee (IASC) at the 57th meeting of the IASC Working Group in Geneva, 16-17 June 2004.
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